Online Content

1. Brown, Gordon S., "Improving Education In Public Schools: Innovative Teachers to the Rescue"

Type:
Document
Date Created:
1990
Collection:
System Dynamic Society Records
Collecting Area:
University Archives
Collection ID:
ua435
Parent Record(s):
23d738ba88f8333bc39725f9cb5bd0b8, e3ebd4855fa658877b17f518e29a6ac9, and 386b7d5fcd17a644199db727913a7a7a
Thumbnail Path Ss:
/downloads/1257b9759?file=thumbnail
System Modified Dtsi:
2020-01-02T18:44:05Z
Description:
This paper addresses the widespread belief that today’s public schools are not preparing our youth to conquer the problems of tomorrow. Although there is consensus within both academia and business that the need for reform is urgent, there is no generally accepted strategy for achieving improvement, nor is money to finance the job readily available. Creative ideas by great teachers are certainly the nucleus for reform, and, contrary to common opinion, there are many good ideas, and many great teachers.But teachers are not the only players. All schools are dynamic systems of great complexity. Unfortunately, many essential features of school-system structures are poorly understood. As a result, well intended attempts at reform since World War II have often merely tweaked the system rather than implanting permanent improvement. Most proposals have focused on more math, more science, longer school days or more homework, without understanding why there is such small yield from what already exists in the schools. This author believes that only by a major restructuring of the relations between student and teacher, by the adoption of a new paradigm for the teaching-learning process, and by the introduction of much modern technology into the classroom, will our schools fulfill the demands that the future will make on students.The restructuring program, described herein has been carried out in the Orange Grove Middle School in the Catalina Foothills School Districts (CFSD), Tucson, Arizona.