The Philadelphia "School of the Future"

The School of the Present
Is Failing
And Technology Is Not The Solution

I’ve been reading about the “School of the Future,” a 9-12 public high school that opened just this fall in a brand new, especially designed $63 million structure in Philadelphia. Microsoft partnered with Philadelphia City Schools to help design and outfit the building. And it is beautiful. The school is full of the latest technology; it is a paperless, broadband island; each student is assigned his or her own laptop computer. The school is designed to be small; it will add a new freshman class each year, reaching its maximum size of 750 students within four years.

I’ve read several funny blog comments from writers who are obviously scornful of Microsoft. These comments speculate what this school might look like -- if it models the inadequacies and glitches associated with Microsoft products.

As I read it, the school will be evaluated on the basis of the same test score results used to evaluate all Philadelphia city schools. Wow. It seems safe to predict that the graduates of this new school will knock the socks off these test, and will make scores far superior to the scores made in other Philadelphia city high schools. Here are at least four reasons why high tests scores by students in this new school is a safe prediction:

1. There is great competition to be a student in this school -- 170 freshman students were chosen by lottery from the group of 1500 students who applied.
2. There is competition to be a teacher in this school -- teachers from all Philadelphia City Schools were encouraged to apply.
3. The success of this school is of great importance to many individuals in power positions in Philadelphia.
4. The school provides a safe, modern, beautiful, physical environment.

This school is certain to be praised as a success and Microsoft, I imagine, will want to take credit and will want to make the claim that, “See, the success of schools depends on making heavy investments in technology and software.” But, compared to the power of these four foundational aspects of the school listed above, the fact that this school emphasizes the use of technology is insignificant.

Usually, high scoring schools are found in prosperous and exclusive communities. Philadelphia, in creating this new high school, has created a prosperous and exclusive island in its dysfunctional city school system, and, on this island an exclusive group of teachers and students are being provided a wonderful opportunity. Of course the test scores of students in this high school will be astronomical -- compared with test scores made by students in other Philadelphia high schools. But, high test scores are not enough -- not to evaluate the school of the future. After all, there are many schools, schools of the present, where students make high test scores. This new school, it seems to me, should have a higher and better defined aim than high test scores.

The “School of the Future” is a great title -- worthy of much contemplation. What in the world should such a title mean? What will the schools of the future be? I guess what schools will become will depend on what society itself becomes. If we are all living in some version of a North Korean totalitarian nightmare, then our schools will be included in that nightmare. If we are living within a Star Trek society, along with enlightened beings like Mr. Spock, then our schools will reflect that society as well. The theory is that schools, through educating the youth, can help advance society towards its ideals and goals. For that reason, totalitarian societies have always placed great value in forming and training youth, in preparing youth to assume the jobs and responsibilities of their society. Totalitarian schools are schools that anticipate the future -- that implant values, attitudes in today’s children that the state seeks, generally, to implant in society as a whole -- because totalitarian states know that it is the youth who will build the future.

An American school of the future, it seems to me, would be one that anticipates a future where American ideals are realized: liberty, justice, personal freedom, democratic participation, civic awareness. The advocates of the Philadelphia school seem to say that school is all about preparing students for employment, all about giving students the skills and experience needed to benefit from the advantages of this technological age. But that is not enough. North Korean leaders want this from their schools as well. And they want more. Americans should want more from their schools as well. Job training has its place but, by itself, job training does not advance the ideals at the foundation of our society. When we see how the foundations of our democracy are crumbling, it is fair to hold our schools accountable, and the fact whether students are passing tests or not is beside the point.

Our high schools in general -- and this new Philadelphia high school seems no exception -- are hierarchical, authoritarian, coercive and bureaucratic. It is the school itself, through its practices and ethos, that teaches, and, structured as they are, this “hidden curriculum” of our high schools teaches values inimical to the ideals at the foundation of our society. The operation of our high schools, in general, would not contradict the operating principles of North Korean society. Our schools at present fail to anticipate or prepare a future, through their operations and practice, that honors American ideals and values. And this failure, though seldom acknowledged, is the central failure of American schools -- not the failure indicated on tests.

It appears to me that Philadelphia’s new school, rather than finding a fresh view of what a school is, rather than finding more effective ways to inspire and prepare students for democratic participation, has stuck with a very conventional view of school and school purpose -- one that emphasizes test scores and college entrance. I want to do more research to see if this impression is correct and to see exactly what happens, over time, in this school. But it appears that in Philadelphia the take on the school of the future is that the school of the future is basically the school of the present with better technology. And the problem is that the school of the present is failing -- yes, even those schools that are islands of privilege with tons of technology -- and this failure, as stated above, has little to do with grades or college admissions.

So, in my judgement, what Philadelphia is offering as a school of the future is not enough. A school of the future is one that will give hope that those beings of the future, today's children, will sustain, refresh and enliven those core values upon which our democracy depends. So far as I can tell, fulfilling such a school purpose has not been part of the Philadelphia school design.

There is a huge need for American public education to be redesigned; there is a huge need for a school design that would implement, through its practices and ethos, American ideals, a school that would anticipate a flowering of democracy. Such a school would not be designed based on technology, but would be designed based on sound theory and profound insight into school purpose, human purpose, and human potential -- and based on profound understandings of the ideals we hold as a democratic society, and how these ideals can be modeled and celebrated in our schools.