Curriculum is more than the textbook that a school uses or the subjects they teach. Curriculum also includes the philosophies and values of an institution. Inlay (2003) remarks that teachers and schools teach values, and this is often seen in the way teachers and students interact with one another. Inlay is the director of a charter middle school, River School, that emphasizes the values of personal and social responsibility. This is done mainly through teachers modeling these values in their own lives and associating everything that goes on in school with character development.
River School teaches personal responsibility by viewing mistakes as chances to learn as opposed to “bad behavior.” The do this by creating a safe environment for students to make mistakes and be held accountable. The ideas of creating safe spaces is not a new one. According to the National Education Association (2017) learning cannot take place if students do not feel safe and welcomed in a classroom. The River School creates safe spaces for learning by constructing learning activities full of choices. When students make a bad choice, it is used as a teachable moment to teach students to own up to their mistakes and how they can fix them. Inlay (2003) emphasizes the fact that the faculty aims to treat the middle school students like adults whether they are acting like an adult or not. Gish and Markham (2013) point out a similar method used in Gish’s classroom that while it is important for students to know the rules and the theory, they must also be coached on how to handle and use this rules. Both Gish and Inlay uses their classrooms as a platform for mentorship and promoting personal responsibility.
Additionally, the River School promotes social responsibility by teaching its students to accept differences and be responsive to one another. Wolk (2013) claims that by designing education to be community-centered, students take an active role in learning and work together to better themselves and the world around them. At the River School, teachers take the questions of students seriously, and both parties practice active listening. This seen most clearly in their process for conflict resolution. Conflict resolution involves asking a third party to mediate, and after each party voices their concerns, the other party repeats the concerns in their own words in order to see the other person’s point of view.
I appreciate the goal of teaching responsibility to middle school students. Responsibility and responsiveness are character qualities I am constantly promoting to my students. One of the reasons why I think the program is successful is because everything is tied back to that. In order for a values curriculum to be successful, it must be highlighted at a school-wide level, not just in individual classrooms. This means that parents are onboard with the curriculum and how it is being implemented as well, and that is a change that does not happen overnight. I am also interested in using a similar method of conflict resolution in my classroom. So many times not listening is the cause of disagreements, and then everything gets blown out of proportion.
While I applaud the work at the River School, I would disagree with some things, especially when it comes to teaching responsibility. Inlay (2013) claims that they “trust in our students' innate ability to make good decisions for themselves” (p 70). As Christians, we know that we cannot trust our flesh to make the right decisions because we are all sinners. Therefore, mistakes still must be punished even if they are used as a learning experience. The River school also allows students to participate in deciding what is a part of the explicit curriculum. There is nothing inherently wrong with giving students a choice but left unchecked it can lead to the student becoming the source of knowledge. With careful planning and alignment with the Bible, I think the values enforced at the River School, could be successfully implemented into a Christian school.
References
Elizabeth Gish, & Paul Markham. (2013). Living well together: Citizenship, education, and moral formation. The Good Society, 22(2), 151-161. doi:10.5325/goodsociety.22.2.0151
Inlay, L. (2003). Values: The implicit curriculum. Educational Leadership,60(6), 69-71.
National Educators Association. (2017). Take the pledge: Safe learning environments for every student. NEA Today, 2017, 1.
Wolk, S. (2013). Reading democracy: Exploring ideas that matter with middle grade and young adult literature. The English Journal, 103(2), 45-51
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