R.I.P. Theodore Sizer - We have lost a great progressive voice

Last week Ted Sizer passed away.

Sizer was the youngest dean of the Harvard graduate school of education in history and one of the great voices of progressive education. He was a sometime adviser of mine and friend of my parents. He took the idea of school design seriously and believed that the physical plant and the daily schedule were high on the list of design priorities. More importantly, Sizer, through his books and the Coalition of Essential Schools, which he founded, promoted a vision of schooling in which students engage practical, experiential learning that is not bounded by artificial subject lines and the ringing of bells, but instead features students engaging in deep and multifaceted investigations, pursuing challenging ideas to their limits and performing public displays of knowledge and insight.

As I have written, I increasingly, see serious danger in where progressives have drawn their lines in the sand. In health care we are arguing over a pathetic public option instead of talking about actually taking care of all of our people like most of the more civilized nations do.

In education, we've drawn a line at a very conservative product of the charter schools--No Excuses schools. Arnie duncan, newt gingrich, and al sharpton all agree, the KIPPs and Uncommon Schools are the way to go.

Really!? I could brainwash kids with chants and token economies into doing anything I want, but neat rows, mantras, drill and kill test practice--none of these things is going to make my students savvy, informed, competent, problem-solving human beings. Where is it, exactly, in this model that students learn the hard work of thinking? Where do they learn how to decide to do what is right?

Ted Sizer believed that rather than making students do the same things as each other, rather than regimenting and organizing them in rows and hoping that they come out just the same on the other side, we should honor the individual student. We should help her find her passions and interests. We should help her learn how to approach complex, unstructured problems and tackle them from a variety of angles. We will dearly miss Sizer, he believed in mentoring transformative 21st century minds, not drilling 20th century line workers.

R.I.P. Ted Sizer, I hope the progressive learning movement survives your loss.

check out the Eagle Rock school to see the kind of learning I'm talking about.