High School Should Revolve Around Student Choice
When a high school has a schedule system that has been in place for more than 10 years, it’s clearly outdated. I don’t care that your bell schedule has, “been the same for 30 years” that just means it’s super old and no one ever cared enough to ask if it works for the students. I know the general consensus is that students would cause chaos and not know what’s best for them if they had a major say in their high school studies, but let’s dive into why that is.
It’s someone’s job to program a matrix of classes for high school. Without fail, this position if done correctly, should be the most challenging job of anyone in the school. It is super time consuming, but that doesn’t dictate why it’s complex because all school tasks take time.
It refers to the true change within the matrix, that allows for flexibility that adapts to the ever changing times, trends, offerings, and programs that the school has in place or would like to create.
If the school schedule of classes fits the benefits of ease within the school system and ‘makes sense’ to everyone but the students — that is a major reason why that school and the staff there will say students shouldn’t be able to make their own choices of classes.
In other words, students will want to take a combination of courses that the school can’t offer at once because the schedule won’t allow it. So it doesn’t happen.
For those that state that students don’t know enough or would take random courses that may not satisfy any sort of graduation requirements, I say they are totally and completely wrong.
The misconception is that educators think the plans they have in place for students should work for everyone. Teach students what’s available, show them combinations of courses, get students involved in the learning offerings by making them available and user friendly to understand, so it’s not just a guidance counselor’s job to talk about them twice a year.
It’s the school’s responsibility to elucidate the course offerings, so students will know that they may have a choice after all, even though it’s not completely theirs.
What if you had a menu of course options, that were pre-packaged but interchangeable to select from?
If students knew graduation requirements and that they needed to fulfill them successfully — that should be the only caveat in making sure choices are being made.
When a schedule defines those choices in only a path or two to satisfy graduation requirements, which is the majority of high schools out there — it masks the inability of choice as impossible.
When a school has a limited amount of possibilities for students because of a variety of reasons, this means the students don’t really have a choice, but to follow what’s in place.
When educators try to say that students don’t know enough, or students are too young to make these choices wisely, or student choice is crazy granola talk in education — I say they are flat out wrong.
I’ve been pitching a new school concept where lessons are already in place and prepared by teachers, stored, organized, and arranged in some google drive or drop box like format. The lesson information is available in a sequence of order building upon necessary information and skills to advance through curriculum. All of this is available online. Yet, this is in no way, an online school.
The teacher is stationed on campus in their learning environment, but it’s not a class — it’s more of an exposure to content delivered by the teacher, listed on a menu that dictates when the content is covered and reviewed. The teacher offers the ability to clarify, but more to guide application. Students therefore choose what aspects of the curriculum they want to study, and even when they’d need to come in to school and utilize support and applicable activities.
This concept is way too outside of the box for common educators to fathom — so I don’t fault them for hating on the idea.
This is the future of education. It’s a shopping mall of information that students get to go from store to store to obtain, when they want to, and cover what they want and need to as well.
This is true student driven education. Students get the choice, the entire choice. The system in place by the school fosters all of the combination of choices available, maximizing engagement on a level we have yet to understand.
The education system currently limits and even prohibits student choice because it would mean an overhaul of what’s in place. Some schools think they are doing a great job because 85% of the students are successful each year. To me, that means 15% fail.
Of course, we’d have to let go of “College For Every Student” as our focus of school — because it’s not. Schools should prepare students for college AND CAREERS.
But that’s not tied to funding, or statistics that are bragable, or anything that parents want to see their child do after high school, because we’ve been force fed that the career route means the college route was unsuccessful — which is why the United States brands it as “alternative”. Idiots out there I tell you.
If you have complete student buy-in, you could have 100% success rates, and students would derive an educational experience that is so much more rewarding, useful, effective, purposeful, and therefore leading to further successes.
