Before attending school in District 150, my children attended private school. When deciding upon what private school to send them to, we of course, considered the educational philosophy of the school.
After enrolling them in public school, we never really thought much about educational philosophy anymore. It wasn’t until recently that we began to realize that even within public education, parents need to be aware of the educational philosophy of the person running the building in which their child is attending school.
Recently a commenter who posts regularly to local blogs, raised the question of the educational philosophy of the new Superintendent, which piqued my curiosity, as it is a good question.
In my quest to assuage my curiosity about the new administration’s educational philosophy, I began to realize that not only does the Superintendent have a philosophy; so does the Assistant Superintendent, the Director of Curriculum, the principals and each individual teacher. But that's okay, because there is room for more than one educational philosophy in a school district.
There are many philosophies of education; one that I found particularly interesting was the philosophy behind the Lyceum Movement. The Lyceum Movement started in the 19th century in the United States to foster adult education. It took its name from the Lyceum, a school near Athens where the Greek philosopher Aristotle lectured to students.
The movement promoted adult education through lectures and debates in which several transcendentalists participated. The movement also promoted activities to encourage the building of libraries and general participation in other reform movements.
The Lyceum Movement in the 18th Century
The lyceum movement was conceived by Josiah Holbrook in New England in the 1820s. Holbrook, born in Derby, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale in 1810, became a traveling lecturer who first spoke on science and technology, then formed industrial and agricultural schools for young men. Holbrook intended the lyceum to be a local study group which met at weekly intervals. He based his lyceums on the belief that education should continue all through life, regardless of age and gender, and that learning helps stave off the temptation of alcohol.
Besides the goal of education, lyceums also promoted the establishment of libraries, museums, and public schools. Holbrook and other lyceum devotees believed that universal, free education could right the illnesses of society, preserve democracy, and dissolve the oppressive caste system.
Most lyceum experts agree that the early days of lyceums, before the Civil War, were the most education-oriented. In these first days, the members of the lyceum took turns lecturing to each other and met in houses, churches, and schools.
Although lyceums flourished most in New England, by 1839 four to five thousand had popped up as far south as Florida and as far west as Detroit. Easterners flocked west and brought the lyceum movement with them. In the South, however, lyceum activity never caught on with the same fervor because southern aristocrats feared that education of poor whites and slaves would damage the economy. Also, the South lacked a large middle class, the main patronage of lyceums.
As lyceums grew in number and attendance, lecturing became a profession for some traveling teachers who collected fees for their speeches. Lyceums attracted famous writers, historians, explorers, and religious philosophers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Wendell Phillips, and Horace Greeley.
In the early twentieth century, lyceums slowly died out, but the lyceums’ lasting effects are visible even today. First, the teaching profession raised its standards for teachers and students, and teachers became more widely appreciated. The lyceum movement also brought about state control over education.
Josiah Holbrook’s vision of lyceums spreading knowledge to young and old, male and female was a resounding success, the Lyceum Movement lives on in the changes it brought about in American public education.
The Lyceum movement in the 21st Century
The Lyceum Academy, Wilmington, NC
A school within a school, the Lyceum fosters a thoughtful place where a community of learners (both teachers and students) develops essential habits of mind.
A fully integrated, multidisciplinary curriculum is at the heart of the Academy with each unit of study drawing upon all four core disciplines: English, Math, Science and Social Studies. This two-year program allows the faculty to develop a strong advisor/advisee relationship since they will not only serve as instructors, but they will also assume homeroom responsibilities for these students as well.
Assessments will require students to demonstrate their mastery of both knowledge and intellectual skills. These demonstrations are multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary. In essence, students offer evidence in portfolios and oral presentations that prove their acquisition and application of essential knowledge.
This, however, does not mean a complete abandonment of traditional testing. Because these students are college-bound, test-taking skills will be important to their future successes. Pencil and paper tests are still utilized, but they no longer serve as the primary indicator of a student’s success.
Students attend the Lyceum from 7:30 AM until 11:40 AM on traditional school days. After Lyceum, students are released to take electives. This is crucial to provide them the opportunity to take not only a foreign language, but to mix with their other classmates as well. While we believe that group cohesiveness will be an important factor in the success of the Lyceum, we also believe that it is important that the students not become isolated.
The Lyceum Academy is neither ordinary nor elitist. It is a rigorous, interdisciplinary program designed for the adventuresome student in pursuit of an academic journey “off the beaten path”. Due to the nature of our program, The Lyceum has abandoned the block scheduling approach in favor of year long classes in order to provide more comprehensive and challenging coursework.
While most schools offer AP and Honors classes, the Lyceum goes beyond that by also integrating these courses through projects, oral presentations, and travel opportunities.
After enrolling them in public school, we never really thought much about educational philosophy anymore. It wasn’t until recently that we began to realize that even within public education, parents need to be aware of the educational philosophy of the person running the building in which their child is attending school.
Recently a commenter who posts regularly to local blogs, raised the question of the educational philosophy of the new Superintendent, which piqued my curiosity, as it is a good question.
