Arts Education and the Burbs of NYC

Last night, I went to a Town Meeting held by Brian Osborne, Superintendent of the School District of South Orange and Maplewood (New Jersey). South Orange and Maplewood are about 40 minutes outside of Manhattan, sort of average suburbs, with unusually diverse demographics.

Mr. Osborne was providing his vision for the elementary schools in the district. My daughter Sophie, is three and a half, and will be entering kindergarten the year after next, so I thought it would be a good idea to check out what the superintendent had to say.

There were three things that struck me:

1. Osborne recognizes the importance of a well-rounded education to the parents, and is committed to maintaining a broad curriculum that includes the arts, even in the face of NCLB and other accountability trends. I have rarely heard a school administrator state this in a more natural, respectful, and convincing manner. It was also a moment of proof as to what parent engagement and activism can make possible. Yes, the parents in this community want the arts and know how to make themselves heard in a productive way.

2. Osborne had a very grounded view of teacher professional development. First of all, he believes in it, which is refreshing. Second of all, while he recognizes the need to have better data to help guide instruction and professional development, he strikes a very good balance between the two, and is very much in line with great minds in staff development, such as Tony Alvarado and Linda Darling Hammond, recognizing the need to invest in the creation of strong learning cultures within the school. This would include curriculum developed by teachers, in conjunction with professional development, rather than seeking off the shelf, purely external resources.

3. He was so very adept at bringing people together. A number of parents came with their particular complaints, naturally, which could have easily gotten out of hand. He was very skillful in hearing them out and responding, without fanning the flames, or being run over.

Take away: It was interesting, in some ways it was a throwback to education of the past, in that it was very much grounded in the art of teaching and learning, respectful to educators, parents, and students, while addressing content, skills, process, equity, and the use of data/assessment,  in ways that seem both beautiful and almost quaint up against the trends in school reform today (data, charter schools, anti-union, etc).

It made me wish that his vision for a well-rounded education, including the arts, would be the vision for every child in every school.

One final observation: parents spoke of “everyday math,” the math program the district uses, which is out of the University of Chicago. (I guess we’re all Chicagoans for the time being.) Parents asked for help in understanding their kids homework, and Osborne spoke of how this program moves beyond basic numeracy to place mathematics in a more skills-based setting tied to real world/everyday practice and use.

You know, when I was a kid, the parents were all freaking out over what was then called “The New Math.” All the parents were complaining about not understanding it. Wow…was this big-time deja vu!

If you want to get a great sense of the churn of school reforms, and how yesterday’s “New Math,” becomes today’s “Everyday Math,” how the progressive education of the 40’s, which was in many ways a perversion of Dewey’s philosphies, becomes the “skills-based” education of today, run don’t walk to get a copy of Left Back, by Diane Ravitch.