Real student-centered learning.

As teachers and future teachers we often think of ourselves as "professionals" who are owed some position of authority in a school system. We line ourselves up in rows in college classes to be imputed with information, skill sets, and best practices to convey content to the next generation. And at the alleged end of this school process, we end up working in a system that we love and hate.

We love working with children or young adults and inviting them to explore new things. We hate some of the ways that the bureaucracy makes us do. We love connecting with students who are, after all, people with imaginations and stories and desires and purposes of their own. We hate that we have to compartmentalize them and examine them with some dehumanizing psychometric tools. Well, some of us do.

And we wonder, "Who is this education for?" There's a lot of talk about student-centered teaching and schooling. But it looks like an awful lot of that is so much talk and not so much action. The curriculum doesn't budge. The goals are still the same. Teachers want to center their practice on students but are tied into a command and control system that regulates them and their students so much that they are a molding device for an industrial factory school for someone else: the federal or state government, businesses, corporations, or some other entity. Too often anything and anyone but the child themselves.

So what happens when students really do it themselves with the guidance of adults? Do you ever wonder how people can be students without the stricture of school?

Here seems to be one answer.

North Star Slice No. 1 from North Star on Vimeo.

What do you think?

Student Sustainability Statement from Penn State

PSU's first Student Sustainability Summit was held about two weeks ago and we came out with a powerful statement that you can sign here if you are a Penn State student.

1. "We, the students of Penn State, are committed to environmental stewardship and sustainability. We are dedicated to becoming environmentally responsible citizens capable of protecting our natural and human resources, thereby producing a quality of life for future generations that is equal to or better than our own.

2. "Therefore, we call on the University to promote environmental initiatives, social responsibility, and sound economic stewardship in its operations, research, education, and services. We urge the University to identify opportunities for environmental sustainability in academic programs and to establish sustainability outreach programs to educate the college community. We ask that the University considers future generations in practice and policy through increased conservation and efficiency, supporting renewable energy, and reduction of greenhouse gases. Our ingenuity must be coupled with integrity, our research with respect, and our academics with action.

3. "And we call on our fellow students to be a part of the solution. We must work with all members of the Penn State community to reduce our environmental impact, support local and regional initiatives, and participate in the creation of a sustainable community. Our individual actions must reflect our broad commitment to a fair and just tomorrow.

4. "Finally, we call for the establishment of a Student Advisory Council to the Campus Sustainability Office that will encourage the adoption of policies that support the needs of all life, human and non-human. This advisory council will be an interdisciplinary group comprising students, faculty, staff, and administrators dedicated to the development of sound environmental, social, and economic decisions.

Let's get this garden growing!