The 2021-22 school year is coming to an end. Students, teachers, and administrators are all looking forward to a relaxing summer. But the 2022-23 school year looms as an unknown when it comes to what’s possible, like another COVID-19 variant disrupting teaching and learning, more teachers resigning or retiring from their positions, principals quitting because the job is just too tough, and superintendents hanging it up after a year of masking debates and critical race criticism at the board table and within their community. It’s difficult to predict what 2022-23 will look like when it comes to America wanting to produce a smarter and stronger youth population.
I’m no better than the rest of you in predicting what will happen over the next year of school, but I do have one suggestion on how we can use our time over the next year more productively when it comes to providing a supportive environment for our children’s learning. Why don’t we spend 2022-23 figuring out what 2023-24 will look like for all our young learners? Those who like school and don’t. Those who participate in after-school activities. Those who must work after school. Those who like to learn online. Those who have special needs. Those who learn at strange times of the day or night. We could use 2022-23 as a year to build a learning plan for every young learner and their family in America.
I don’t think I’m going to have a lot of schools or school districts jumping at my offer, so I’m really talking to parents and community leaders today, to see if they have interest in improving their child’s engagement and success with learning, whether that involves school or not. Parents, let’s spend the next school year asking your kids the following questions and building a learning plan based on their answers:
What would you like to learn this year?
Do you think you are a good reader, writer, problem-solver? If so, why? If not, what can we do about that?
What types of good learning habits do I need to work on over the next year?
Is school the right place for me to get all this work done, or are there other places within my community where I would like to learn?
Are there other adults that I would like to learn from other than my school-assigned teachers?
How can I use time during my day to learn what I want or need to learn?
How will I know I’ve learned what I want to learn?
What will I do if I don’t learn what I want to learn?
What type of support will I need to do well with my learning?
We could use the fall months to build learning plans for all kids. Depending on what those plans said regarding time attending traditional school, school districts could begin making plans for increasing or decreasing their 2023-24 budgets. We could begin training adults interested in shifting from classroom teachers to learning coaches. We could recruit other adults who might be interested in becoming an effective learning coach. We could use time to see how many learners would choose these newly trained adults as someone they would like to partner with to successfully execute an individualized learning plan. Money not used by traditional schools could be returned and, instead, dedicated for out of school learning. Money would then actually follow the learning plan, instead of money being assigned to a traditional campus based on enrollment and attendance figures. A new learning organization, let’s call it Better Learning, Inc., would support a group of learners and their families, along with learning coaches, to budget a learning plan that is engaging and rigorous for the young learner.
The spring months of 2023 could be used to find places within the community for this type of out of school learning to occur. Schools that no longer had the necessary enrollment because kids chose something different would close. Teachers who either weren’t in an operating school or weren’t able to make the shift to being a learning coach would go away. We wouldn’t need nearly as many principals, assistant superintendents, paraprofessionals, custodians, and the list goes on and on. All that money could be returned to the state to be given to the local Better Learning group.
Traditional school leaders will tell us we’re crazy to think all of this could be done in one year, if it should be done at all. Actually, if we’re honest with ourselves, chances are slim to none that any of this will be done over the next school year. You know why? Because current stakeholders aren’t interested in introducing a new system of learning to replace, or at least co-exist with, the traditional school system. Current stakeholders continue to talk themselves into thinking the current system can be fixed. As a system, it can’t be fixed, so we better start creating something new for our young learners, or we are going to be in big trouble. We might already be there.
NOTE: In my 5/5 column, I referenced Michigan as a state to watch when it comes to providing money to families interested in out of school learning experiences. Sadly, primarily because of Betsy DeVos and other private school cheerleaders, the Michigan bill discussed only applies to those families interested in non-public school options. The current bill does not include money for out of school learning options.
A Better Path to Learning 
Leave a comment