Reimagine schools

Imagination is what it will take for poorer performing districts or schools to improve their ranking in educating children.

Alan Borsuk concludes his recent column, “6 takeaways from the Wisconsin’s latest school report cards,” that “schools shouldn’t blame the report card system if they didn’t get all the stars they’d like. They should bear down on what it would take to earn more stars next time around” (Nov. 26).

Despite all of the technological innovations, the increased emphasis on math and language curriculum, continuing professional opportunities for teachers and attempts to engage parents more in their children’s success, too much of the education landscape looks eerily familiar.

Milwaukee Public Schools has recently decided to change not only the start of the school year but the start of the school day. It is time to reimagine other elements of the process of educating children. Is the standard 50-minute class period sufficient; why not 30 minutes for some topics and 2 hours for others? Is the traditional one teacher per classroom adequate or does it require multiple teachers moving to various classrooms to teach particular topics to heighten engagement and learning? Should the curriculum be arranged by themes rather than discipline? There are language-immersion and trades schools, but no specialty schools about the environment or athletics or entertainment or urban issues.

The school day should include service learning projects or internships or other activities that remove the student from the school building and puts him or her in the community learning lifelong skills. It’s 2017; it’s time to reimagine what is means to school, to educate, to learn.

John C. Horgan Milwaukee