As the education world around us continues to spiral through the misguided insanity of testing as both the academic means and the end, I remain steadfast in my determination to provide whatever I can to ensure that each and every student who walks through the door of my school has equitable access to high-quality instruction and is provided the kinds of learning opportunities that nurture academic risk-taking, critical inquiry, and principled reflection. In short, I expect for my students the same as I expect for my own children. I want them equipped to make a consciously positive impact on the world around them. We need to spend at least as much time developing the self-efficacy, collaboration, and problem-solving skills they will need to make this happen as we do preparing (enabling) them for success on our current professional obsession—the high-stakes standardized assessment.
To do this well, we also have a responsibility to create an environment in which students feel not just physically safe (that is a given, especially in light of the recent spate of school violence), but also emotionally safe. According to the Collaboration for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), "schools that create socially and emotionally sound learning and working environments, and that help students and staff
Safer Schools for Living, Growing, and Learning
Often when people talk about the basics of education, they refer to the three Rs: reading, (w)riting, and (a)rithmetic. However, an even more foundational aspect to educating students is ensuring that schools are safe.
If a school isn't a safe place, then it can't be a school as we know it—a place to learn and grow. If a school isn't a safe place, it becomes reactive to incidents, and teaching and learning become a secondary or forgotten imperative.
And it's not just actual safety that's crucial, but perceived safety. An unsafe school climate increases truancy, reduces classroom engagement, demands inattention, and negatively affects both teaching and learning. The school's climate—safe or unsafe, supportive or unsupportive, welcoming or confrontational—dictates how, where, and if learning occurs.
A positive school climate isn't just a safety or well-being issue, it's also a teaching and learning issue. A schoo
If a school isn't a safe place, then it can't be a school as we know it—a place to learn and grow. If a school isn't a safe place, it becomes reactive to incidents, and teaching and learning become a secondary or forgotten imperative.
And it's not just actual safety that's crucial, but perceived safety. An unsafe school climate increases truancy, reduces classroom engagement, demands inattention, and negatively affects both teaching and learning. The school's climate—safe or unsafe, supportive or unsupportive, welcoming or confrontational—dictates how, where, and if learning occurs.
A positive school climate isn't just a safety or well-being issue, it's also a teaching and learning issue. A schoo
WANTED: Schools Wired for Safety
Many years ago, John Gage, then chief science officer for Sun Microsystems, had an idea. The idea was "NetDay," a grassroots campaign to wire U.S. schools.
Gage, like so many others today, was frustrated that our schools were not getting connected to the Internet fast enough and that a whole generation of young people would suffer. The NetDay concept has grown, and the campaign to wire our schools led to the concept of "smart schools," schools fully equipped with a computer on every desktop and broadband access to the Internet.
So much for the history of the smart school. Less clear is how safe even our smartest schools are in light of recurring school violence, a national epidemic, really. The entire nation is now searching for solutions.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and author of Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of
Gage, like so many others today, was frustrated that our schools were not getting connected to the Internet fast enough and that a whole generation of young people would suffer. The NetDay concept has grown, and the campaign to wire our schools led to the concept of "smart schools," schools fully equipped with a computer on every desktop and broadband access to the Internet.
So much for the history of the smart school. Less clear is how safe even our smartest schools are in light of recurring school violence, a national epidemic, really. The entire nation is now searching for solutions.
Leon Botstein, president of Bard College and author of Jefferson's Children: Education and the Promise of