Re: Edison Teacher Speaks About For-Profit Charter

[Peter Campbell <campbellp@mail.montclair.edu>]

Edison-run Confluence Academy now has two K-7 buildings in St. Louis.  
They want to expand both of them to K-8 and then open a third K-8  
building. Then they want to open a high school. The stated goal of  
Confluence Board members is for children to have nothing but an  
Edison/Confluence experience for their entire K-12 lives.

A longer piece about my experience at Confluence will appear next  
February in the Phi Delta Kappan. The editor plans to include a  
response from Edison, and then a rejoinder from me.

---
Peter Campbell


On May 10, 2006, at 8:30 AM, Horn, James wrote:

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jim Horn [mailto:ontogenyx@mac.com]
> Sent: Wed 5/10/2006 9:27 AM
> To: Horn, James
> Subject: [Schools Matter] Edison Teacher Speaks About For-Profit  
> Charter
>
> In January Peter Campbell did this piece <http:// 
> schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/01/edison-is-symptom-nclb-is- 
> disease.html>  on his visit to Confluence Academy, one of Whittle's  
> corporate welfare schools in St. Louis that is soaking up public  
> dollars to turn a profit for Edison stockholders. This morning a  
> Confluence teacher responds:
>
>
>         I am a white teacher in an Edison school, and I could not  
> agree with this article more. I believe one of the greatest  
> problems facing Edison schools is that its priority for making a  
> profit comes before the education of its children. I believe in  
> this educator's philosophy of education - that students learn by  
> being engaged in the learning process. At Confluence Academy this  
> might be possible if there were not nearly 30 children in each  
> classroom. 25 - 30 students to one instructor in an urban  
> elementary environment is a ridiculous idea, an idea that is  
> motivated by money and a reality that is absolutely daunting for  
> many of the new, inexperienced teachers it chooses to hire.  
> Superfluous spending should be cut so that classes can be smaller.  
> Smaller classes would offer each child more attention, making it  
> less likely that children would feel the need to fight for  
> attention. Smaller classrooms would naturally create an environment  
> where students could more positively interact with their teacher  
> and one another, and less time would be spent on classroom control.  
> Many elementary schools are able to offer this kind of environment,  
> even though many receive just as much, if not less money.
>
>         Students at Confluence Academy are bored. They arrive at  
> school at the crack of dawn and are in the building 8-9 hours each  
> day. During this time, especially in the winter, few students are  
> given recess. No wonder they wiggle!
>
>         While I do not believe a teacher's role is to entertain  
> students, I do agree that the learning environment should be highly  
> interactive and oftentimes fun, and the teachers should strive to  
> spark the imaginations of their students by taking them out of the  
> classroom for starters. Edison Schools would probably say it agrees  
> with this idea, but its current system is too inefficient to make  
> this possible. Confluence Academy is in need of ground-up reform if  
> it really hopes to make a difference in the lives of the students  
> it claims to serve.
>
> In the 19th Century, Hampton's Industrial Model <http:// 
> members.cox.net/smrose7/Armstrong%20Hampton%20from%20Anderson.htm>   
> was seen as the solution to the "Negro problem." In the 21st  
> Century, will it be called Edison, or will we use the more generic  
> term, Direct Instruction <http://www.adihome.org/phpshop/movies/ 
> movieTapes.php?tape=Anatomy+of+Reading+Mastery&username=> ?
>
> --
> Posted by Jim Horn to Schools Matter <http:// 
> schoolsmatter.blogspot.com/2006/05/edison-teacher-speaks-about-for- 
> profit.html>  at 5/10/2006 09:13:00 AM