What Could Be…? The Ideal Learning Experience

So many factors go into a person’s learning/upbringing/formative experience. Social interactions, familial structures, societal norms, core memory experiences, sports & activities, interests & hobbies, and of course - their education. 

The use of ‘education’ instead of ‘schooling’ is a very intentional choice. Learning and education is not limited to the walls of a school building, the hours of a school day, or the schedule of a school year. For an experience so large and important, limiting it in such ways would be both a disservice and inaccurate.  There’s a reason the saying “Don’t let school get in the way of your education” exists. It speaks to some of the limits of a school day…even though this is often said in a more derisive manner aimed at schools. Because of what I’ve done professionally for 2+ decades (or maybe the reason I went into this work), I have a more ‘glass half-full’ outlook. 

That said, there are limits to the school day. Extending that thought even further, it would be fair to say that there are limits to schools in general, in terms of the ‘education’ of a young person. When you get down to it, we’re talking about roughly 7 hours out of a kid’s 24-hour day. 

This is why the search to create the “perfect” school day seems to exist, which many schools and districts always chasing those perfect ratios. There’s only so much time, and there’s always so much to cover. And - especially since the pandemic - there is now so much more ground to cover and larger gaps to close while still bringing everyone else along at acceptable (if not exceptional) levels. Years ago I was part of a middle school design team for our district. It was a great team of people, and a very engaging process to be a part of. One of the areas we dove into was creating various school day schedules. When you start getting in to this type of work, you realize all the different variables that come into play: district busing schedules/budget/capabilities; start times for all the grade levels; state requirements around school year length and ‘seat time;’ requirements around content areas & all the different elective choices students may or may not have access too; etc. There’s not way that’s even a complete list…it’s just a few items that sprang off the top of my head right now. There’s also lunch, activities/athletics/intramural opportunities, prep time, and on and on. ..

Something I’d like to explore over the next handful of posts - probably mixed in with other things - is just what an “ideal learning experience” could look like, and how that might be different for different people. I’d love to explore what that looks like in different parts of the country and world…has anyone really figured it out? I’m not sure there are any definitive answers out there. I just know things are stagnant, reading scores continue to go down, achievement gaps continue to persist, and the world we live in continues to demand more and more from our young people as they leave school.