We must re-create schools to best serve our communities

Our children are back in school. But what kind of school are they going back to? Better yet, what kind of school should they be going to?

We have a choice about the kind of schools we want. Do we want schools that churn out compliant cogs for the machine? Or do we aspire to create and support public schools that cultivate the intellectual and affective capacity of our children who can reconstruct the world as more just and peaceful?

Let’s build the schools we need. First, let’s ditch the failing obsession with standards, standardized testing and big data. Instead, focus on a year-long curriculum of inquiry into critical issues that impact our communities. Students and teachers could define an issue like environmental sustainability and investigate our environmental systems. They might learn that they have a voice and connect what’s happening in their communities with others around the country and the world. That would be true critical thinking.

Second, let’s treat our schools like schools, not prisons. Having taught in urban and rural areas, I have seen the gross disparities in resources, educational opportunities and policymakers’ attitudes toward schools in well-resourced vs. impoverished communities. Many urban schools resemble prisons.

Third, we must remove the police from our schools. I’ve lost track of the viral videos of police handcuffing and slamming children against lockers. We must encourage teachers to build loving educational communities in their schools. We can create more democratic schools by inviting community elders to connect with those kids daily and teach them the community history better than anyone else into the schools. We can leverage and sustain kids’ cultures and ways of communicating as curriculum and teaching.

I’ve been in education for the last two decades as a high school teacher and an education professor. In that time, as politicians, policymakers, and many in the education establishment have been hypnotized by the language of markets, measurable learning outcomes, and accountability, I have become increasingly alarmed about the state of K-12 education.

As the new school year begins, we should be mindful that this is an election year. The future of schools depends on the choices we make.

JAMES BURNS, MIAMI Burns is an assistant professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in Florida International University’s School of Education and Human Development.