Student-Directed Curriculum: An Alternative Educational Approach (1971, sound)

[Music] These young people have a goal. It's one that all young people share. Quite simply, they want to gain the knowhow which will ensure that they can get along in this world. Don't let them kid you. They want an education and they want it badly. But most of these inner city kids have come to believe that the cards are stacked against them. That the inner city school has not been meeting their needs. This is a story about how these students and others like them sought alternative ways to reach their goal. This is the story of the studentdirected curriculum project at Polytechnic High School in San Francisco, [Music] California. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] When the student attending an inner city school looks around, he sees evidence of decline and failure. Such neighborhood deterioration causes students to question the worth of the school's programs. Alienation results and is reflected in declining attendance, high student dropout rates, vandalism, community tension, low student achievement. These are indications that students do not view the school as helping them to achieve their goals, that the school itself is failing in its purposes. The recent history of Polytenic High School is not too different from that of many inner city schools. 20 years ago, PY was considered a model school. Its student population then was predominantly white. During the 1960s, the character of the community surrounding PY changed. The school's ethnic composition shifted to over 80% black. PI had six principles in seven years. The curriculum didn't change to meet these new conditions. Community tensions and student alienation kept the school in a state of instability and crisis. Finally, in response to demands to make the programs of the school more responsive to the needs of students, the school board of San Francisco called in AU, the Institute for the Advancement of Urban Education. The institute's procedure was first to identify the elements of the problem more clearly. Second to initiate a collaborative planning process involving all of the stakeholder groups, people who had a stake in the success of the school. And third, as a result of these processes, to design and help manage a pilot program incorporating all the components of an alternative educational approach. IAE's initial strategy was to listen to anything anybody had to say. Their staff members visited community residents to secure opinions. Coffee classes were held in neighborhood homes so that personal grievances could be expressed. Yeah, they feel that the teachers talked down to them instead of talking directly to them as a human being. Well, I agree with what Jerry said, but my feeling is uh you know, I had my daughter in politic high school who was Miss Polly at this particular time, and my feeling was that she came back to me with, "How do you expect for me to graduate out of high school when this high school have already been capped as the school that is producing pimps and prostitutes?" A three-day chet or informal meeting was held in Pali. 500 people gathered to submit suggestions, air grievances, and collaborate in the planning of desired changes for the schooling of their youngsters. Questionnaires were administered to determine what, if any, discrepancies existed in the perceptions of the stakeholder groups. The most significant finding was that while teachers tended to underestimate the interest of students in academic activities and occupational preparation, these same students attached great value to them. The most important insights came from the students themselves. They were called upon to comment on how the traditional school program was meeting their needs. And teachers are not really interested of teaching you. They would say, "You do this homework and if you don't have it done, you get an F or you flop." They'll say, "Well, I don't get paid anyway. So, if you don't do the work, you know, it's your business." And they figured like if you you might want to really do it, you know, but then after they didn't want to help you, you know, you can't do it alone. I mean, that's the reason for you coming to school. If you go come to school and have your teacher tell you what you didn't do, They ain't no fun to come to you. You want to hear the best anyway. She's really more interested of putting the homework and put in the work. But by the time you go up and ask, she cannot really explain it. She explains it once to everybody. And if you haven't understand it, you know that's your tough luck because it's uh if she explains it to you, then she has to explain it to everybody. By the time she explains it to you, the bell would ring or you would have interruption. Did you see Mr. You would really never learn or I have to fix my books. All the grades are messed up. I don't have time for you get this stuff every day and going in and staring at the same four walls sitting in the same place listening to the same people. Got boring. I couldn't get into it. It was just too boring. It was I knew that I felt like a robot because like everybody who went to this guy's class learned the same thing every year used the same book and got the same homework. And after a while, you know, the teachers just get so used to the routine that they come in, give me this, you know, give probably give the same um speech to every class and then so that it's too much of a rut, you know, you just have to get out. [Music] Building upon the data gathered from the stakeholder surveys, I AOE proceeded to map out elements of a pilot program. It was to be guided by the central inquiry. How can the elements of an educational environment be adapted to the needs and concerns of students to be in essence student directed? 