Deze blogpost van Larry Cuban beschrijft hoe hij enkele lessen aanpakt rond de verschillende soorten scholen die er bestaan. Meestal bleken zijn studenten enthousiast over meer moderne schoolsystemen, maar… Of je een aanpak goed vindt is maar een van de drie vragen die hij stelt. De volgende twee vragen bleken een andere werkelijkheid weer te geven:

During the lesson, I tally all of their responses publicly to the above questions on whether the school is “good,” would they work at the school they designate as “good,” and, finally, would they send their children to that “good” school. Conflicts within individual students and across the class become evident.  Again and again, students see that while nearly all  of them designated, for example, KIPP or Rocketship as “good” schools, most of them would neither work nor send their children there. Most students wanted to work at  Comer and Child Development Schools. Most wanted to send their children to Core Knowledge and Child Development Schools.

The data from their choices revealed much individual and group nail-biting: the school is “good” but many would not choose to work at the school or send their children there. Often, discussions erupted at obvious inconsistencies expressed by students. The group slowly came to realize that while a school may be considered “good” by designers, participants, and experts, that does not mean that an individual teacher or parent would choose to work at that “good” school or  send their children there. Not only is the concept of a “good” school value-driven, they discovered, but many versions of  “good” schools exist and there is no one “good” school for all or even most children and youth. Period. End of lesson.

De twee andere vragen zijn dus:

• zou je zelf op die school willen werken?
• zou je je kinderen naar deze school willen sturen?

Ik volg de conclusie van Cuban helemaal: er is niet één goede school en geen one size fits all aanpak.