Lots of chatter about the fresh faces, diversity and new perspectives of the incoming class in the House of Representatives. Here’s a heartwarming story of the new everyday congress folk via Time magazine. It captures snippets of their hopes, dreams and earnest aspirations. Watch it below. 

My new congressman Antonio Delgado is in the group and also Max Rose from Staten Island who comments on his first experience of Congress:

It is reminiscent of being in high school. You’re walking around not remembering people’s names…you’re worried that someone doesn’t like you. But I have the feeling … I think … I hope that I’m more popular here than I was in high school.

And he ends with a gleeful “Fingers crossed!”

Watch the time video below for more on this incoming Congressional class. It’s fun to watch.

America’s Most Diverse Congress: Meet the Class of 2019

Just Like High School Only With….

Getting through, surviving, thriving in high school – however it was for you those years – sure have an enduring grip on the personal and collective imagination. And there seems be a simple rule of thumb for most people: You had a good time in high school? Well that’s it for you – all downhill from there.

I am sure there are people who were top of the heap in high school and loved it and who are happy and successful and thriving now. But I don’t think I run into them often. “Just like high school” is usually a comparison for something unappealing; 

“Hollywood is exactly like high school,” Hanks says. “With money!”

He adds: “It’s filled with just as much pettiness, sadness and jealousy as well as fun and senior proms and parties.” Tom Hanks https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-13901367

And here’s Susie Moore in Marie Claire on the how the workplace is just like high school:

The same dull routines, social climbing, cliques, suck-ups, managers, crushes, gossip  and competition. Susie Moore in Marie Claire  8 Reasons why work is sometimes just like high school only without the summer.

Wow! That account of the workplace sounds attractive!

Maybe the stereotypical high school is a great preparation for life after all. Start doing the worst things early so the kids are not surprised by the deadening realities of the rest of life.

Part of it of course is the very fact of adolescence. Trapped in that limbo between childhood and grown-up with all the restrictions of the former and none of the independence of the latter. Constantly being told you’re being immature and need to grow-up and no-one thinking you can actually do anything remotely responsible. And all the hormones and social pressures and anxieties plus the psychological mourning for the loss of childhood. It doesn’t add up to much of a package.

And then we herd these kids together in warehouses called high school, sort them out by birthdate and test score batches, talk at them and assign lots of homework in a one-size-fits all testing environment.. No wonder high school brims with insecurity, pecking order politics, false friendships, betrayal, hollow achievements, lots of drama and pointless activity. 

It doesn’t help that too often we box them in with petty rules and expectations; deprive them of agency; make them wake up before the biological clock says they can best function; and pile on the pressure of tests and scores and nonsense about college.

To be fair: It’s not all like that. At least not for everyone.

There are – and always have been – bright spots everywhere. High school kids are capable of doing amazing things and they show that every chance they get. And there are schools and teachers that encourage, support and facilitate that agency and leadership. We just need to spread the goodness!

And the amazing thing is – many adults do remember high school with great affection. They remember the quirks and idiosyncrasies of their teachers with fondness, forgiveness and appreciation; they recall the good times with gratitude. They understand the bigger picture of the system and think of the friendships they made and the support and opportunities afforded them. Facebook school groups are full of such reminiscences. 

A Place Called School

35 years ago John Goodlad published A Place Called School:Prospects for the Future. It was the result of an 8 year study of 38 schools in 13 communities. What he found in high school was deeply dismal. He described chronic problems that were pushing the nation’s schools to “near collapse”.

Goodlad’s findings – the basis for his book – are well summarized in the NYTimes front-page report from July, 1983

EIGHT-YEAR STUDY OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS FINDS CHRONIC PROBLEMS IN SYSTEM

Goodlad’s book is one of those periodic landmarks of educational reform. And it did make a difference. Goodlad understood the complexity of his subject, accepted the good intentions of so many involved and placed a focus and high priority on the ethical dimensions of teaching as a calling. Schools and teachers paid attention.

Did Anything Change?

Ted Sizer wrote the introduction for the 20th anniversary edition writing that Goodlad’s findings were “still sweepingly familiar. The breathtaking waste of time and treasure tolerated in many schools is no less with us today than when today’s middle schoolers’ mothers were 12th graders. There is a sad, almost eerie relevance to the detailed specifics of Goodlad’s critique.”

So another fifteen years has passed. Has anything changed?

I am sure the answer answer to that is “Yes!” There are exciting examples of classrooms and schools and whole school systems that are breaking away from the death grip of the past in interesting ways.

And I am sure too that the answer is “No!”. We are still doing all the wrong things by our kids and now we have them not only under lock and key but also armed guard.”

”Large numbers of students are leaving school ill-prepared for jobs and effective citizenship, and even many of those who appear to be ‘making it’ are short-changed.”- Goodlad 1983

Teacher Talk and Emotional Disconnection

A quick ways to gauge whether things have changed for the better might be to look at some metrics: The first is teacher-talk.

Goodlad’s research found that the average instructional day in a junior or senior high school includes 150 minutes of talking. Of this, only seven minutes is initiated by students.

How has that changed?

Goodlad reported that students become less and less involved as they move from grade to grade. ”A typical primary school teacher will use five different techniques to teach a subject like arithmetic, from telling, to field trips, to dance and drama. The typical high school teacher will use only two, most of them involving lecturing and the monitoring of seat work.”

Any change? How, where and what?

Goodlad described the atmosphere of most classrooms in the study as ”emotionally flat.”

Rarely did we observe laughter, anger or any overt displays of feelings. If I myself were in such classrooms hour after hour, I would end up putting my mind in some kind of ‘hold’ position, which is exactly what students do.

Any change there?

Bullying, violence, discrimination and the ethical climate of high school

The High School Climate Report of 2010 had some pretty grim findings too.  Schools, it found, are full of bullying, violence, discrimination and dishonesty. And apparently incidents of bullying and discrimination are on the rise again. 

And just to be clear here we are not just talking about public high schools. Charles Blow had a terrific column on what he called the Private School Civility Gap. 

Of course – if we accept for a moment that this is so and that such behavior is prevalent in schools – then we must also say that they are no different from the prevailing ethos of the current administration in Washington. 

For schools to do the right thing by kids now means to function as countercultural institutions. They need to intentionally and specifically reject the norms on loud display at the very highest level of government: bullying, discrimination, cruelty, anti-intellectualism and dishonesty.

Thank you to all the educators out there who challenge that ethos everyday by establishing norms of civility, respect, kindness, open exchange, intellectual engagement, tolerance and honest inquiry in their classrooms. Thank you for trying to be the schools and teachers kids deserve and the schools and teachers kids need.

And best wishes all those newly minted  Congressfolk. May your time be productive and constructive and not at all like the worst of high school. We are all depending on you. 

But one last question. As we look at the past with harsh hindsight or rose-tinted specs and as we contemplate the present and plan for the future:

What is the purpose of high school?

How do you answer that question?