“The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Buisness” ~Dennis Littky
The Big Picture | Alternative Education & Education Reform
I first read “The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business” by Dennis Littky in my second year of teaching middle school math. I was at a point of frustration with teaching. I was praised by my administrators, and my students were scoring well on their state standardized tests. But, I knew I wasn’t really connecting with them. I tried to make my class engaging with games and hands-on activities, and the kids (for the most part) seemed to like the class. However, I had a feeling that I wasn’t giving them anything beyond a math curriculum…a curriculum they would likely forget…something was missing.
Dennis Littky’s book “The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business” helped me see many of the pieces I was lacking as a teacher and many of the pieces that we were lacking as a school. The book tells the story of The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (“The Met”) in Providence, Rhode Island—a very diverse public high school with the highest rates of attendance and college acceptance in the state. They approach education in a very different way. A focus on holistic learning and real-world experiences is the foundation of the school. And I don’t mean contrived real-world experiences—these students solve real problems in their community using a natural learning approach, participate in internships, and present their work to their parents, teachers, peers, and community. Narratives, rather than grades, are given every nine weeks. Littky writes, “As educators, we ask kids to produce pages and pages of words, and then we only take the time to write one letter to help them see how they’ve progressed and what they need to do to improve. A. B. C. D. F. It’s pathetic.”
Teachers (advisors) meet the kids where they are—even when it seems very unorthodox. One of my favorite stories from the book is of an angry teenage girl who was new to the school. The first nine weeks of school she wanted to study the rapper Tupac. In other schools, this never would have been allowed—she would have been placed in an Algebra class and an American History class and maybe an Art class. But, she likely would have remained angry and withdrawn. At “The Met”, this girl was given the freedom to study Tupac in depth. She studied his life, lyrics, and impact. She gave a very moving presentation at the end of her study. Tupac inspired her. She went on to study Nelson Mandela, attend a peace journey through South Africa, and ultimately put on peace conferences in her own community. Now that's learning.
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