Read an Excerpt
Chapter One
What Building Is Drab-Looking, Has Gates All Around It, with Bells Ringing All the Time? (Hint: It’s Not a Prison)
When you enter a hotel lobby or the reception area of a restaurant, the first impression is extremely important. What is your first impression upon entering a public school? Is it inviting, does it put a smile on your face, make you comfortable, stir your imagination? Actually, quite the opposite. And people wonder why kids hate school.
What a shame that each school morning forty-seven million children are dropped off at a place where they spend most of their waking youth in buildings that are often bleak, fostering the attitude that school is a prison.
Why can’t America’s schools be designed with architectural flair? Wouldn’t children want to be at a place that is pleasing to the eye rather than institutional beige–painted warehouses?
We can’t just warehouse kids, but need to truly house them. Children deserve imaginative environments that allow their minds to contemplate, places where their spirits can soar. Why is it okay for children to go to schools where toilets and water fountains are not working properly? Why is it okay for students to be corralled into overcrowded classrooms? Why is it okay for students to spend up to ten hours a day on campuses that resemble fortresses? Just what kind of community does America want for its children?
In California, because of one parent’s complaints that led to a landmark legal decision against the state in 2004, commonly referred to as the Williams case, every school must provide sufficient textbooks for its students and a clean and safe facility.Imagine that.
It took a lawsuit to guarantee that each student had a book and that each school had a properly running toilet. Wow!
And even when there is a new building, problems arise. Since districts typically go with the lowest bidder, shoddy construction ensues. At the school where I teach, all the air-conditioning units had to be replaced, and all the carpeting pulled out, within the first three years after construction.
Let’s compare how closely schools resemble prisons—and at a lot less cost, too:
Who holds the keys in a prison? Guards. Who holds the keys in a school? Teachers. And just as guards turn their keys in before the end of the day, teachers likewise have to do the same at the end of the school year.
And think about the kids living in urban centers. They attend institutions that resemble the places where some of their friends or family members reside. Even the word "institution" can be used interchangeably with a prison as well as a school.
Another example of how schools resemble prisons is the tardy sweeps many secondary schools employ. A tardy sweep is when administrators and security personnel branch out (like throwing out a net) around the campus to catch wandering students who are out and about after the tardy bell rings. Teachers are to lock their doors when the bell rings to prevent students from gaining entrance to classrooms. Hmm, similar to a prison lockdown, right?
Struggling students need an aesthetic boost to their sensibilities more than the self-motivated ones do. Inner-city schools tend to be larger, staffed with less-experienced teachers, are maintained less, have less parent involvement, and—bingo!—have higher dropout rates. Minority students have more negative feelings about school than white children. No kidding.
When they go from poor living conditions to a ramshackle school, how can their spirits be lifted? Why should they go to school and work hard if they are ensconced in depressing surroundings? No wonder these kids don’t achieve at a higher level.
Children living in poverty should be attending Taj Mahal–like education settings. We should be inspiring these children, not depressing them.
Recently, some schools have attempted to be innovative and imaginative.
When architect Daniel Cecil designed the Kennebunk Elementary School in Kennebunk, Maine, winning the 2005 Design-Share Recognized Value Award, he purposely imagined the school with a child-size perspective. Everything from windows to doorknobs is at a child’s height level. Images of children at play are placed throughout.
North-Grand High School in northwest Chicago, where 90 percent of students are Latino and 90 percent of students graduate, features a two-story atrium, a culinary program, engineering and medical classes, and an indoor swimming pool. An Edutopia article on the facility comments that "so much natural light pours into North-Grand that energy costs are significantly reduced, but the oversize windows are designed to prevent glare, which cuts down on air-conditioning costs." Design director Trung Le said that "from a psychological standpoint, a transparent school filled with natural daylight will improve security." So often schools go unused after 3:00 P.M. However, North-Grand High serves the community in the evenings and on weekends.
Many new schools consider environmental issues in their design. The nonprofit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) issues LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, a seal of approval for a green school. Since 2002, over thirty K–12 schools located from Massachusetts to Oregon have such recognition; close to three hundred have applied for it.
Common components of a green school include a system for collecting rainwater for reuse in toilets and landscaping, a roof where plants are grown that serve as not only insulation but as botany lessons, and windows that are glare-proof to cut down on electricity use.
USGBC’s vice president Peter Templeton told Edutopia that "we want to create the optimum environment for learning, one that ensures students can concentrate and be free from distractions." And what are the distractions? "Mold, bad air quality and circulation, which often cause drowsiness, and inadequate lighting, known to hamper learning by diminishing a child’s ability to concentrate."
One of the schools receiving a LEED certificate is Tarkington Elementary School on Chicago’s southwest side with its use of lowtoxic paint and caulking. The school’s lights have sensors that adjust to the natural light flowing into the building.
Although Tarkington cost 6 percent more to build than a non-green school, its environmentally friendly design paid for itself within a few years, according to a 2003 study conducted for California’s Sustainable Building Task Force.
Would brightly colored buildings with more natural light and ventilation boost test scores? The California Board for Energy Efficiency discovered that they do. Test scores rose as much as 26 percent when compared to scores achieved in classrooms with the least amount of natural light. Plus, energy bills decreased.
Clearview Elementary School in Hanover, Pennsylvania, uses 40 percent less energy than a more conventionally built school. So how much more did it cost to build? $150,000 more. However, the school is saving about $18,000 a year in energy costs, so the added initial expense will be paid for within nine years. Therefore, not only does energy get conserved, but the district saves money, and the students do better academically. Would that be called a win-win-win situation?
