Reading Reflection 1 - Rethinking High School (late)

(Late due to my confusion over reading the blog. I actually did a reading response the very first week, which I will also post here).

There were many things that resonated with my from the Rethinking High Schools and BPHS high school, especially: Relationships, Voice and Leadership, Climate, Curriculum, and Community Experiences. I think it's easy for school to default to their antiquated, post WWII, "factory" structure, and this book and the Second to None reforms are trying to alter the student-community-student-teacher-student-subject relationship so that schools are more cohesive, dialectic, organic, and ultimately, relevant places. (By relevant, I mean that they prepare students for their futures, which falls under Restructuring Schools, Powerful Teaching, Accountability, Support for All Students, and New Curriculum Paths in the Second to None reforms). How smoothly this can be achieved or under what similarly-minded groups of administrators and teachers is another thing. But I think it is helpful for us to look at how relationships between students, teachers, and the community can first be reformed so that those effects can radiate outward, and the other reforms can fall into place. I would like to know more about how work the students and teachers are doing at school interfaces with the community and job internships or volunteering. It is one of the most important connections a high school can make with a student to prepare them for the future, I think.

The aspects of BPHS I'm not so excited about are the ones that I don't think are realistic or plausible in classrooms that are increasingly crowded and diverse. (Class size, scheduling, and technology).