Where are We Heading?

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time. "
~Abraham Lincoln

In all the reform that needs to occur in many of our middle schools, one point is very clear to me...change takes time and courage. Do we keep things status quo because we disagree with changes that need to be made? I don't think so. I think for many it is more about the fear of the unknown. People worry about the effect on students, they worry that they may have to do more work, and they worry that they aren't capable meeting standards that have been set for them. Taking the steps to change is hard. We take risks by putting ourselves out there for criticism, and for many, that is very scary!

It is obvious, though, that we must make these changes, if we want our students to be ready with 21st century skills. We need to allow our students to connect with people all over the world and show them how to do so appropriately. Instead of a dictated curriculum, we need to allow our students to form questions and find the answers to those questions. We need to facilitate students' learning, rather than dictating it. The mandatory standards and assessments are neither realistic or motivating. If we truly want our students to learn, we need their input. Conversations need to be held and their voices need to be heard.

The idea of partially following the middle school concept is too real for me. Unfortunately in my own school, we infrequently listen to what our students have to say regarding what their learning should be on a large scale. I do believe individual classroom teachers have those conversations, yet changes have not been made. Some of the teachers in my building follow the "old school" version of middle level teaching by teaching "their" subject separately. Changes are being made to support integration, because of strong leadership. Along with teaching our children how all subjects are intertwined, we need to take the time to help them develop into positive, thinking, productive citizens who take interest in the world around them. Pieces of this are definitely being met at PIMS, but we still have some work to fully embrace the middle school concept.