In Monday's Class Struggle, Jay Matthews posted an article entitled Boosting Schools' Value Without Spending a Dime. The list, which included seven ways to improve schools without spending, emphasized the act of reading. In fact, it's at the beginning, middle and end of the list. Here's an excerpt.
1. Replace elementary school homework with free reading. Throw away the expensive take-home textbooks, the boring worksheets and the fiendish make-a-log-cabin-out-of-Tootsie-Rolls projects. One of the clearest (and most ignored) findings of educational research is that elementary students who do lots of homework don't learn more than students who do none.It's a great piece with some very creative ideas. Go now and read the article in its entirety. Check out the comments too for some additional suggestions.
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5. Have every high school student read at least one nonfiction book before graduation. I am not talking about textbooks.
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7. Furlough everybody -- including teachers, students and parents -- for an unpaid national reading holiday.
I like number five. I never read a non-fiction book until I was out of my teens... and then I discovered I LOVE them. You can learn the wildest things--how to analyze handwriting, what happiness means in different cultures. It's the best way to continue a life-long education.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link!
Parker P.
I couldn't agree more with #5! High school students, actually all students, need more experiences with well written nonfiction!
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