Learning
Everyone has a powerful learning story: What's yours?
Your Stories
Everyone knows the ultimate purpose of public education is to ensure that all children learn how to use their minds well.
Yet today, too many schools still reflect an Industrial-age philosophy about the proper management of human beings. In fact, although schools have changed some in the last one hundred years, most are still organized to impart a largely fact-based, rote-oriented curriculum through structures that do not allow long-term teacher-student relationships or in-depth study.
Over and over again, research and casual observation reveal that in too many of our schools, students feel alienated from teachers, who appear to have little time for students unless they are unusually ‘bright’ or ‘problematic.’ Teachers feel at odds with administrators, who appear to have little time for them unless their concerns pertain to contractual matters, mandates, or paperwork. And everyone feels victimized by the ‘system,’ which demands attention to reports and procedures when teachers, students, and administrators would rather devote their time to each other and to learning.
We can do better.
We can end the nationwide culture of testing, and create a national culture of learning instead. And we can start to do so by reflecting on what we already know to be true about powerful learning, seeing which elements are most essential to those experiences, and then holding ourselves and our elected officials accountable for supporting policies that empower educators to create those sorts of learning environments for all children.
Everyone has a powerful learning experience. What's yours?
PSA Credits
- Written & Directed by: Nicole Calabrese-Rosenfelt & Adam Rosenfelt
- Producer: Brian Pitt
- Director of Photography: Christopher Windsor Johnson
- Editor: Maureen Meulen
- Music by: David Schommer