A paradigm shift from the cut and dried, test-based K-12 school system to a more liberal, free-flowing learning environment is underway in some North Carolina schools. The quiet revolution, known as “choice in the classroom,” is creating reform meant to bolster students’ self-esteem, personal motivation, and happiness by addressing their social, emotional, intellectual, and physical needs.

Dr. William Glasser, psychiatrist and author of many books, including Unhappy Teenagers, A Way for Parents and Teachers to Reach Them, said the revolution moves away from a system that relies on authoritarian practices and coercion to one that uses cooperation, collaboration, and self-regulatory skills in the classroom. “Teaching is a hard job when students make an effort to learn. When they make no effort, it is an impossible one. Students cannot be coerced to learn, nor can they be forced to behave in a certain manner. The choice of how to behave is just that, ‘a choice.’ What education needs to do is to teach students how to make better choices.”

Responsibility training for students

One way to achieve this, Glasser said, is through responsibility training. The training gives students a step-by-step understanding of the factors influencing their behavior, a way to process the information, and the ability to take control over their own lives, he said.

In an article on how engaged children are in learning, co-written by Dr. Wendy McCloskey, a member of SERVE, an outreach division of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Dr. Judith Meece, professor at the School of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the writers found “schools and teachers can encourage or discourage student responsibility for, and interest in, learning through the ways in which they structure the learning environment.”

The authors said the best schools are innovative ones that go through a process of self-evaluation centered around the development of a culture of motivation, basic skills and active, life-long learners out of their students.

McCloskey and Meese also said these schools take site-based management seriously and hold themselves accountable for student outcomes that go beyond state-mandated test scores. “The success of many of these schools in helping students to perform at high levels is in part due to their commitment to engaging student motivation,” they wrote. “They care about getting the conditions right that foster students’ commitment to the learning process. These students demonstrate that fostering motivation to learn is a worthy goal that pays rich dividends.”

Tailoring the classroom

Dr. Lisa Horne, principal of Konnoak Elementary School in Winston-Salem, said her institution puts students first. She said this ideal requires thinking outside the box and gives teachers the opportunity to tailor the classroom to students’ needs.

Whether it’s a multi- or non-graded classroom made up of various age groups of children, looping or having a teacher follow their children up through the grades, transition classes intended to help retained children catch up with their classmates, or other creative programs, Horn said the school is willing to try many approaches to help each child succeed. “It’s a good school,” she said. “We do have some interesting programs going on here. I think anything you do that is exciting to the students is help. We hope it keeps a love for learning for the child. That’s why we do it.”

Although schools similar to Konnoak Elementary appear to be on the right track, many other schools, especially ones following Glasser’s and other liberal thinkers, can fail when they force the teaching pendulum to swing too far from the ultra academic “teaching to the test” mode to “there are no wrong answers” environment.

These permissive class environments or learning communities that Glasser condones allow each child to choose and design his own learning tasks, choose how to complete his assignments, correct his own work, and determine the grading criteria.

This approach was tried more than a decade ago on the West Coast. California is often the first to try new and innovative teaching methods before they are embraced by the rest of America. Often, however, the new methods fail. The ailing programs, still, are tried and ultimately discarded by educators on the East Coast.

In the early 1990s, Piner High School in Santa Rosa educators decided to facilitate five small, autonomous, themed learning communities under one high school roof. It was hoped the new program would be a magic bullet that would build the self-esteem of youths. In turn, it was hoped the new program would minimize achievement gaps, lower dropout rates and drug usage, and solve other lingering problems at the high school.

At first the new learning method appeared to be successful. By the mid-1990s the school was touted as cutting-edge by many media sources. Writer Kathleen Cushman said the essential learning communities at Piner was a place where “energized students and staff and reoriented class work around meaningful community projects. Every Piner student now joins one of five mini-schools that shape their own themes, strategies, schedule and governance.”

Running wild at Piner

In reality, however, the method was a failure. Jessica Meyer, a 1997 Piner graduate, said the program provided no accountability and allowed many students a free ride through high school. “It was a nightmare,” she said. “It was not a good system. It might have been a good school on paper, but it wasn’t in reality. It just didn’t work. No one was governing a basic level of what you should know when you graduate. There was no regulation there. For many it was a great time — four years of partying and playing around. They didn’t learn a thing.”

The program was terminated in 1999 by the Santa Rosa School Board.

Richard Thompson, vice president for the University of North Carolina School Programs in the Office of the President, is in charge of monitoring all teaching trends for grades K-12 in the state. The new movement doesn’t take teachers away from required North Carolina standards and tests, Thompson said. Instead, it embraces creativity in the classroom. “I do see an emphasis on teacher quality and creativity and knowing each child,” Thompson said. “Teachers are moving away from the rigid manner of teaching to the test. They are not abandoning standards, but are trying to be reasonable. They are trying to boost creativity. They want young people to think and excel.”

Welsh is a contributing editor for Carolina Journal.