50 students were selected through a lottery process to be in the pilot program. The group reflected all the ethnic groups represented at PY. Three temporary buildings located on the school grounds were designated the home for this alternative educational approach. [Music] The facilitators of learning for the studentdirected curriculum project included three non-credentialed members of the community. This gave the program the continued insights of persons familiar with the background of the students. The first phase of the pilot program was a range of diagnostic activities. Information was gained that was useful for the preparation of a curriculum which would reflect the individual interests of the students. The next step consisted of designing the physical learning environment for student directed curriculum or SDC. Students were given the responsibility right at the outset for the interior design of their own learning areas. This gave them a feeling of pride and group accomplishment. It further provided students with a tangible task to complete. This helped them in the early period of adjustment to a radically different school situation. Other strategies were employed to develop further a sense of community and group cohesiveness, an important objective for SDC. One of these was the creation of a body portrait showing a combined outline of each participant's body. The facilitators stressed that the group could really get together if all the talents and energies represented in the body portrait could be combined to achieve a goal. The next phase of SDC was the formulation of new curriculum options related to the needs of the students. The curriculum was organized around three broad areas. Communications, behavioral studies, and technical environmental studies. From the very beginning, the facilitators consulted each student for his ideas on units of study that he considered valuable and interesting. Swimming. Oh, you look so ar [Music] curriculum. Many units centering around these student interests were then developed, linking them to traditional academic disciplines was an art which tested the facilitators ingenuity. But the course offerings of SDC soon acquired their own distinctive character which closely matched the character of the student group. basic high school course requirements were satisfied. Given a wide variety of curriculum options, each student was then able to shape his own program of [Music] study. An instructional goal sheet was used to record student choices and accomplishment. It related units of study with a student's personal motivation. [Music] Each unit of study had explicit objectives for the student to achieve. This made him less dependent on an instructor's lesson plan. Learning became a mutual experience with facilitator and student working toward the same ends. If a student had some special interest that was not expressed in the many unit offerings, she could design a new unit. With the assistance of a facilitator, she was able to pursue it on an individual contract basis. Facilitator Cheryl Ward explains some of the implications of being a facilitator of learning in SDC. It's a lot of fun and it's easier in one sense and it's much more difficult in another. It's easier in that the responsibility now lies on the student and you don't have to go around with a stick in your hand uh holding it over students heads to get them to work. Uh you feel better about being able to meet the students at their own individual levels to interact with them on a more personal human type basis. Uh and really really understanding and really knowing them. In the traditional school you never got to know your students. They were in and they were out. It's difficult in that now you have to work harder getting together um resource material for individual interests, supplies for individual interests, um helping individuals to develop their interests. The student plays a part in the evaluation in that he if he so desires to have a a a quiz or a test, he can so state that uh if he wants to be evaluated in some other way, he can do that. For instance, some students prefer to speak rather than write down uh whatever it is that they have found out or they they feel that they know and they would like to express to you. There are many ways and we along with the students have been sort of feeling our way out and finding out that there are other ways to evaluate rather than just on the basis of written tests. This program fosters that kind of of of behavior where the student has to begin to think for himself, has to begin to make decisions for himself, has to make his own mistakes and learn by those mistakes without being punished or or penalized as such except you know for the consequences that naturally occur from having made certain mistakes. With SDC calling for new teaching skills and attitudes, inservice teacher training was an important dimension of the SDC process. Staff development meetings were held regularly. Problems were pinpointed. New teaching and scheduling strategies were outlined. Methods were identified for achieving the goal of SDC, helping young people to achieve their goals. He didn't want to. Perhaps the learning mode which gave the student the best chance to express himself and develop important skills was small groupoup discussion. Building upon the structural flexibility of SDC, students and facilitators regularly engaged in productive discussion and problem solving sessions. Everybody else make a house or something. You can't work individually. You're not competing