This post was also published at Gotham Schools. If you want to read it there, click here and read their take on it here.
I work to support schools in New York City to innovate learning and I am also the author of a guide that advises teens to take ownership of their learning by leaving school. Here’s why.
I have more than a decade’s worth of experience in educational innovation. I spend my days working with administrators, teachers, and students finding ways to innovate learning in an effort to establish student learning environments that are more engaging, authentic, and connected to real life. I’ve worked in various capacities such as technology coach, literacy coach, and educational technology professional development manager, and I currently serve as a technology innovation manager. Before that I did similar work for Teachers College Innovations at Columbia University.
I am fortunate to work for an agency that focuses on and embraces technology and innovation. Despite outdated constraints involving issues like seat time, student funding, and resource allocation, we are making progress toward bringing more personalized and engaging learning opportunities to students through a handful of efforts, such as
the iSchool and the Innovation Zone. But while students are doing better in a more innovative climate, ultimately, we are just using updated tools to meet narrow and
outdated measures on which our students, teachers, and school leaders are judged. It is not enough to personalize learning for everyone to go down the same path — to college, without consideration of what comes next. Instead, schools need to embrace the many
alternatives to the traditional college route that would better meet the needs of many learners today. What is missing at the DOE is the important work of letting students discover, define, and develop their own passions, talents, and interests and determine personalized, meaningful, and authentic measures of success.
This is why I have published
an online guide that helps teens leave school. Recognizing that I am
no better than a high school dropout, I created ”
The Teenager’s Guide to Opting Out (Not Dropping Out) of School” because for many students, school has become a barrier, rather than a sanctuary, for learning.
You need only spend a few minutes on Facebook groups like ”
Parents & Kids Against Standardized Testing” and “
Testing is not Teaching!” to get a sense of the frustration felt by parents about school systems that prioritize testing over
the mental and physical well-being of children. You need only attend education conferences, like the recent
iNacol Virtual School Symposium where the audience replied with a resounding “
BORING” to the keynote speaker’s request for “one word to describe high school,” to realize something has gone very wrong. ”
The Teenager’s Guide to Opting Out (Not Dropping Out) of School“ is geared directly at teens who don’t fit the standardized mold and are desperate for a life customized to their
personal goals for learning and plans for success.
