Inside Today's Elementary Schools

This book takes readers on a tour of a day in the life of a public elementary school in an effort to give parents and other stakeholders a sense of the realities of the classroom. The tour reveals ten worrisome things about today's schools and considers what to do about them. Dillon emphasizes the need for future schools to be places filled with adventure and high purpose, with classrooms small enough to waste only a minimum of time. They should be free from stifling levels of bureaucracy, supervised by rotating teacher administrators rather than career managers. The book asserts that schools should be staffed by scholarly and engaged teaching professionals dedicated to helping students live a healthy adult life in a democracy rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all, furiously assessed college prep curriculum on everyone. In all, Dillon argues, schools should be places with classrooms of narrow ability ranges dedicated to teaching a coherent curriculum, all in a context of full buy-in and support from students' families. Let's go inside today's elementary schools.

Autorentext

James J. Dillon, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of West Georgia, USA. He is a graduate of Clark University, a certified public elementary school teacher, and author of Partnerships in Research, Clinical, and Educational Settings (2000) and Teaching Psychology and the Socratic Method (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2016).

Inhalt
Part I: Shortsighted Vision & Lopsided StaffingChapter 1: The House on Sleepy Hollow RoadBridges and PotholesHow the Book Is OrganizedChapter 2: So Many Girls...So Few PrincesSome Negative Effects of the Gender Staffing ImbalanceWhat You Can DoChapter 3: When Am I Ever Going to Use Any of This?Adventure and High PurposeThe Romantic ChildLessons from Harry PotterIndustry vs. InferiorityThe Zombie ApocalypseWhat You Can DoChapter 4: And Then God Made School BoardsThe AdministrationTotal Management MentalityAdversarial PostureWho Becomes an Administrator?Toxic CultureThe Good OnesWhat You Can DoChapter 5: the Bottom of the Barrel?Women's Work: The MotherDrill and Kill: The SergeantJust Tell Me What to Do: the SheepThe Easiest Major: The UnderachieverTeacher Training, Where It All BeginsWhy Should We Teach Anyway?What You Can DoChapter 6: What to Do about These Four ThingsOur Vision of Teachers and SchoolsPersonnel ReformPart II: The Wall of Separation, Administrative Bloat, and Boundless AccommodationChapter 7: Platonic Curriculum; Epicurean SocietyWho Formulates the Standards?What Are Standards Designed to Do?What Is the Nature of the Standards?Five Basic Problems with Current Elementary StandardsThree Possible SolutionsWhat You Can DoChapter 8: Just Wastin' TimeThe Different Kinds of Wasted TimeWhere Does the Time Go?Time-Off-TaskWhy Is So Much Time Lost?How Lost Time Negatively Impacts Teacher and StudentWhat You Can DoChapter 9: No Child Left Behind?A Brief History of Standardized TestsCommon CritiquesThe Real Reason Why NCLB Caused So Much TroubleLife after NCLBWhat You Can DoChapter 10: I'm Five Teachers at Once!What is Differentiated Instruction?A Sympathetic Critique of DILess Noble reasons for Using DIWhat You Can DoChapter 11: The Incredible Bending SchoolReasonable Special Education and Non-Academic ServicesUnreasonable Special Education and Non-Academic ServicesPedagogical stressWhat You Can DoChapter 12: Look Not to the StarsA Picture of Contemporary Parental EngagementBarriers to Parental EngagementWhy Parental Engagement MattersWhat You Can DoChapter 13: What to Do about These Six ThingsWall of SeparationMultiplying DiversionsPart III: What to Do about All 10 ThingsChapter 14: A New Day?**Dealing with FearSeeing Through IdeologyLetting Go of the Need to ControlConclusion