As U.S. parents, educators and others concerned with the instruction of children in recent years assessed the state of learning in the country, they expressed a single constructive criticism: We need to teach our children to think rather than to regurgitate facts.
For countless generations, most children have been taught one way: learn and then repeat. Math, science, grammar, spelling, history, and other subjects have been taught using this method, in which a teacher stands in front of a class, provides the lesson, and then tests the children on how well they absorbed the information. Attempts to teach children analytical skills through compare and contract exercises still centered on low-level thinking. But in 1982, a philosopher named Mortimer Adler and a group of educators called the Paideia Group issued a critique of the American public education system in a groundbreaking book called “The Paideia Proposal: an Educational Manifesto.”
Adler argued that in order for the U.S. to maintain a democratic society, its people must “institute much higher academic standards and render that intellectual rigor accessible to all students” (“A Brief History of Paideia,” the National Paideia Center). Adler and his colleagues outlined 10 principles they believed would ensure all children would receive the same high quality education. Called the Paideia Principles, they assert, among other things, that all children can learn, that all children deserve the same quality of schooling, and that the objectives of schooling include teaching a person to earn a living, be a good citizen, and have a good life.
In 1991, the Hamilton County Board of Education est-ablished the Chattanooga School for the Liberal Arts as a dedicated Paideia magnet school serving grades K-8, taking Adler’s innovative concept from page to practice in less than 10 years. Teachers at CSLA share a common believe that all students can learn at high levels, and provides its intellectually, socially, racially, economically and geographically diverse population of 381 learners with a rigorous one-track curriculum that includes foreign language, music, art, and physical education. The courses are built around three teaching methods based on Paideia principles: didactic, for teaching facts and information; intellectual coaching for developing skills; and Socratic Seminar for developing conceptual understanding.
Principal Krystal Scarbrough was not with CSLA, at the time, but she is responsible for spearheading the school today, and is pleased with what she sees. “Our kids can compete in any public or private venue when they move on. All of our eighth graders take high school honors algebra, and our passing rate for the end of the course exam is
phenomenal. It ranges from 98 and 100 percent every year,” she says. Scarbrough says her teachers spend only 10 to 15 percent of their class time on didactic instruction, which is the most traditional of the three approaches Paideia advocates. They spend the bulk of their time coaching.
“During coaching, kids split into small groups and work on projects, and the teacher’s role changes from lecturer to coach. On an athletic team, the coach will help his players build their skills, then send them onto the field to practice, and then tweak their performance. That’s how we approach coaching here,” Scarbrough says. The coached projects take different forms. For example, eighth graders at CSLA recently read, “My Brother Sam is Dead,” by James Lincoln Collier, while studying the Revolutionary War. As the students were learning about government, their project was to take one of the characters in the book and put him on trial. The challenge for the kids, Scarbrough says, was staying in character and not imposing their own thoughts on the proceedings.
Students as early as fourth grade have surprised Scarbrough as she’s watched them participate in a Socratic Seminar. “We created a line of ants in the shape of the infinity symbol, but we didn’t tell the kids about the mathematical concept. Then we asked them which ant was first in line. As they were saying what they thought and why, one of them said, ‘That’s the symbol for infinity.’ And the others kids said, ‘You’re right; it has no beginning or end.’ And the conversation took off from there.”
An advocate of teachers, Scarbrough would never say one style of teaching is superior over another, but she does say the waiting list to attend CSLA is “very long.” To her, this is a sign the school is doing something right. “Parents are thrilled their children are learning to interact with different kinds of people in a respectful manner. This resonates with me because people we have all walks of life here, so for students to genuinely care for each other is phenomenal,” she says.
For more information about CSLA, visit www.mycsla.com. Find more information about Paideia at www.paideia.org.