STEM to STEAM
STEM schools - Where's the Art? on the Nature Consortium blog.
Tuesday Open Thread
The speaker list is up for the Board meeting tomorrow; not as packed as I thought with just four people on the waitlist. The majority of the speakers are speaking on high school boundaries (with several wanting to talk about Ballard High). There are only three of us speaking about the Green Dot resolution asking the City to not grant the zoning departures that Green Dot has requested. It's me, long-time watchdog, Chris Jackins, and the head of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, Patrick D'Amelio. (I knew Mr. D'Amelio when he headed the Alliance for Education and Big Brothers and Big Sisters; he's a stand-up guy.)
Comments
observer
You are not too far from the truth there....
You forgot the free transportation thing (correct if I'm wrong).
All kids deserve a WHOLE education!!!
TS
The school also has an excellent academic program with incredible math & science. Fast-forward 4 years, and my "arts kid" is now accepted to five colleges (so far) as a Chemistry major! She's still artsy (vocal choir and graphic design/illustration/B&W photography), but she's also taking Advanced Chemistry, Calculus and Physics this year.
The arts are an essential component of a whole person. Schools need to offer a wide assortment of courses to all kids. We need the funding and the will to do this—not just churn our the job-skill du jour!
Solvay Girl
I'm trying to get around that for my artsy (but academic) kid by signing her up (and often paying) for classes that would be electives if SPS had a seven period day (writing, painting, choir.) I guess, in theory, I could sign her up for language or science outside of school, but that seems more difficult to do. (And paying for two or three classes a year is much less expensive than private school.)
This size came with some serious benefits. One of them was a broad range of class choices. Imagine if Roosevelt and Hale were one school with all of the choices of each of them.
The range of classes available is dependent, to a significant degree, on the size of the school.
Schools need to produce well rounded citizens. They aren't job or career training academies, and I wish we'd get off that bandwagon and broaden our minds on the subject.
If you want to push your kids into STEM or have them there because they like, or more likely, do better academically in math, science or computers than with reading & writing, that's fine. But they have to learn to function within a greater society that may have no interest in their passions, but still share the planet with them.
We all want our kids to get great jobs someday, and with a good education, and perhaps even more important, the ability to be good, functional, productive citizens in ways other than making and spending money, I think they'll be better adjusted, happier, and wiser than most of us.
We should not be encouraging and fostering too narrow a life experience for our kids. They need to know how the other side lives, and, btw, isn't that called "diversity?"
And what's with this WV "analyrem152" - I beg it's pardon. WSDWG
Ingraham and the other IB schools can get around this to some extent because getting the IB diploma lets you off the hook for some District and state graduation requirements, but at the standard comprehensive HSs it's now harder to fit elective advanced classes in unless you come in from APP and have taken some of your HS credits in MS.
I think Charlie and Maureen are onto something with larger comprehensive schools with more options and more periods during the day. That's ideal for the kid who is still finding their passion. But a kid who knows what they want to do should be allowed to pursue that while they're still motivated. One size fits all is not diversity. It's quite the opposite.
Aren't we really suffering from narrowed options because of poor capacity management? If we weren't so crunched for space and dealing with overcrowding, we could be expanding our offerings all over the place it seems to me.
The problem I see in such a crammed, poorly managed environment is that, instead of expanding offerings, we have to trade one for another, creating winners and losers. Imagine the effect on all our high schools if Lincoln was open today, for example.
The WS Stem folk are pushing for a STEM HS at WS High, when Cleveland is right across the bridge. I dont' want to see the neighborhood kids forced to go to a specialized school if they don't want to. As I see it, that's what alts and option schools exist for. Wouldn't you agree? WSDWG
Boy-O-Boy did we need this levy.
Now that so much is available through the internet, I do not understand why we cannot offer much more (at least in the way of languages, engineering, math and sciences) to all kids -- at all schools.
I DO agree, though, that it is time to get rid of a lot of the baggage that we require of high school kids (health, PE requirements that prevent some from fulfilling that requirement outside of school), oc ed requirements, regardless of whether you need those class hours for AP physics and chemistry, etc. And as many have pointed out -- with such a wealth of opportunities and so little time -- we desperately need to STOP wasting our kids' time with testing (to the extent it is meaningless, which certainly includes MAP), class days with 20 minute periods that deliver no academic value, but require that kids slog through them when they could be reading, practicing an instrument, learning Latin, taking a computer class, etc. Not all kids are ready in high school to be really serious learners (and that is not the end of the world-- there is still time). But many are -- and we insult their, and our, intelligence by squandering their (and our) time, energy, and passion with academic drivel.
You want to see tomorrow's kids really rise up and take the future by its horns? Treat them like their time, their dreams, and their hard work matters.
We don't really teach citizenship now at our high schools, and there's no reason it couldn't be covered at least as well in a more specialized school.
And, yeah, we need more space and/or more periods, and I'm very glad the levy is passing.
Crap! I didn't have to declare my major until end of my sophomore year in college!
What?! We'll ask the grandparents to pick what their children will pick for the grandchildren?!
All I can say is, poor math preparation (due in part to my misguided aspirations in HS) meant college was more painful, but not undo-able. Let today's children get a broad education....
K5STEM Mom
The truth is that, when we account for poverty, our middle-class and above kids are on par with the world's best. And do you really think China is honest about it's numbers, participation rates in testing, and other aspects of it's educational system?
I know plenty of unemployed tech folk who have been replaced by outsourcing, or importation of cheaper labor. Hence, my constant warnings about the Grapes of Wrath scenarios.
That said, I think STEM is great for the kids who want it, and the families they come from. I'm glad we have it as one more logical choice for families in West Seattle. But I don't want it to be sucked and manipulated into the district's age old games of picking winners and losers, where "demand for STEM" becomes a club against another school community. A STEM academy within a comprehensive school, or a pathway to a particular school? Fantastic. But a decentralized STEM HS displacing a comprehensive, take all comers HS, like some WS STEM parents are pushing for? We don't need that. And be careful what you wish for, too. Remember: The primary reason WS STEM got started was to relieve pressure from overcrowded schools, not from careful planning. That's its going well, just like the APP/IB at Ingraham, is a testament to the families and staff at the school doing excellent work, not SPS brilliant planning. (But they'll take credit).
As with many other special programs, MS and HS are the place where all those backgrounds can come together and thrive. Maybe the first serious arts some kids might get is in MS or HS. But most kids will get tired of being with only like-minded folk by 7th or 8th grade, and will want to diverge off into other areas, watch or play sports, engage in music, etc.
As for WS High, there is no reason it is not one of the top two or three schools in the district, but for mismanagement and the wrong leadership, often at odds with it's surrounding community. Heck, if WS High was as good as it should be already, it would be full and we wouldn't be having this conversation.
But always be careful what you wish for with SPS. If folks get too hot on the idea of an all STEM HS, the next words you might hear from SPS are: Welcome to Rainier Beach, or Cleveland! That may be fine for some, as Cleveland is close, but I'll bet many families would balk at that, not wanting their kids to go outside WS.
WSDWG
K5STEM Mom