I've gotten lots of feedback about my Education Gadfly column on extra-curricular activities; several friends have written gleefully to make the connection between my piece and Randi Weingarten's big speech last week, particularly its call for schools as community centers. (Checker made that connection in the Gadfly itself.)
That's all in good fun, and yes, on the surface, it might appear that we're talking about the same thing. But upon closer inspection, you'll find that our visions are actually polar opposites. First, here's Randi:
Can you imagine a federal law that promoted community schools--schools that serve the neediest children by bringing together under one roof all the services and activities they and their families need... and suppose the schools included child care and dental, medical, and counseling clinics, or other services the community needs.
And now me:
Here's a suggestion: architects designing high schools of the future should skip the classrooms but keep the gym, the auditorium, and other common spaces. In other words, forget the "school" and build a "community center" instead. Kids could learn academics at home and come to the center for all the rest.
Randi's vision is good old-fashioned paternalism, pure and simple. Because many urban children (the AFT's primary clientele) come from families in crisis, Randi wants the government, through its public schools, to provide all the support to kids that they aren't getting from their parents. My vision is something quite different--a prediction that in the future, lots of parents will actually take greater responsibility for their children's academic development. As online learning becomes ubiquitous and powerful, and as more parents join the "free agent nation" and work for themselves, from home, I believe that plenty of families will discover that they can handle "school" sans schools. But they will still want their kids to participate in sports, theater, clubs, etc.--just as today's home-schoolers want these opportunities for their own children.
These visions aren't necessarily contradictory. It may be that poor children from dysfunctional or overstressed families need the services Randi details. And it may be that affluent children from stable, two-parent families will increasingly learn at home. Maybe. Someone call John Edwards; it sounds like the Two Americas aren't going away anytime soon.