In my quest to assuage my curiosity about the new administration’s educational philosophy, I began to realize that not only does the Superintendent have a philosophy; so does the Assistant Superintendent, the Director of Curriculum, the principals and each individual teacher. But that's okay, because there is room for more than one educational philosophy in a school district.
There are many philosophies of education; one that I found particularly interesting was the philosophy behind the Lyceum Movement. The Lyceum Movement started in the 19th century in the United States to foster adult education. It took its name from the Lyceum, a school near Athens where the Greek philosopher Aristotle lectured to students.
The movement promoted adult education through lectures and debates in which several transcendentalists participated. The movement also promoted activities to encourage the building of libraries and general participation in other reform movements.
The Lyceum Movement in the 18th CenturyThe lyceum movement was conceived by Josiah Holbrook in New England in the 1820s. Holbrook, born in Derby, Connecticut, and graduated from Yale in 1810, became a traveling lecturer who first spoke on science and technology, then formed industrial and agricultural schools for young men. Holbrook intended the lyceum to be a local study group which met at weekly intervals. He based his lyceums on the belief that education should continue all through life, regardless of age and gender, and that learning helps stave off the temptation of alcohol.
Besides the goal of education, lyceums also promoted the establishment of libraries, museums, and public schools. Holbrook and other lyceum devotees believed that universal, free education could right the illnesses of society, preserve democracy, and dissolve the oppressive caste system.Most lyceum experts agree that the early days of lyceums, before the Civil War, were the most education-oriented. In these first days, the members of the lyceum took turns lecturing to each other and met in houses, churches, and schools.
Although lyceums flourished most in New England, by 1839 four to five thousand had popped up as far south as Florida and as far west as Detroit. Easterners flocked west and brought the lyceum movement with them. In the South, however, lyceum activity never caught on with the same fervor because southern aristocrats feared that education of poor whites and slaves would damage the economy. Also, the South lacked a large middle class, the main patronage of lyceums.
As lyceums grew in number and attendance, lecturing became a profession for some traveling teachers who collected fees for their speeches. Lyceums attracted famous writers, historians, explorers, and religious philosophers including Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Wendell Phillips, and Horace Greeley.In the early twentieth century, lyceums slowly died out, but the lyceums’ lasting effects are visible even today. First, the teaching profession raised its standards for teachers and students, and teachers became more widely appreciated. The lyceum movement also brought about state control over education.
Josiah Holbrook’s vision of lyceums spreading knowledge to young and old, male and female was a resounding success, the Lyceum Movement lives on in the changes it brought about in American public education.
The Lyceum movement in the 21st Century
The Lyceum Academy, Wilmington, NCA school within a school, the Lyceum fosters a thoughtful place where a community of learners (both teachers and students) develops essential habits of mind.
A fully integrated, multidisciplinary curriculum is at the heart of the Academy with each unit of study drawing upon all four core disciplines: English, Math, Science and Social Studies. This two-year program allows the faculty to develop a strong advisor/advisee relationship since they will not only serve as instructors, but they will also assume homeroom responsibilities for these students as well.
Assessments will require students to demonstrate their mastery of both knowledge and intellectual skills. These demonstrations are multi-dimensional and multi-disciplinary. In essence, students offer evidence in portfolios and oral presentations that prove their acquisition and application of essential knowledge.
This, however, does not mean a complete abandonment of traditional testing. Because these students are college-bound, test-taking skills will be important to their future successes. Pencil and paper tests are still utilized, but they no longer serve as the primary indicator of a student’s success.
Students attend the Lyceum from 7:30 AM until 11:40 AM on traditional school days. After Lyceum, students are released to take electives. This is crucial to provide them the opportunity to take not only a foreign language, but to mix with their other classmates as well. While we believe that group cohesiveness will be an important factor in the success of the Lyceum, we also believe that it is important that the students not become isolated.
The Lyceum Academy is neither ordinary nor elitist. It is a rigorous, interdisciplinary program designed for the adventuresome student in pursuit of an academic journey “off the beaten path”. Due to the nature of our program, The Lyceum has abandoned the block scheduling approach in favor of year long classes in order to provide more comprehensive and challenging coursework.
While most schools offer AP and Honors classes, the Lyceum goes beyond that by also integrating these courses through projects, oral presentations, and travel opportunities.
10 comments:
On the adult side, I've always thought it would be fun to host salons like the French, inviting artists and musicians and authors and talking about big ideas. :)
In high school I attended a program similar to the Lyceum in the mornings. It was indeed a fantastic way to learn.
The educational philosophy of a school is huge driver, if it fact, it is clearly articulated and put into practice.
The Mission Statement of my children's school is to embrace a curriculum that "inspires students to inquire, reflect, and choose to compassionately impact the world throughout their lives."
I think it is clear inside and outside the classroom that this is the mission. In other words, the school walks the talk.
This evening, for my daughter's
9th grade homework assignment, she had to consider the issue of what the pros and cons are of globalization.
