Teaching and Learning

I saw this quotation on Facebook today and it made me think about all the educational reform that is bandied about these days.  Frankly, too much of it focuses on students of any age sitting still and listening.  What they learn that way will soon be dismissed as irrelevant. 
Students will learn more and retain it when they can see information in action, preferably their own actions.  I think one of the attraction of the electronic age students live in is that visual and inter active connection. Students can see and do on Facebook, in games, on their phones, with their e-readers.  I am just like them.  I want pretty pictures and I want to be able to do something with the information,
A state test will not measure that method of teaching.  Tests are set up to be a feedback of memorized facts, at least in so far as they are short answer questions.  Assessing our schools that way means we get exactly what we don't want.  Students learn for the test and then go about their business. 
If we want students engaged in learning data, how to think, how to evaluate and how to create something new, then we need to set different goals--goals that have nothing to do with percentiles and rankings against the national average.
Here is what a day in the life of a student should be.
1.  Arrive at school and check in to yoga class.  Spend 30 minutes in peaceful meditation, breathing and challenging asanas. Alternatively, every other day could be set for cardio vascular training through aerobic dance, Zumba or something like that.
2. Math class.  Students are in age appropriate levels, working with objects that represent numbers, equations, geometric shapes and so on.  They work on paper and figure out how to use physical objects to illustrate the mathematic principle.  Children learning fractions, for example, have shapes that break apart in 4ths, 5th, and 8ths.  They learn how to perform the mathematical functions with fractions and how to move the shapes about to check their work. They experiment with pennies as fractions of a dollar and apply their concepts of fractions to money.
Older students learning triangles set up towers and a light source to figure the hypotenuse instead of relying on a picture in the book. Sure, it is quicker to read it than to apply it, but which way will stick in their memories?
3. English class.  Students read novels, see the related movie and then write or re-write their own versions with different endings.  They act out their own scripts.  The good ones make it to the school assembly. They write reviews of each others work.  Spelling, grammar and punctuation always count.
4. Science class.  Every class has an equal amount of instruction and lab experience. When they write up the lab reports, spelling and grammar count.
5. Music class is performance as a group and as individuals. Students learn new music, practice and perform.  The best ones again are showcased at an assembly.
6. History class.  Students learn about ideas that drive history, events that hide behind battles.  The significances of history is something other than battles and dates.  How do the arts and sciences fit in to the events we call history?  Students create and re-create significant moments in the history of ideas.  They try the experiments, make timelines that show how ideas interrelate, and set up models of the geography that underlies the history. Resource people speak with the classes about their collections or personal experience. Students interview them and write news articles about them. They do dramatic readings of great speeches and important documents. 
7. Foreign language. Students have total immersion in the language using a combination of Rosetta stone type discs and conversation in the class room.  This is combined with culture sampling, films, food and fashion.  They study history from the view point of the other country. They learn about noble prize winners from that nation. They find artists, musicians and actors from that place who may be unknown here.  They read key newspapers from other countries or visit news websites. 
8. Art Class. Students learn how to represent what they see and feel with visual art.  They look at art and create art.   The talking about art grows spontaneously out of the observations and creative work.

Sure, it is more complicated than that.  Sure there are more subjects including computer literacy, keyboard instruction, accounting, and more, but if none of it touches the heart or changes the individual, what good is it?