For the last print issue of El Estoque, we asked students to imagine MVHS in the future. The following submission is from AP Literature student Chandrika Kumar.
Let’s face it – school is dull and distressing. Barrack-like boxy buildings, factory type bell schedules, frantic students mechanically working on standardized tests that come faster and faster down the assembly line, harried teachers reduced to managers, forced to sacrifice enlightenment for efficiency. Let’s face it –from the architecture to the curriculum, MVHS is stuck in the industrial mass-production model of the 20th century!
But here is a dream. A dream for a different MVHS. An MVHS for the 21st century. An MVHS that taps into the information and environmental revolutions to make education individualized yet collaborative, enriching yet exciting for more students.
Enter MVHS 2020.
A multi-level building with an organic shape. Like a broad leaf. The roof looks like it grew and folded up from the ground. The main entrance opens into a circular schoolyard atrium at the center. The classrooms, ranged along the sides, vary in size, shape, and color. The seating allows for easy movement, communication, and collaboration. The library, cut out of the main building, has a transparent roof open to skylight. Vibrant florescent green corridors weave through the building and filter sunlight. In the junctions, quick stimulants: a basketball hoop, a jigsaw puzzle, a DNA model, a rocket designing kit. No moving staircases like Hogwarts but chutes and ladders operated by giving correct As to challenging Qs. A tilted back wall with tiers is the stands surrounding the sports field.
No bell schedules. Instead, “personalized learning-teaching networks” so students, in consultation with teachers, can set their own individual schedules. Standards and requirements are determined by teachers but students decide how and when to meet them. One student spends three hours every morning studying algebra and calculus; another focuses on art and music instead. Both devote afternoon hours to other subjects. Following this path, the two students are ready in two years for college level classes in math and art respectively; but they continue studying other subjects until they meet the standards. Another student comes to school in the evenings and studies late into the night; he takes five years to complete all requirements. School’s open from 6:00 am until midnight.
Teachers too have flexible individualized schedules. They teach in “flipped” classrooms: students have studied and researched assigned content before coming to class; in class, they participate in discussions, ask questions, make presentations, collaborate on projects, and solve problems. Teams compete to design innovative solutions and products. The atmosphere is dynamic; the passion for teaching-learning palpable. Both teachers and students are energized, not enervated. A student takes a test; she doesn’t get the required score, so she simply goes back to study and tries again and again until she masters the material. She races to the top, at her own pace. And truly, no child is left behind.
This is the MVHS of any student’s dreams. A school for the 21st century.
