Navigating Transitions into Promised Lands: Reflections on Parshat Devarim The factory town of Gary, Indiana became the model for schools in what was called the “Gary Plan” at the beginning of the 20th century. Its structures are familiar to anyone who has spent time in school. As described by Todd Rose, in his book, The End of Average, How We Succeed in a World that Values Sameness, students were placed into set, fixed groups, by age, not by ability. They rotated to different stations throughout the day for a fixed amount of time. Even “school bells were introduced to emulate factory bells in order to mentally prepare students for their future” as cogs in the industrialized infrastructure. (p. 51) Schools like this seem to deliver the most material possible to the most students as possible. But as time has gone on, the voices of those locked out from such a system, those with differing academic, physical and emotional needs, have inspired us to think about the need for schools that
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Showing posts from August, 2016