A Lot of Work: A Little Piece of It?

Most of the post below was written on Saturday--two days ago.

*****************

I was present this morning in a small group where Steven Brubaker from Faith Builders Educational Programs spoke about the integration of faith with education.  The session was thought-provoking and inspirational.  Something he said gave me the courage to write about something I've been thinking about for several months--and several decades.  I don't know that Mr. Brubaker would agree with how I'm developing his basic idea, so I'll try to be clear about what he said and what is coming from me.

Mr. Brubaker observed that the basic form that Christian education usually takes is largely copied from the form in use in public education.  I believe it would also be correct to say that it's the form that was in use at the time most Christian schools were founded.  Brubaker noted that, to be sure, Christian schools add some things (Bible class, for example), and take away some things.  I suppose the teaching of evolution is a typical take-away thing.  According to him, however, a lot of work needs to be done to create schools that serve the church and the family more effectively.  I could not agree more with this basic premise.  I've done my share of writing and raging and weeping and yes, even triangulating about this, and over the past decades, at times I've grown very weary of the burden of seeing this and seeing no significant changes.

I would tweak the reference to "schools" to say instead that a need exists to create educational systems that serve the church and the family more effectively.  I believe, in fact, that part of the work we should do is to lift our eyes beyond the roof lines of our brick and mortar structures to see the educational system in a larger context, one in which the church could still work together to see that effective education happens--without giving the school an out-sized role, creating an overwhelming workload for teachers, and a nearly unaffordable financial burden for everyone involved.

While meeting  the needs of the children is the reason for having an educational program in the first place,  what I have known for at least 30 years is that many of the means employed in traditional schools happen primarily for the convenience of adults rather than for the good of children.  A big chunk of what remains has to happen because of the constraints and limitations of the traditional system itself.  I could generate quite a list of such things, but will resist the temptation to digress.

As I see it, de-centralizing Christian education, or at least not becoming enamored with consolidation, may be an important key to making an educational system more effective and more balanced within the framework of church and family interests.  I did not always see this--only in the past few years.  Many,  many threads of learning, observation, and experience have combined to lead me to this conclusion.  Must not digress . . . 

This post will suggest only one significant change to the business-as-usual shape of our private Christian school program.

What if we simply sent our students away to school only four days a week instead of five?  This is already happening in America in more than 100 public school districts in more than 20 states.  An article on the National Education Association (NEA) website here tells about it.  A Google search reveals other articles and gives details of research done to determine whether the change affects test scores.

Most of the districts where four-day weeks are the norm are in sparsely populated western states. Fewer days is one way to minimize transportation costs.  Also, support personnel like custodians, bus drivers, cooks, etc.  are employed for one less day, so costs to the district are reduced.  Teachers, of course, still come to school as usual on the day students are absent.  Teachers still have five-day weeks, in other words.  They use the time to do lesson planning or grading.

Some research shows that initially standardized test scores improved significantly with the reduction in school days, but the effect did not necessarily persist.

Some disadvantages of the four-day week were cited in the article.  I noted that most of them would be less problematic in our school than in a typical American school.  Finding childcare for the fifth day was listed as a significant problem for some parents (most of our moms do not have outside employment).  Reduction of services for needy children was another.  Free or inexpensive meals at school insure that students eat decently on school days, but they may not get enough to eat on other days (our school doesn't provide meals--unless you count Friday's hot lunch meals, and most families can provide adequately for eating at home).  A longer school day might prove tiring for students (we had longer days when I was in grade school).  Support personnel at schools have a reduced pay check (we don't have such staff people on the payroll now).

In our setting, the advantage of lower transportation costs would be experienced on a family budget basis instead of a school budget basis. Families already bear this cost and would stand to benefit.

Teachers would absolutely be winners in a four-day school week scenario.  We had such a week last week.  It was at the end of the quarter, and the day was set aside to get the grade cards ready.  I can't believe how much I got done on that fifth day with few interruptions and no classes to teach.   True, I still spent five hours at school the next day, a Saturday, but the week wasn't completely overwhelming as it might have been, especially with special services at church some evenings.  I think it would alleviate what I believe to be the unsustainable teacher workload that seems to be the norm at most of our schools.

I doubt that I need to enumerate how families could benefit.  I'll let you figure it out, except for one less day of packing lunches--that compelling advantage must be noted by this uninspired lunch packer.  

In order for churches to benefit as much as they might, the "off" day could somehow be coordinated with the evening church service during the week.  I notice that many families with school-age children don't regularly attend evening meetings at church.  For example, if Friday were the usual day off, maybe church could take place on Thursday evening, and students could sleep in on the following day.  Fridays could also be days for church work projects.

In general, a four-day school week would seem to me to keep a better balance between time at home and time away from home--something that I believe to have implications far beyond those that most of us have begun to explore.

My other school-shape-changing ideas will have to wait for later posts.