Lyndon Furst's
A Different Perspective
"Removing Artificial Barriers"
POSTED 9/14/09
Removing Artificial Barriers
Several years ago my work involved supervising classroom teachers in a parochial school system in a two state region in Midwestern United States. I saw many interesting things visiting classrooms in both elementary and high schools. I remember a visit to one high school in a rural area where I observed an algebra class. The teacher carried a number of other responsibilities besides teaching in the small school and was delayed for several minutes at the beginning of the class period. I was interested to see how the kids would respond to this situation.
Most of the students sat quietly in their assigned seats waiting for the teacher to arrive. However, Roscoe, the class clown, could not stand the vacuum of authority in the classroom. He proceeded to go to the front of the class and assume the role of teacher. "Now children," he said with mock politeness. "Open your books to page 94. This is the lesson the teacher will give us when he arrives, so I will teach it to you."
I was fascinated that all the students opened their books has he had requested. Then Roscoe proceeded to teach the lesson. He gave some examples of the procedure to be learned and asked one of the students to come up and work some problems on the blackboard. I thought he did a reasonably good job of teaching. He asked if any students had questions regarding what they had learned. Then he gave the homework, "Your assignment is to do the problems on page 95, even numbered rows," he stated.
About that time the teacher arrived and seeing what was happening said with a stern voice, "Roscoe, stop this foolishness and go sit down. You need to behave yourself today." Roscoe complied while protesting that he hadn’t done anything wrong. Then the teacher turned to the class and said, "Okay students, open your books to page 94. This is our lesson for today." I watched in amazement as he taught the very same lesson that Roscoe had just completed using a similar teaching procedure.
Meanwhile, Roscoe sat in the back corner of the room and completed his assignment. By the time the teacher had finished the lesson he was all done with his work for the day. He spent the rest of the class causing one disruption after the other. Later in the day when I met with the teacher to discuss his teaching procedures I mentioned the situation with Roscoe, that he seemed to be way ahead of the rest of the class. The teacher responded, "Yes Roscoe is a very bright boy. It is too bad he’s so disruptive all the time."
Then, I made a suggestion regarding the curriculum in the school. It seemed to me that if Roscoe could teach the lesson he shouldn’t be held back going at the same speed as the other students. "Why not let Roscoe work at his own pace and go through the algebra book as fast as he can?" The teacher was puzzled by my suggestion. "But he’ll finish the book by Christmastime and then what will we do with him?" I suggested, "Why not let him do Algebra II then?" "But what will he study next year?" was the quick response of the teacher.
I have faced this situation many times in my career as an educator where structural barriers tend to block good educational procedures. Over the years our educational system has constructed a number of artificial barriers which restrict the learning opportunities of many of our young people. Confining students rigidly to grade levels based on their age cohort is one of them. I don’t know what happened to Roscoe, but I have long been concerned that he, and many other bright students, have had such barriers restrict their opportunity to learn at the pace suited to their ability.
Fortunately, in our local schools educators have begun to remove many of those artificial barriers. I have reported in this column my observation of fifth graders studying algebra which is typically taught in the ninth grade. In fact, I observed one class of sixth graders who were solving quadratic equations. Other students who are not so gifted in mathematics have a curriculum designed for them which provides extra time and a slower pace of instruction. Students can maximize their learning opportunities in such a system.
From my perspective, it’s an exciting thing to see these artificially constructed barriers to learning finally beginning to crumble in American schools. Some old-timers in our community find it a bit confusing to see the freedom to learn that is offered to so many of our children and youth. But they should be happy that they are getting maximum benefit for their tax dollar. I look forward to seeing the results of the "virtual classroom" which is being constructed in our public schools. It will remove even more artificial barriers to efficient and effective learning.