against each other here. trying to cooperate with with each other. At other times, the objective was best satisfied through independent inquiry. Each facilitator had to learn the skills and importance of providing individual assistance and of probing the student for his ideas. They can get your money through a trial easy and you poor, but they'll still find you. Do you notice that the people that have money, that's the people that don't go to prison because they have the money to pay. That's right. That's wrong. When you have the money, you can get out of anything. I don't care what it is. Okay, that's what's wrong. Okay, so maybe we could say one of the problems is that there's there seems to be uh not enough provisions for people who don't have enough money. Seems like they're just the fact that the SEC experience gave students numerous opportunities to express their own individuality and be creators rather than mere recipients of knowledge forms. Posters created by the students reflected their own aims and political and social beliefs. The design of the learning areas continued to be shaped by the members of SDC. This boy, Rey, was able to apply his talent for composing poems in the more individualized atmosphere of SDC. He learned how to use poetry to express his personal perspectives on life. The day my soul will be free. It's the day that my God will take me from this catastrophe supposedly world which is a hell and a jail to the people who don't have the money to pay the bill. People yell and people cry, but you keep seeing that people die. And I know why cuz I cry. [Music] An elective program focusing on physical recreation and the arts further permitted students to perform, create, and express themselves. This helped in the strengthening of a student's self-image, another important goal of SDC. These kids didn't feel like robots. They were helped to feel like persons with real potential for growth and [Music] success. Throughout the project, learning was viewed as capable of occurring any place and with any resources. The student directed curriculum helped students see that education is part of the experiences occurring each day throughout their community. If the resources were not immediately available, the students sought them where they existed. For a unit in genetics, these students found what they needed in a laboratory in the city. Back in the learning area, the students and facilitator dissected the new material from their recent learning excursion. Well, what happens to the people who have that disease? No. They die. They keep bleeding. They can bleed to death. Yeah, that's 45. just higher than the regular beaches. These students went out to stores in the community to collect data on pricing practices among producers and distributors. They then analyzed the differences in prices and learned where the consumer could get the greatest value for her money. These kids came to realize that a source of power resided in their own intellects. The experience of being able to shape their own learning patterns and of having adults who were there to facilitate rather than direct their learning was a new one for the students. They were the ones for whom the program was created and they remain the best source for verbalizing its real meaning. I don't know about other kids, but I personally am motivated to work harder because um I'm sort of rebellious and I don't like people telling me, you know, do this, do that. And so like when when I'm on my own, I think I I work harder than when people, you know, hand it to you and say do it. It's more challenging to each person. It depends. Like um it wasn't challenging at all in the old school because I never did anything. I mean it was so boring that I just skipped skip most of it and here when you find that you like something you try harder and so it is challenging in that way if you have 45 students in a classroom teacher doesn't have time to get to get to know each student over here you know she get to know each student what's her problem if you can't read they know this way you know in a regular school they just give you work and tell you to do it you know if you know how to read or you don't know how to read you have to do it you you know, you flunk. Before you, if you didn't do the work, you just get bad grades. But here, they expect you to do the work because it's benefiting you. It's not benefiting your parents who get the good grades or anything. They're trying to make it so it's student directed and the students can get what they want out of it. And it doesn't help anybody but the students. Well, I'm sure every everybody tries harder here because there's more of a sense of unity and and we get to know each other better because in regular school, you might not open up to a person that you only see 45 minutes a day. You know, we're old enough to be held responsible for our actions in here. And that's what's good. They don't treat us like, you know, 10th graders or 11th graders or 12th graders. They treat us like human beings for once. Well, I'm not trying to please the teacher. I'm more or less trying to please myself. And if I feel I'm not out to live up to anyone else expectations. I'm out to live to my own because I'm the one who have to live with my own life. This present day or antique school system, that's what I call it, antique. It was made for when this country was just now becoming industrial. You know, when they didn't know it as much then as they do now. As much as they know now, you don't find that in the school. You know, they only tell you what happened long time ago. And everybody's interested in knowing what's happening now because things are changing.