BY DAVID PRATT

You can observe a lot just by watching, according to Yogi Berra. And you can learn a lotabout classrooms just by listening to the kids who inhabit them, according to Mr. Pratt.

OMETIMES it is important to putside the research journals, political com-lentaries, and popular news about the

state of education and stop long enoughlisten to the voice of a 9-year-old,

lis past year, my daughter began writ-ing letters to me about her fourth-grade classroom experiences. As a teach-

er educator who is caught up in educational research,

• DAVID PHATT is an assistant professor of education at PurdueUniversity North Central, Westville, iruL He was a pubUc school teacherfor 10 years in elementary and secondary schools in California.

theory, and current issues, I appreciated being grantedaccess to this unique perspective, which, unfortunate-ly, is not often considered in my work. In this age ofaccountability, standards, and policies handed downfrom administrators and politicians, perhaps the hon-esty of a child is our best lens for examining what isreally going on in schools.

As I began sharing these letters with college studentspreparing to become teachers, they were struck by thecandidness of a fourth-grader's words about what mat-ters most. Although these letters come from only onechild's school experiences, the concepts they highlight

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are not new and have been researched substantially formany years. Yet, in this stressful time of increased de-mands from standards and testing, what once were con-sidered the best teaching strategies often end up beingsummarily brushed aside. Una's letters give us an op-portunity to revisit our thinking about what makes asuccessful learning environment.

among all learners. "School is so GREAT! At the be-ginning ofthe day the 4th-7th grade classes combineuntil nine o'clock. We play games to get to know eachother better."

Recesses and lunches were also times when studentsof different grade levels could interact with one anoth-er. This arrangement seemed to promote an environ-

with/ cv rmam/ UaxJieA]

Before I share a fourth-grader's top picks for the ele-ments of a good school, it might be helpful to give aquick summary of Lina's schooling experiences. Unabegan by attending a traditional public school in a north-west Indiana suburban district that boasted of high testscores and strict discipline. She performed well academ-ically, since she carefully completed all her work andwas above average in almost all areas. She was quiet inthe classroom and complied with instructions.

As Una began moving through the primary grades,however, 1 noticed that school was starting to wear herdown. There were many times when the workload wastoo much and frustrations mounted. Lina wasn't par-ticularly speedy in recalling her math facts and beganreceiving poor grades on her daily timed math-factstests. For the first time, she found herself not enjoyingschool and began making statements about how shewasn't good in math and not very smart.

A variety of circumstances provided an opportunityfor Una to attend a charter school. This is when shebegan writing letters, primarily comparing and conuast-ing her experiences of these two different school en-vironments. After receiving two unsolicited letters re-garding Lina's classroom experiences, I gave her a singleprompt: "Write to me about what happened in schooltoday."

In the excerpts from her letters that follow, I havetaken care to quote her writing directly, so as to cap-ture the exact nature ofthe content, ignoring problemswith grammar. I have corrected some spelling to helpwith readability.

One ofthe first letters I received from Lina indi-cated that she had experienced a huge shift in philos-ophy when she transferred into her new school. It ap-peared that one ofthe school's priorities during the firstweeks of classes was to establish a sense of community

ment that was inclusive and helped the students buildrelationships with schoolmates of different ages. Linawas able to make several friends outside her class andgrade level. The school iJso had a Lunch Buddy program,which assigned a younger student to an older one. Lina de-scribed this opportunity positively in her letters as well.Many ofthe activities the school used came from theTribes l.£arning Communities philosophy. More can befound by visiting the website www.tribes.com.

"NOBODY wants to learn if it means dealing witha mean teacher!" was the first line of a letter early inthe year, in which Lina recalled her experiences withseveral teachers she had had in the past. In contrast,Lina wrote fondly of her current teacher, who careddeeply about each of her students: "She is so nice."

