Educational Reform Addressed

Educational Reform Addressed

BY DANA DURBIN
Rice News Staff
August 27, 1998

The qualities that the characters in the "Wizard of Oz" sought–a
heart, a brain and courage–are the same qualities that teachers need to create
an effective learning environment, said Bill Ayers, an educator and school reform
activist.

Ayers was the keynote speaker at the Reforming Schools Summer Institute II
held at Rice July 20-22. Co-sponsored by Rice’s Center for Education, the Coalition
of Essential Schools and the Houston Annenberg Challenge, the workshop brought
together local and national educators for panel discussions and sessions on
educational issues.

Educational reform on the school level will require that educators stop looking
for students’ deficits and avoid the language of school today, which is to place
labels on students, Ayers said.

"Too often, we look at what children can’t do," he said. "We
need to reach for incidences where teachers show kids what they can do."

Ayers cited examples of situations where labels were placed on students. He
told of one student, a 15-year-old pregnant gang member, who, during a lesson
on poetry, wrote an exceptional poem though it was unexpected of her by her
teacher. Ayers said he carries a copy of the poem with him to remind himself
of the "students we can miss" by placing labels on them.

While labels are often true in part, Ayers said there is always so much more
to a student. Teachers must see in others what they demand be seen in themselves–that
there’s much more than what the label indicates.

Above all, Ayers said teachers must love students, because "If you don’t
love the kids, you’ll never be a good teacher."

Teachers do face struggles though, Ayers said. Often the school environment
differs from what teachers want to do in the classroom, he explained.

The fundamental law of school is to follow orders, he said. But the fundamental
law of teachers is to teach students that they can change their lives. Ayers
said that the school system must provide students an education "of hope
and purpose as well as all the things they need to know."