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School reform concerns aired By Deana Helaney - Alliance Review (Saturday, May 10, 1997) Hundreds of concerned citizens and parents gathered to hear how potential educational restructuring in the state of Ohio could tear the very heart from the fabric of education as it now stands. The Friday night meeting at Alliance First Friends Church focused on changes in the standards for Ohio schools and restructuring through the proposed School-to-Work program and featured talks by Diana Fessler and Melanie Elsey. Fessler, a State Board of Education member, said the information she was to share with the individuals who spilled from the church pews and into the foyer, would either "throw you into the depths of despair or galvanize you into action." Fessler said there is a difference between being educated for getting any job and being educated for getting a job. The core curriculum currently in place is gradually being altered and moving children away from educating them in a manner that would allow them to do what they want with their lives. The key word, she said, is restructuring, not reform. Fessler explained that restructuring of the church rectory, for example, would entail bringing in a bulldozer, leveling the entire area, and starting from scratch; something she alleges is happening in education today. Schools are being restructured into job training centers, she said. Fessler described the difference between traditional education, of which she was a product, and the new performance-based education she said Ohio schools are shifting to. In traditional education, for example, students would learn the four basic food groups, be tested to demonstrate they know what the groups are, receive a letter grade, and attend school for 12 years, repeating the process in every curriculum area. This is also easy on taxpayers, she said, In performance-based education, Fessler said students would be introduced to the four basic food groups, and then instead of taking a test, would show they understand how to eat a balanced diet and receive an assessment instead of a grade. The cost for this method, she said, is more difficult on taxpayers because they must pay regardless of how long it takes learners to meet pre-approved state and local proficiency levels. Fessler also cited another example of performance-based education in a study on human reproduction. Rather than learn the facts and take a test, each student in a class would represent a different body part and then work together to understand and simulate reproduction. With this method, "children learn behaviors, not book knowledge," she said. Fessler also spoke about the School-to-Work (STW) program, which she said is a "shift away from teachers being required to teach, to a student being responsible for his own learning." As STW is implemented, she said, the emphasis will be on job training, and the need for educators will diminish. "Ohio is committed to the school to work notion," she said. Fessler also cited an example of a "Basket making 101" class that teaches children, basically, how to make baskets. In Ohio, career planning begins as early as kindergarten for students, an age she believes is much, much too early to be concentrating on such ideas. "These children should be in school learning academics that will allow them to achieve their dreams of a lifetime rather than learning specific career skills," Fessler said. "More and more people are saying this is not so good." Elsey, a former schoolteacher and researcher of state legislation and policy, echoed Fessler's comments. "School to work is being implemented into all schools," Elsey said. As Ohio moves toward performance-based education, education standards are being restructured so students can focus on skills that will allow them to work and live in a "global society." Some ideas that will be taught by schools, Elsey claimed, are how to value diversity and maintain wellness, including physical, emotional and social well being. "All parents want these for their children," Elsey said, "but that should remain n the jurisdiction of the family." If they are taught in schools as part of graduation requirements, "Who will define the mastery standards of these?" she asked. "As Diana said, these are behaviors, not head knowledge."
Fessler said STW is a system that will allow everyone the opportunity for careers. "But is it the function of schools to assure career opportunities?" she asked. At stake in allowing schools to shift to career centers, Fessler said, is the ability to control one's destiny. Fessler added that the United States has produced more Nobel Prize winners than any other nation on Earth, has put men on the moon first and pioneered the path of open heart surgery. And all of the individuals, she said, were the product of an
educational system that focused on academic excellent, not job training. |
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