The Modern School

 Too many schools are mired in outdated mindsets and practices--this is a big problem since an optimal, modern education sets the stage for good living, positive communities, and strong nations. 

How can schools change in ways that meet their amazing potential for optimal learning and living?

Eliminate outdated mindsets, prejudices, and obstacles to apt inclusion

In every way possible, schools have to get rid of the inherent prejudices and outdated mindsets that hold students, families, and educators back. Mindsets related to any kind of exclusion related to race, culture, religion, gender, economics, and lifestyle have to be eliminated as soon as possible in order to make every school a welcoming, warm learning environment for EVERY student, family, educator, and administrator. 

Modernize online/offline, inside/outside environments

Too many public school environments are outdated. It is vital in today's world that inside/outside, online/offline learning environments are modernized to promote the best possible education. Children can't learn in environments that are polluted, dirty, falling apart, unsafe, crowded, and inaccessible. This has to change. 

Empower learners, educators, and families

Too many students, families, and educators are compromised due to unreasonable work conditions, unfair pay, limiting schedules, and ineffective rules and policies. The best school communities find ways to empower the apt collaboration of educators, students, and families so that every child is able to meet their amazing learning potential. To make this happen, schools have to do the following:

• Revise learning/teaching schedules. Educators should have an eight hour day that includes four hours of on-task teaching, three hours of prep/planning/meeting, and one hour of lunch each day. Students should have a four-hour academic day, one hour lunch, and three-four hour day of arts/athletics. Families should be able to count on a school day that matches their work day--an eight hour day of apt programming so they don't have to pay extra for childcare. 
• Revise educator expectations. No educator should have to work much more than their 40-hour work week. That means that educators need to have significant time-on-task for planning, preparation, and meetings each day. 
• Increase staffing numbers. Too many educators are tasked with too many students. This means that many students are not getting the personal attention they need to achieve. This also means that educators are always having to choose who gets the needed attention. This has to change. Often ratio data used to represent school communities are not reflective of what is really happening in schools with regard to the true student-teacher ratio reality. 
• Create opportunities for apt teacher-student-family collaboration. The best education is one where educators, students, and families are well coordinated in their efforts to serve the child. Increased capacity for collaboration will improve this vital ingredient to education excellence. 

Modernize leadership models in school

Most schools have a layer of ineffective leadership fat--that means they have a number of leaders tasked with telling teachers what to do. Too often these leaders are greatly distanced in time and space from students and educators leading to leaders who often promote policies, rules, and efforts that don't match educator or student need. Further, many that move into the leadership roles in school are people who put ambition before mission--they often tend to be pleasers rather than change agents. This layer of leadership fat often creates more problems than it solves and leads to cycles of ineffective efforts that result in lots of stress, money spent, and less support. Instead, I believe that schools have to modernize their leadership in the following ways:

• There should be few to no leaders in schools that do not have direct responsibility for student learning. Most leaders in schools should spend direct teaching/learning time with students daily. When leaders are distanced from that role, they lose perspective and are less effective if effective at all. 
• Too many leadership models in schools are paternalistic leading to the oppression of teachers--too many school leaders do not listen to educators or take educator needs and ideas seriously. Flattening the hierarchy in schools will help to eliminate the kinds of paternalistic, boss-leaders who allow ambition to outweigh mission in schools. Too many educators are treated like mindless individuals and this leads to all kinds of problems in schools. 
• Most dollars in school should support direct instruction of students. Too often leadership wastes school dollars on efforts that look good on paper or support the leaders rather than truly supporting optimal direct instruction and learning experiences for students.
• Too many school systems suffer from financial and administrative issues due to the low pay and lack of oversight for financial and administrative roles. There needs to be ways to streamline these efforts so that administrative/financial errors don't cost systems too much money and time.  

Professional learning should spiral up with the latest tried and true cognitive research and practice

Old, ineffective methods of teaching/learning need to be retired while traditional models of education that still work should be embraced. Modern methods that match the latest cognitive research as well as modern technology need to be embedded into teaching/learning programs too. Too often innovation and change in schools is too slow if it exists at all--this has to change. 

Invest in modern, effective education

As an educator, I watched the waste of too many dollars in schools and I also observed teachers and families spending lots of their own money to support the teaching/learning efforts happening in classrooms. Schools need more funding for adequate teacher salaries, classroom supplies, apt staffing numbers, and state-of-the-art online/offline, inside/outside learning environments. Money used for the layer-of-fat-leadership that exists in most school communities needs to be cut--there are often too many leaders too distanced from the direct teaching/learning that is happening--these kinds of leaders create barriers to the optimal learning possible. Instead, money should be spent on creating an apt hierarchy of teaching/learning jobs that provide upward mobility for educators in ways that use their skill/knowledge in direct teaching/learning for students. So as I advocate for more money for schools, I also advocate for better oversight and use of those dollars to ensure that those dollars directly impact a better education for every student and greater opportunity for every educator who works directly with students to do their best possible job. 

The nation's public school system is the backbone of the United States. Poor education will spell a weak country while a strong, well-supported, modern public school system will create a very strong and positive country now and well into the future. We can do this.