Educators should not be surprised by Lina's feel-ings. Nel Noddings is noted for her research regard-ing caring as a central dimension of effective teach-ing.' Deborah Stipek found that when a teacher pro-vides a caring environment in which each student isvalued, students are more motivated and learn more.-One ofthe most dramatic expressions ofthe impor-tance of caring came from another fourth-grader: "Ifa teacher doesn't care about you, it affects your mind.You feel like you are a nobody, and it makes you wantto drop out of school."' It seems like a simple enoughrequest: as a classroom teacher, you should care for eachof your students. Apparently, kids notice the difference,and it matters.

It appeared from her letters that in her new schoolLina was experiencing a very different type of curric-ulum — one that was focused on the individual stu-dents' interests and abilities. "What we did at art was

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WC wrote down what we wanted to do for art this se-mester. . . . We have gone to music two times. The firsttime we wrote what musical instruments we wantedto play, what songs we liked to sing, and things likethar." Clearly, rhe teacher wasn't the center of the cur-riculum here. Acting more as a facilitator, the teacheraddressed the needs and interests of the students as astarting point.

Akin to the idea of student-centered curriculum isthe notion of allowing students to have several ehoicesand trusting them to make their own decisions involv-ing the work they need to do. Here's how Lina describedher teacher's approach to spelling:

We get to pick our spelling words. What Mary [the teach-er] does is she writes down a list of words that have to dowith pirates [the theme of the unit]. She puts a star by fourof them and then you pick six more words and write themdown on a piece of paper with the four other words. Marypairs us up for the spelling test. One person looks at theother persons list and tells them the words to write downand then we switch.

This idea of a student-centered curriculum certain-ly is not new. More than 100 years have passed sinceDewey s progressive philosophy of schooling advocat-

ed a student-centered approach. More recent theories,such as constructivism, differentiated curriculum, childdevelopment, and multiple intelligences, also supportappreciating diverse abilities and interests and adapt-ing teaching to allow for these differences. The idea ofa child-centered curriculum, while growing in popular-ity, still stru^les against the push for a more standards-based curriculum and accountability through testing.See Robert Marzano's book^ Différent Kind of Class-room for six helpful suggestions for creating a learning-centered classroom.'

"This school is a lot different from all the other schoolsI've been to because we work in groups a lot more andwe don't have desks, instead we have tables." The workof Lev Vygotsky and Robert Slavin helped shape thetheory that collaboration can be a great way to enhancethe learning process. Vygotsky believed that knowledgeis socially constructed through interactions with adultsand peers. Teachers who prefer having children learnin isolation or individually in order to show that theycan learn independently do not understand the broad-er picture; "What the child can do in cooperation today,he can do alone tomorrow."' As Lina advises, "Youshould have at least one time every day that the classworks together. It's fun to work togetiier and you learnmore that way." The work of David Johnson and RogerJohnson supports Una's suggestion with evidence thatcooperative learning can be one of the most effectivetools teachers have."

"Dad didn't sign my report card, but as you can see, Idid show it to him."

Letters from Lina described learning that was inte-grated and included many meaningful projects. Where-as her class the previous year had relied heavily on work-sheets and workbooks, she wrote that in her new school,"We almost never do worksheets." One example of aproject Lina was involved in was to make up a pirate,invent facts about him, write a story, and then draw apicture of him.

The previous year, Lina had completed hours of home-work every night, most of which was worksheet- or work-book-related. At her new school, she had homework,but she described it differently. "My teacher is the best.She said she would never give homework. Instead shecalls it home practice and it's a lot more fun than home-work." One example of home practice was an assign-ment to interview parents about what they read on aday-to-day basis. At the time the students conducted

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the interviews, they were studying literacy.Home practice was not the only aspect of learning

that Lina was enjoying in her new school. "I think teach-ers should be like Mary Make it so that half the timeyou don't even know your learning. Doing three sub-jects at a time, working together, fun! Always doingnew things! Encouraging ideas!! This is how I thinkteachers should be." Lina compared going to school to"going to camp where you make friends, play gamesand learn."

The idea of making school flin has been challengedby critics who assume that academic rigor or disciplineis being replaced with a "feel-good curriculum." Mau-reen Stout accused the self-esteem movement of dumb-ing down currictilum, lowering expectations, belittlingcompetition, and turning schools into centers for ther-apy, not learning.'