Unfortunately, all philosophies that advocated educating young people with an emphasis on the liberal arts have been "kicked off the bus" by the NCLB philosophy, which is that learning the basics is as far as teachers need to go. Ask how much time is spent pulling out the top students (taking them out of their classes) to bone up on these basic skills. Administrators know that there is no hope for pulling up the scores of the students who are really "behind," therefore, they do everything they can do to see that the top students pull up the scores of the whole school. NCLB is putting the whole burden on the backs of the top students and is doing nothing to improve the bottom third. NCLB tests the school, not the students--so we shouldn't be surprised that the schools are doing everything to make themselves "look" good. There is little benefit in NCLB for children. In the past, I would never, never have encouraged parents to put their students in private schools--today the greatest benefit is that there is no NCLB testing. The same goes for teachers--why put yourselves through this NCLB rigor and be discouraged from really teaching
Sharon, I don't follow you on this part:
"they do everything they can do to see that the top students pull up the scores of the whole school."
It seems to me that NCLB has a focus on making sure that all kids are meeting or exceeding goals. They primarily measure that by describing what percentage of students meet or exceed goals. Thus, once a child meets goals, there is little effort for that same child to exceed those goals. The top students already meet/exceed, so if they improve their scores, that doesn't really help the NCLB numbers.
Think of it this way. If we assume 70 is a "meets" goal, and we have 2 students at 60 and two students at 80, then we have 50% meeting/exceeding goals. If we test again, and those grades become 2 at 60 and 2 at 90 (an improvement for half of the students of 10 percentage points - but only from the top half) then we still have 50% meets/exceeds. However, if instead we had a 10 point improvement for the lower half, we would have had scores of 2 at 70 and 2 at 80. In that latter case, we have 100% meeting/exceeding goals.
Arguably, the focus is on 1) getting those students who do not meet goals up to the passing level and 2) ensuring that the kids who are meeting goals stay there.
Now, when looking at school report cards, I do look at the breakdown of meets/exceeds. You can have two districts who both are at 80% meets/exceeds, but one district can have a much higher percentage of that group in the "exceeds" category.
And Laura, that French salon would fit in nicely on our Riverfront.
The Lyceum program seems like the kind of program where students who love learning can thrive and grow. Getting opportunities to take critical levels of thinking outside of the classroom and into the real world is what is so sorely lacking in education today. I tend to believe that more children could potentially excel in this type of program, than would fail. Sounds wonderful
Jon, I posted a rather long response to your last comment--but it disappeared (I thought the yellow acceptance strip had appeared). Therefore, I will try to write a shorter version. Yes, you are right--as soon as I hit the button for my earlier post, I realized I had erred in saying that the focus was on the top students. Rather the focus is on the middle group--the students just below the line. They are the ones pulled out of classes, etc., to hone up their NCLB skills and, consequently, lose out on the liberal arts "extras" in their classes that are already geared more to the basics because of NCLB. If Dr. Lathan follows through on her stated goals of more magnet schools, District 150 will continually be pulling out the top students from the lower performing schools--so District 150 (which is already well on the way) will become a district of a few top skills and more failing schools.
It makes sense that all educators are encouraged to develop an educational philosophy statement. I would be curious to see how educational professionals learn to mesh their philosophy with the philosophy of the district and/or principals they work for.
I would think that the fire may go out for a teacher if their educational philosophy is not what their particular school or district needs.
Well, Emerge, than that is where proper employment screening by a school comes in. Teachers and administrators should be a “good fit” for the mission and objectives of the school or else they should not be there. The philosophy/mission should be established by the Board in conjunction with the Superintendent and should not be a “flavor of the month” chant but an idea that is engrained in all staff and woven through the curriculum.
I just attended Back to School night where I met my children’s teachers. It was clear when the literature/composition teacher and the geography/history teacher spoke about the content of their classes that there was concentration of topics related to the mission statement of the school.
I understand that District 150 may have students of a different academic makeup and background but the message doesn’t really have to be all that different – it is about developing students to be citizens that are prepared to take care of themselves and help out others in their community along the way.
Frankly, I think the teachers in District 150 are fairly united in their mission and philosophy. The board and administration are more apt to pick up on "flavors of the month," etc. First of all, whatever the philosophy, the textbooks chosen for the district determine what is to be taught. The how is more or less a personal thing--it is the how that probably determines whether a teacher is good or bad. Personally, if I had to declare my own philosophy, I think that it was to try to assess where my students were in their educational development and to plan and teach to make every attempt to present material so that they could understand it. In so doing, my goal was to let the students know that I cared about them amd wanted them to learn. Because I taught literature, my goal was to find a way to find life lessons in the literature--literature is a great way to teach students the lessons Frustrated just mentioned. Mostly, I think just devoting time to kids--talking to them, being honest with them, etc., is better than any teaching methods of the moment. Administrators should be able to recognize the teachers who really care about kids (and they aren't necessarily, if at all, the ones who let kids get away with bad behaviors).
Now, how about an introduction to the "philosophy" of Workforce Education?
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