Here’s a helpful hint when building new schools. Whatever the standard may be for the size of classrooms and the width of hallways, double them. Yes, space costs money. However, squeezing thirty-five to forty students in rooms equipped for twenty to twenty-five doesn’t make any sense. And as kids get older and bigger, they need more space to pass by one another, especially when carrying forty-pound backpacks. Why increase the likelihood of conflict by having students brush up against each other, especially when they are frantically trying to get to their next class in five minutes?
Also, why not provide students with comfortable chairs? In over one hundred years we’ve progressed from stiff wooden chairs to stiff plastic ones. How many years now has the private sector shopped for ergonomically correct furniture for their offices? It’s common sense that if an individual is physically comfortable sitting, the likelihood of that person performing well will increase.
Once a student-friendly building is in place, children should be taught to respect their school and view it as a haven away from the rest of the world. If students believed that school was a fun and safe place to be, they would be less likely to litter or vandalize school property.
And protecting the campus is a major concern these days. Officials in a school district outside Fort Worth, Texas, had their own idea of protecting students when they paid for training that instructed teachers and students to throw any object at a gun-toting attacker. It only took eighteen months for the district to come to their senses and stop the program.
Another brilliant idea of keeping students safe came from Bill Crozier, a Republican candidate for state superintendent of schools in Oklahoma, who recommended that students use thick textbooks to deflect bullets during school shootings. He lost the election. I wonder why?
Once the physical plant presents a pleasing air, the adults working there need to foster a nurturing environment and not push kids away with their dictatorial, controlling attitude.
Students are bombarded with negatively worded messages from administrators broadcast throughout the entire school over the PA system, poisoning the environment. "Get to class on time!" "Any student found with a cell phone will have it confiscated!" "Students not following directions will face severe consequences!"
While these messages only pertain to a low percentage of students, all students hear the negativity and rarely get recognized for their part in doing what is expected of them. I wouldn’t want that happening to my son or daughter.
In an Education Week piece, Robert Epstein shared a discovery made while researching his book The Case Against Adolescence: Re-discovering the Adult in Every Teen that "teenagers today are subject to ten times as many restrictions as are mainstream adults, to twice as many restrictions as are active-duty U.S. Marines, and even to twice as many restrictions as are incarcerated felons."
The tension and hostility adults have toward young people is frightening. I can’t keep track of how many times I have overheard a teacher or an administrator yell at a student, shouting "Shut up!" at the top of his lungs. And with such histrionics we expect these kids to like school and perform well?
One time an assistant principal was chastising a class for not being quiet and noticed one student who was smiling. In front of everyone present the assistant principal screamed, "You think it’s funny? I’ll teach you the meaning of funny!" That’s not a healthy environment for either the kids or the administrator.
I once observed the librarian strongly reprimanding one student for eating food and not bringing something to read during a silent reading period. "There is no eating in the library. Put that food away," she yelled from across the room. "Get out a book or a magazine, if you know how to read." Such a tactic is not going to encourage this student to do as he is told. He will rebel even further.
Teachers play a role in encouraging a positive atmosphere through what they display in their rooms. Which classroom would you rather have your child in, one where the walls are decorated by student work or by school rules? In one environment students express themselves; in the other, students follow behaviors to stay in line. Having lots of signs with long lists of "don’ts" posted leaves no doubt that student misbehavior is expected.
It reminds me of a posted sign in front of a famous amusement park that greets all incoming customers, NO REFUNDS ON PARKING. Such a screaming notice isn’t that welcoming. You figure there must have been a whole bunch of folks who demanded their money back in order for such warnings to be made.
The adults working at a school need to be firm but at the same time keep their cool. Students who don’t follow rules can be a pain, but there is a reason why adults are in charge and not children—in order to show them how to act, not act like them.
Finally, implementing a mandatory dress code would help make young people understand that school is a place for learning, not for fashion. While I have long opposed the idea of school uniforms in a public school (thousands of kids all dressed alike scares me), having all students follow an outline of proper clothing with a certain color scheme is a nice compromise.
At schools that have such a dress code (not a negatively worded "you will not wear these one hundred items" code but a positively worded one, like "Good grooming contributes to a healthy learning environment"), principals and teachers have found that kids connect better to their schools.
If all kids follow the dress policy Monday through Thursday, then on Friday they can have a casual wear day. However, if even one or two students are found not abiding by the policy, then Casual Dress Friday is canceled. Ahh, the wonders of peer pressure.
Maybe if the students dressed more appropriately, so would the teachers who often come to work as if they are doing a home improvement project. How can an educator look at herself* in the mirror dressed in shorts and flip-flops and conclude, "I’m ready for work"? Would any of us respect our doctor or lawyer dressed that way? Even plumbers have a certain way of dressing for their job.
One first-year teacher I observed was dressed like she was trying to get the part of Sharon Stone’s stand-in in Basic Instinct. That probably was the only way she was able to keep the young boys in her ninth-grade class awake since it was clear she had no idea of a lesson plan. If all teachers dressed professionally, respect for them would increase.
If a solid foundation for an individual is a good education, then that schooling must be done in conditions conducive to maximizing learning. It’s often said that a nation’s most precious resource is its children. If so, then let’s show kids that adults care about them. Build schools like cultural landmarks.
* Because 75 percent of public school teachers are women, I’m using female pronouns when referring to teachers, and since most secondary school principals and superintendents are men, I’m using the male pronouns for them.
Excerpted from Smart Kids, Bad Schools by Brian Crosby
Copyright © 2008 by Brian Crosby
Published in 2008 by Thomas Dunne Books, St. Martin’s Press
All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher
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