Education versus Schooling

When I was in school getting my M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, I was struck by a discussion in class of the difference between education and schooling. This discussion of educational philosophy came up somewhat unexpectedly in a class on Psychoeducational Assessment, which you would think would be all about data, not philosophy. We were discussing what the common standardized tests really measure, and so many of the tests dubbed "intelligence" tests actually measured "school skills" that it led to a much deeper discussion. Belated thanks go to Brad Erford, one of the two best Education professors I've had along with Kevin Vinson. Tonight, while grading assignments, this distinction between education and schooling has been on my mind. (The next paragraph is a self-righteous rant of sorts, so feel free to skip it entirely. Having typed it out now I feel like it's not as much a rant as a self-indulgent review of a very good day when I felt useful and important.)

Before I get into that distinction, please indulge me as I give a brief description of my day. This is intended for those who insist that teachers only work short days for part of the year. Today's day involved actively teaching from 8:30 until 3:30. Planning periods? Once students discover that you have a planning period at the same time as they have a study period, you no longer have planning periods. My two planning periods were filled with one-on-one tutoring of students who struggled on the quiz I gave last week. Lunch? Everybody gets a lunch break, no matter what job they do, right? No. At lunch, I supervised a table of students. That time eating with students is invaluable because we get to know each other as people rather than just as teacher-student, and that deeper bond significantly enhances teaching. It's completely worth it, but it is still time that we teachers are "on". My last class ends at 3:30, so the day is over, right? Nope. Now it is time for a meeting of the editors of the school newspaper. We are putting out our first ever April Fool's Day issue in the 175 year history of our school tomorrow and need to plan out distribution so that the surprise is not spoiled early. Around 4:00 I get home, check in with my son and chat for a while before starting to grade assignments. 6:45 and it's time to go supervise a table of students at dinner (still in the coat and tie I put on this morning). After dinner is the math department meeting from 7:30 to 8:30, followed by dorm duty. At 8:30, I head to the dorm, make sure all the students are where they are supposed to  be then have a long talk with a student who is struggling this quarter. Next come room inspections and motivating around 80 teenage boys to clean their rooms. I get home around 9:40 because I'm on "short duty" tonight, help my daughter with her homework, then head back up to school at 10:15 PM to distribute the newspaper into all student and faculty mailboxes in the hopes that nobody will spoil the surprise until the morning. Finally around 10:40, the work day is done and I can get back to grading, because quarter grades are due tomorrow. Deep breath.

Okay, self-indulgence is finished, I hope. Now on to the real point of this post. (OK, so the real point is that I just finished grading an assignment and need to clear my head before starting the next.) I just graded an assignment for my Advanced Multivariable and Vector Calculus class. Yep, they actually teach that in high school now. Blows my mind too, and I teach the class! These kids have already taken AP Calculus and cannot get college credit for this class, which gives me some luxurious freedom to conduct the class in the way I believe is best. I have chosen to teach this class in the way many of my grad school classes were taught when I was working on my Master's Degree in Mathematics. We have several days of old-school lecture in which we discuss the very basic ideas and mechanics of each unit, then the students launch into a challenging Problem Set based on that material. Anybody who has read an academic journal article in the past few years can confirm that almost nothing is done individually any more. Every scientific or mathematical paper published has multiple authors. Because of that, I believe it is much more beneficial to the education of these kids, who have already proven themselves to be top math students, to allow the kind of collaboration they will find in a future academic career in math or science. My Multivariable class this year is unquestionably the most exciting class I have ever had. (Any of my former students reading this, please do not take offense. This class has just hit the collaborative sweet spot in a way that other classes haven't.) When the students are working on their problem sets, they have the option of working individually or collaboratively, and can work in the classroom or elsewhere. While many students would see the latter rule as permission to skip class, the room is packed with kids during these problem set days. As they tackle ridiculous problems, they are throwing ideas around the room in a staccato rhythm. Exclamations like, "What if we try this?" or "OMG, I think I'm onto something here!" are music to my ears. As the year has progressed, the question, "How did you do #3?" has transformed into the question, "How did you start #3?" That is the best possible sign of developing confidence. Sometimes the arguments about the best way to solve a problem can get a little heated. Awesome! Last week, a student showed me his answer to a problem and asked if it looked good. I said that it looked like a good approximate solution and I would accept it for full credit, but that he actually knew enough to solve it for the exact solution rather than the approximate if he had the guts to try it. The entire class stopped what they were doing and said, "Wait! Which problem is that? We can do it!"

This is all on my mind because I just finished grading one of their problem sets. In a lot of schools, I might have to answer to the administration about why the grades on the assessment are so clustered and similar. "Schooling" emphasizes assessments in order to differentiate between students. I believe I teach at a school that will support the greater mission of education. Because of the allowed collaboration, the students' grades are similar, although they all put their own style on their solutions (for better or worse) and there is some differentiation in the grades. In a lot of schools, that would be unacceptable, but I firmly believe that these kids, at this very advanced level, have learned much more through this collaborative experience than they would have through assessments focused on the individual. They have learned different ways to approach a problem. They have learned how to stand up for themselves and assert their ideas in a discussion of different possible approaches to a problem. They have learned how to listen to others' ideas and suggestions and either accept them as better than their own, synthesize them with their own ideas to form something better than both, or explain why their approach is better. They are students, teachers, explorers, and communicators. They correct their own mistakes and look out for each other, not just themselves. They have solved problems so complex that, when I hand their papers back tomorrow, they will have trouble figuring out how to even ask questions about what they missed because they haven't thought about the problems in a few days. In my opinion, this is true education. I wish I could take credit for it, but the credit goes to the administration that supports this approach and mostly to the students who buy in to it, get excited about the challenge, and discover that they are far more powerful intellectually as a group than they could ever be individually. Our future is in the hands of today's teenagers, and the time I have spent with Sam, Jack, Justin, John, Grace, Will, Natnael, Ike, Greg, Liz, Suzelle, and Gates have convinced me that we are in good shape. The next generation is much better prepared to work together to solve the problems facing our world, and I am one of the privileged few who get the opportunity to work with them in these critical teenage years. I just hope I do a good enough job of getting out of their way and letting them thrive!