'Welcome to the Aquarium' by Julie Diamond
THE SATURDAY READ
A teacher writes passionately about how the education system lets down children, and what can be done.
In the classes I took to become a teacher, the elementary crowd sat on one side of the room, trimming bright, crafty-looking construction paper cutouts. They were a different breed: nicer and artier, but also less intellectually serious. Or so many of us prospective high school teachers thought.
If we had read "Welcome to the Aquarium," we might have thought differently. The book is veteran kindergarten teacher Julie Diamond's exploration of one year in the life of K-104, a class in New York City's public school system.
Some of the book occasionally gets lost in abstract, theoretical musings. Usually, however, Diamond's attacks are specific and pointed, bringing up issues -- such as lock-step "scripted lessons" -- that concern anyone who cares about education.
Appropriately enough for someone who believes asking the right questions is more valuable than having the right answers, Diamond ends up with burning queries about the purpose of education.
She is particularly taken by the Reggio Emilia approach, which appeared as an antidote to fascism in Northern Italian preschools after World War II. Based on developing the emotional as well as the educational life of the child, it's built on the contributions of parents and community members. Instead of tests, there are projects -- books, charts, installations -- created by teams of children.
A proponent of a flexible curriculum, Diamond states plainly she doesn't really care if students can read or write by the end of kindergarten (though most do). To her, kindergarten is about building up a curiosity about the world and analyzing it, preparing students to care about learning.
So it's no surprise that Diamond is sometimes infuriated by new trends in education. She describes how her kindergartners' legs shake as they take a standardized test -- the fact that the test kit comes with a cheery puppet who is supposed to spout the questions makes the scenario even more horrifying.
But the real horror comes from above, a cold educational system. Administrators throw out classroom bookshelves built by a carpenter parent because they are not standard issue (of course, there are no funds to replace the tossed shelving). Mandated Orwellian learning standards posted on the walls alienate children.
