What should change most about schools? The pace!

Slow down
Recently, I was challenged by a professor to identify one change I would make to improve American public education. In my opinion, there is one place to start: pace. Our schools, in response to the annual testing cycle, simply move too fast.

Alternative visions for education are cast by Sir Kenneth Robinson, who advocates for slow learning, and the Finnish educators who are often highlighted by Edutopia. If our education culture were not so driven by the data cycles, more time could be devoted to creativity, collaboration, and deeper transfers of content knowledge.

Content Knowledge
Research proves that spaced practice yields more benefits than massed practice. Students need time to learn, and some need more time than others. However, many teachers, responding to poorly communicated expectations from leaders, often forfeit reteaching to maintain fidelity to regimented curriculum sequences. Projects, the kind that promote mastery and that show the relevance of content in real world applications, are also casualties. If we truly want all students to learn at high levels, we must be willing to support adjustments to the pace of learning that currently is demanded.

Relationships
Schools are dependent on healthy relationships, and cultivating healthy relationships takes time. Often the behaviors that impact learning are driven by emotions and experiences that lie under the surface. Strategies such as Conscious Discipline help students process their behaviors and motivations, but these interventions require time. Students often encounter set backs in their lives outside of school. The pace of schools should be flexible enough to support them as they bounce back. Teachers would also benefit from a slower pace. The collaboration and coaching that we all desire can not exist without time. Five minute feedback is better than none, and forty minutes of collaborative time beats none, but we could do better.

Slowing the pace of our schools would require substantial cultural and institutional changes and sacrifices. Making such sacrifices may not be realistic, but we should all consider what we risk sacrificing, richer learning opportunities and healthier relationships, to maintain the current pace.