Four Pillars of Learning

I have posted a link to this document elsewhere, but some readers have had difficulty accessing it. Therefore, I am including the document, which I wrote in November 2011, here in its entirety in spite of the rather long length.

The public schools of the United States were founded on a principle best articulated by an American founder, Thomas Jefferson: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.” Thus the central aim of public schools is learning writ large, which embodies two ideals. First, all students should have access to education that allows them to learn, to the best of their abilities, the knowledge and understandings essential to living fully. Second, all students should learn how to learn and be encouraged to be lifelong learners, for the world is ever changing and so is the knowledge needed to thrive not merely in the present but also in the future. The achievement of these aims will ensure our democratic future as a nation as well as the freedom of our students to become their best selves.

Imagine learning as the architectural pediment of education. Learning stands upon four pillars, all of which are essential supports: the community, students, parents, and educators. These are the four pillars of the public schools.

The Community

Public education is an expression of our democratic community. While students, parents, and educators compose the direct participants in schooling, members of the community who have no direct involvement in the public schools also belong to the fabric of learning. Indeed, they can be characterized as the “public” in “public education.” Thus the community must have a voice in forming the schools as learning enterprises. This understanding upholds the democratic values of our civil society. Ultimately, the public schools must be seen as permeable institutions. That is, students, parents, and even educators are transient participants in the schools, but they are permanent members of the community. Members of the community must realize their stake in promulgating successful learning institutions, regardless of whether they are not yet directly involved in public education, are no longer directly involved, or never have been or ever will be directly involved. What happens in schools affects the health of the society as well as its individual members. And, from a closer perspective, communities often are judged by the schools they provide, and thus a community’s economic wellbeing may be affected accordingly. In the interest of upholding the common good of our democracy, the community must be integral to learning.

Students

Students arrive at the schoolhouse door from backgrounds that are culturally, socially, racially, ethnically, and economically diverse. They come with needs, interests, and talents that are equally varied. But through all of this variety runs a common thread: the desire to learn. No one who has ever seen a child take his or her first steps can doubt that children possess an inborn desire to learn—to explore the world around them and within them. The challenge for our public schools is to tap this desire in order to allow and encourage learning that is both broad and deep—learning that extends beyond prescriptive curricula and tests that narrow the boundaries of learning rather than expand them. The greatest service that schools can do is to broaden the learning horizons of their students beyond so-called basics, such as reading and mathematics. Students’ interests and aptitudes, coupled with the demands of living in a culture wherein all talents are essential to our national wellbeing, argue for a broad curriculum that honors all areas of study. Not least among these areas is civic education—that is, learning how our democracy has been achieved and how to keep it healthy.

Parents

Parents, like their students, are extraordinarily varied. But whether rich or poor, single or married, gay or straight, natural or adoptive, they share a common aim: to ensure that their children have access to learning in a safe, secure setting—learning that will enable their children to achieve their goals in life, from the general to the particular, from the personal to the societal. That parents should be partners in their children’s learning must not be merely a platitude. Parenthood also is a process of learning, because no child comes with an instruction book. Thus schools can best serve all students by meaningfully involving all parents in the learning endeavor. Meaningful involvement goes beyond the annual open house; it means finding ways for engagement that span a continuum to allow for as much or as little involvement as parents desire and can manage, bearing in mind that for many working parents time is a fraught commodity.

Educators

Parents are their children’s first teachers. After parents, the adults with whom most children interact for the greatest amount of time are their teachers. Indeed, particularly during the elementary school years, a child may be with a teacher for more of the waking day than he or she is with a parent. Therefore it is essential for teachers—and, by extension, all educators, from counselors and principals to curriculum planners and superintendents—to be cognizant of children’s needs, interests, and desires and of their parents’ aspirations for them. But awareness is insufficient, for educators also must act. Such action on behalf of students and learning may require educators to stand firm against countercurrents that would balkanize schooling rather than view public education as directed toward learning fully and holistically. Educators must value all subject matter and all learners—understanding that all individuals, collectively, comprise the totality of our society and thus contribute to the common good. Neglecting any aspect of learning or any learner diminishes the whole and ill serves our democracy.

The community, students, parents, and educators are the four pillars of learning. They support the public schools equally. None may be left out, or the pediment will fall. This is not a utopian view of public education. Rather it is a realistic vantage point for understanding the nature of learning in the pursuit of preserving our democracy. It also is a vantage point for considering new approaches to schools and learning. For instance, why should disciplines prevail as a primary mode of organization if cultural and social tools might compose a more effective frame of reference for learning? Are the current uses of time—seat time, school year, daily schedule—sufficiently sensitive to learning dynamics, or are there better ways to structure learning time? These are not questions for educators alone to ponder but may benefit from thoughtful attention by all community members, including the most junior and the least involved.

Another of the American founders, John Adams, said it this way: “Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right...and a desire to know.” In the architecture of learning, “the people” comprises all members of the community.