Dear Ms Reed,
My goal is to eliminate Computer Literacy classes, just as I am
striving to eliminate mathematics, reading and writing classes. I teach
alternative education teens who have been taught that all these skill areas
are isolated, confusing, irrelevant gate keeper classes which prove they're
not as smart as other kids. Therefore at Pine Street Creative Arts
Alternative School, we'll teach all the skills in context of concrete,
hands-on projects.
For example, I'll have teams of students read about, design and
build trebuchet (siege engines combining levers, pendula and slings). They
will get a dose of algebra and statistics when calibrating their engines.
They will learn to browse the web and newsgroups when finding information to
read. They will write about their activities each day. And we'll all have
an absolute ball when we have a water balloon war.
Over the last several years, I have observed that only those
students who create or accept a real task to be done on computers actually
learn enough about the technology to go out in the world and do something.
The kids who merely completed computer literacy class can't use the machines
independently. I am sure some direct instruction is necessary- my students
won't know how to calculate the ballistic track of their trebuchet water
balloons until I show them how. The crucial first step is for the learner
to have decided she has a need or desire to learn. My responsibility as a
teacher is to provide a vast smorgasborg of topics for enthusiasm and then
provide the skills, knowledge and resources the student needs to pursue her
interest. It is my daily prayer that such a routine be very different from
the standard school experience where curriculum objectives and text-based
activities are handed down from above.
Sincerely yours,
Jim Foerch
Banjo, math & science teacher at
Pine Street Creative Arts Alternative School,
Grand Rapids, Michigan
alrai@ix.netcom.com