As a parent, I am glad that my daughter is enjoyingschool and feeling good about it. She understands thatschool is more than just drudgery and appreciates thesocial and playflil components of her learning experi-ences. I think that many teachers have forgotten thejoy and fun that can be found in learning something,or that one can learn something through play. CarlOrfF, the 20th-century composer who had a great influ-ence on the field of music education, once said, "Sincethe beginning of time, children have not liked to study.They would much rather play, and if you have theirinterests at heart, you will let them learn while theyplay.""

It appears that another quality of a good school froma fourth-grader's perspective is a sensible approach toassessment, particularly standardized tests. Here is Lina'sdescription of test day at her new school, in contrastto her previous school:

We start out the day by eating a healthy breakfest. Parentsvolunteer co bring in a healthy breakfast such as bagels,fruit or muffins. If I'm hungry, I think about how hungry

I am instead ofthe test We work for half an hour thenwe take a break, use the bathroom and walk around. Atmy old school my teacher made such a big deal of it. "Don'tmake any mark . . . machines check it! It's a big part ofyour grade! You can't mess up." It's like calm down lady!At this school you just do your best, be relaxed, there justtrying to figure out what you know.

Richard Stiggins has challenged the notion that schoolsand teachers improve in a high-pressure testing environ-ment.' Lina's new teacher apparently does not have the

stress level associated with testing that her previoius teach-er did. Perhaps it's the belief in assessing what studentsknow rather than what they don't know. It obviouslymade a difference in Lina's perception of testing.

Assessing day-to-day classroom performance was alsodone differently in Lina's new school. When I askedLina how the teacher knew that she understood infor-mation about the Americaii Colonies, she told me thatinstead of a test the students had several choices abouthow they could demonstrate what they had learned.She showed me the board game she had designed re-garding the Colonies. It was clear that she understood— and better than Í ever did.

Clearly, there are many differing perspectives amonginformed adults about the best approaches to teachingand learning. With all the statements we hear from pol-icy makers, administrators, teacher educators, inserviceteachers, preservice teachers, and parents, it would beeasy to dismiss a fourth-grader's opinions about whatmatters in schools. But I believe that the child's voiceis the one that we can least aíFord to ignore. Lina endedone letter in the middle ofthe year with this thought:"My favorite day used to be Saturday because no school.But now my favorite day is Monday because it's sogreat to go back to school! This is the best school I'veever been to."

i only hope that the kind of school environment,teacher, and curriculum that inspired these feelings inLina is the kind that any parent, teacher, administra-tor, or politician would want for ¿ï//children. Above all,such an environment can help them grow physically,emotionally, socially, and academically. After all, isn'tthat what schools are for?

1. Nei Noddings, The Challenge to Care in Schools: An Alternative Ap-proach to Education (New York: Teachers College Press, 1992).

2. Deborah Stipek, Motivation to Leam: Integrating Theory and Practice,4th ed. (Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002).

3. George W. Noblit, Dwlght L. Rogers, and Brian M. McCadden, "Inthe Meantime; The Possibilities of Caring," Phi Delta Kappan.. May1995, pp. 680-85.

4. Robert J. Marzano, A Different Kind of Classroom: Teaching with Di-mensions of Learning (Alexandria. Va.: Association for Supervision andCurriculum Development, 1992).

5. Lev S. Vygotsky, Thou^t a>id Language (Canibric^e, Mass.: MiT Press,1986), p. 188.

6. David W. Johnson and Roger T. Johnson, Cooperation and Competi-tion ¡Edina, Minn.: Inreraction Books, 1989).

7. Maureen Stout, The Feel-Good Curriculum: The Dumhing Down ofAmerica's Kids in the Name of Self-Esteem (Cambridge, Mass.: Da CapoPress, 2000).

8. Available at www.edu-cyberpg.com/music/orlT.hrml.

9. Richard j . Stiggins, "Assessment, Student Confidence, and School Suc-cess," Phi Delta Kappan, November 1999, pp. 191-98. K

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