by Renee Owen | Dec 7, 2015 | Director's Blog
โThe most vital attribute in the world youโre about to enter is not critical thinking or fluency in another language. Itโs about whether youโre able to see the world through anotherโs eyes. ย The key factor of success for any society going forward is what percentage of its people are change-makers. Itโs the new literacy, and empathy is the foundation of that new way of being.โ ย Arnie Duncan, National Secretary of Education, May 9, 2015.
I am thrilled to hear that those with the power to change America’s public education system understand what Rainbow Community School has understood sinceย 1977. ย I am just confused as to why they are still pouring all their resources into obsolete methods of education.
Read more here: “Empathy most vital,” Education Secretary Arne Duncan tells NCCU grads.
by Renee Owen | Nov 4, 2015 | Director's Blog
Senior Deputy Ben Fields is seen pulling a student from her chair at Spring Valley High School in Columbia, S.C., in these three images made from another student’s video recording. AP
Like anyone who saw the video of the students at Spring Valley High being slammed to the floorย and dragged out of her chair, I was sick, angry, and mortified. ย The social media comments that followed mostly focused on Officer Fields, otherwise known as Officer Slam on Facebook. ย But this is about so much more than whether Officer Fields’ actions were warranted. ย Of course, they weren’t warranted. A counselor should have been called instead of a cop.
Students learn as much or more from the “hidden curriculum” of a school than from the “overt curriculum.” ย The hidden curriculum is made up of everything else that goes on other than what is being literally studied in class. ย How are students treated? ย How do they treat each other? ย Are the teachers empowered? Essentially, what is the culture of the school? ย Since the rise of violence in schools inย the 80’s and 90’s, many high schools started using school resource officers. ย New high schools were built that look like prisons with almost no windows,ย designed moreย to quell a riot than facilitate education. ย Some even greeted students at the door with metal detectors. The hidden curriculum in these institutions is one of oppression. What I see in the students at their desks in the Spring Valley video are students who have learned from the hidden curriculum to keep their heads down, so it doesn’t happen to them. ย Indeed, so many black parents talk about teaching their children this very message. ย It wasn’t that long ago that a young black man could be lynched for looking at a white woman. ย Years later, that translates into a prisonย sentence for looking sideways at a cop, or simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. ย Niya Kennedy was the only student witnessing the violence who had the courage to do anything other than cower, and she was arrested for it. ย What is the lesson in that?
As one student said in the attached link, this wouldn’t have happened if the student had been white. ย Part of the whole point of the Black Lives Matter movement is that our society has become used to treating black people, particularly poor black people, as if their lives are not important–as if they don’t deserve the same opportunities in life as their white peers. ย They don’t receive the same quality of services, housing, respect, or education. ย (Black students in primarily black schools receive an average of $733 less on per pupil funding that students in primarily white schools.) The hidden curriculum of large public schools has enforced this message. So the issue is so much bigger than one racist or overly aggressive officer, it’s systematic.
Of course, the term “hidden” means more than “not-overt.” ย It means that it has been taken for granted. ย It is so much a part of the “atmosphere” that it can’t be seen any more than the air around us. ย Everyone is so used to it, that it hasn’t been questioned — at least not by enough people for those questions to be heard or addressed.
We need to advocate for schools that have positive school cultures, where the lessons learned from the hidden curriculum are the following:
- I am a valued and accepted member of my community.
- My unique personhood is seen and appreciated.
- If I am in need, I will be helped
Students carry the “hidden curriclum” they learn in school forward into society. ย Wouldn’t it be great to have a society with these values?
NPR: S.C. Sheriff’s Deputy Is Fired After Review Of High School Student’s Arrest
by Renee Owen | Oct 14, 2015 | Director's Blog
This brilliant, short, low-cost video explains in less that 7 minutes how we have to hospice old, failing systems (such as fossil fuels and our current public educational system), and pioneer news ones. ย It provides clarity and hope for the pioneering work that Rainbow Community School — and so many other alternatives — are doing to create educational change. ย The “punchline” is about 2/3 of the way through.
Source:ย berkana.org/about/our-theory-of-change/
by Renee Owen | Oct 7, 2015 | Director's Blog, Middle School Blog
Middle school is arguably the most important years in a childโs educational experience. You owe it to yourself and your child to attend the Middle School Open House on October 26. (I recommend the 9:00 am morning session when classes are in action, but there is also an evening session at 6:30.)
Are you aware of how rigorous and intellectually challenging the middle school program is at Rainbow? Rainbow is committed to developmentally appropriate education. While that means being gentle in the youngest grades in terms of rote challenge; middle school children NEED incredible challenge. Their capabilities are exploding! The whole rest of our program lays the foundation for the middle school years. Omega is the crowning glory of the Rainbow program!
While standardized test scores canโt possibly reveal the complex thinking of our middle school students and their sophistication in all the domains, they do show that Rainbow middle school students score extremely high in the โtraditionalโ sense. Last year on the SAT 10, most of the 6th โ 8th grade students literally scored โoff the charts.โ Their grade equivalency was โPost-High School Equivalency,โ meaning they scored at the level a high school graduate would score at. For 7th graders (the largest class), their median grade equivalency in all subjects combined was 12th grade! On average, they scored in the 95% percentile!
Clearly, the vast majority of Rainbowโs middle school students are academically gifted, but it is important to note that these same students did not score in these high ranges when they were in the younger grades. In third grade they scored only slightly above average. By attending the middle school open house, you will gain some understanding of that journey, and why their achievement arcs so radically upwards in the higher grades.
At the middle school open house you will meet Rainbow alumni who are now in high school and you will be able to ask them about their transition to high school. You will find out about the advanced classes they are placed in at Carolina Day School and the various public schools they attend, and you will find out why they found themselves ahead of their peers in all the domains. Ask them: โDid you feel you were more mature than the other students?โ
While our middle school maintains the same core values as the elementary school, Omega is a very different experience. Six graders write business plans and start their own socially responsible businesses. 7th and 8th graders use innovation design models from Stanford to solve the worldโs energy problems. The Math and Writing programs in Omega are incredible, resulting in students who love Math and truly understand algorithms and their applications. As writers, they know how to explain, persuade, and create at levels that exceed most American adults. Their first five-plus page research paper requires proper MLA citation AND a power point presentation to their peers AND a creative interactive project to demonstrate their understanding of what they wrote about.
Most importantly, Rainbowโs middle school students are authentic, self-assured, and compassionate. They are excited for life. They are reverent and lead centerings. In fact, a large part of the secret to their academic advancement is their healthy self-identity and their development in the other domains. While most middle school students spend as much or more time worrying about their social status, Rainbow students focus on fulfillment. Finally, they do all of this while enjoying themselves, loving one another, exploring nature, and loving to learn. The result? A happy high school student who is ready to transform the world.
Renee Owen, Executive Director
by Renee Owen | Oct 6, 2015 | Director's Blog
The US Department of Education’s mission statement is “to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.”
The purpose of US education is about “global competitiveness?” What about human fulfillment? What about compassion and service to others? What about human flourishing? What about citizenship and democracy?
I support the concept of public education (of course!) but cannot serve that particular mission. My dream is for the US Department of Education to operate with a much loftier mission, and then Rainbow may be able to become a free, public school, accessible to all.
Our purpose at Rainbow is to foster a cooperative, not competitive, world. Our goal is to change the purpose of education, to raise children who will reimagine society, ~Renee
Read the article by Luba Vangelova, “To Advance Education, We Must First Reimagine Society”
