The School is the Learning Environment

On my bookshelf at home, lies a beat up copy of Linda Darling-Hamond’s book, “The Right to Learn: A Blueprint for Creating Schools that Work “ It is a book that fundamentally changed the way I thought about schools. It did not change my perceptions of learning or what it meant to be a good teacher. Instead, it questioned, what most people in this country would take for granted, the school. It is something so universal in our society that we virtually never question its fundamental principles. The school as we know it, was not designed for this century, it was not even designed for the last century. It was designed to work as a factory, moving students efficiently from class to class, from grade to grade and from school to school.
As I read about learning environments, I am reminded of these facts again and again. I always finding it somewhat comforting to read about exemplary educational practices. There they are, neatly encapsulated, everything you always knew teaching could be. The answers to all the frustrations you felt after your first true experiences leading a classroom. Unfortunately, there are reasons they remain there on the page. For the vast majority classrooms around the country the school is the enemy.
For reasons the authors of the HPL book only brush upon it is near impossible to create a learning environment that is learning centered, knowledge centered, and assessment centered. In a typical secondary school a teacher may see 150 students a day (Darling-Hammond, 1997). The learning environment is not, no matter how exemplary, a single classroom. It is the school, and it is the school that must be ‘aligned’ for true change to occur (Bransford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000). Darling-Hammond states it another way she does not think that schools need to be ‘aligned’ she calls for them to be redesigned (1997).
The learning environment that the bureaucracy of the school was designed to create is not learner centered or even teacher centered. The bureaucratic (factory) model assumed that important decisions would be handed down by administrators in the form of rules and mandatory curriculum packages (Darling-Hammond, 1997). Teachers are just another cog in the machine, the factory worker. Teachers still largely work in isolation. While, many teachers may incorporate sound modern practices in their lessons, this “shut the door and teach” mentality insures that the machine will churn on.
If we wish to create truly effective learning environments I am convinced that change must start at the school level. The old culture of ‘factory’ bureaucracy must be torn down. Teachers and institutions of higher learning must step up to fill the void by creating a true profession of teaching. Finally funding must be equalized so all students who pass through this country’s public schools have a chance to succeed. These changes are not minor; standing against them is 150 years of institutionalized school culture. Maybe one day I will not have read to find comfort in the state of education. The nearest school is always just a short drive away.

Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Eds.). (2000). How people learn : brain, mind, experience, and school. (Expanded ed.). Washington, D.C: National Academy Press.

Darling-Hammond, L. (1997). The right to learn : a blueprint for creating schools that work (1st ed ed. Vol. Jossey-Bass education series). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.