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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rambi who wrote (78545)	11/3/2003 12:11:11 AM
From: The Philosopher	Respond to of 82486

That's a neat article. As it happens, our school district has a "remote and necessary" (that's the phrase in state law) one room schoohouse on Stuart Island, an island which has perhaps 20 year round families, and I think at present has six students, though one famous year it had twelve and they had to get a part-time aide. It's a challenge to get teachers willing to move to a non-ferry-served island where the only access is by private boat, there is no electricity except what you generate by your own generator (and remember that propane or gasoline to fuel the generator has to be brought by private boat or barge), there is nowhere to go in the evening except to visit with neighbors, and until the advent of cell phones the only communication with the rest of the county was by ham radio. I do think there are things that a somewhat larger school can offer, though. The ideal is perhaps some compromise of these. Maybe something like small one-room schoolhouse buildings grouped on a compound that allows sharing of some activities such as sports, drama, choir, band, but where each classroom has students of several grades at least. One thing I have long advocated is doing away entirely with the concept of age-controlled grades. Have perhaps three sections in elementary/middle school -- primary, intermediate, and advanced. A student starts in primary, and spends as long as they need there until they have mastered what they need to know to move up. That might be reading to a certain level, math to a certain level of proficency, and some other measures. It might take some students two years, others three or four or five. Then when they are ready, they advance to intermediate. They spend as long there as they need to to meet the requirements to move up, and when they are ready, they move up. Perhaps there are four times a year when students could change groups. When they have mastered the advanced work, they graduate to high school and start taking more specific courses. They might enter high school anywhere from, say, 9 or 10 up to 17 or 18. Whatever it takes for that individual student. Something along these lines has always attracted me as an idea which somebody somewhere should try.