Seamless Day?

With a snow day comes a good day to read and catch up on paperwork. There are many books on education that are part of the educator's library and of these the book 36 Children is one that continues to be read and discussed. This work was published back in 1967 and from that we can consider many things have changed in education and teaching as well as the social landscape that make this an historical text - however, there are many pages and passages where the author could be talking about 1967 or 1987 or 2007. For one thing, we seem to still be in need of educational reforms. Our inequalities have increased in many ways economically. Out cities continue to be a place the middle-class avoids to raise children rather than a center of socialization, art and learning as they historically have provided.

There is still disagreement as to what those reforms need to be, or how to reorder the learning process of our nation's young. The conversations surrounding schools impact the field of Out-of-School Time and how this field views youth development. For one thing, Out-of-School Time professionals are asked to follow the lead of in-school teachers. Out-of-School educators are asked to create standards and quality benchmarks in the name of accountability and may be required to create progress reports for each child.

This may sound like an advance for professionalism. However, when the traditional system of education, schools, and learning, is so unsettled and continues to be asked to "reform," how can Out-of-School Time educators follow knowing that the path they are taking will benefit the children and youth they serve. If schools are said to be failing children, why create more school to further fail those children? Is this a time to think critically of the direction/s schools are taking? Can youth development assist in creating healthy children and youth in a way that cannot always be linked to the school day - that an organic link is best and a seamless day the worst of both worlds?

The Boston Foundation has hosted two major school reform events in as many months - the first Boston's Education Pipeline Report Card, the other Informing the Debate: Comparing Boston's Charter, Pilot and Traditional Schools. These events were well attended by the formal education establishment but gave little room for Out-of-School providers unless Extended Learning Time is considered a representation of the current and future aspirations of the OST field. Amongst the charts the standard deviations, the two stage least squares, there remains as many questions about the effectiveness of 125 years of traditional schooling, 20 years of pilots, and 15 years of charters as to outcomes, benchmarks, and quality. And, this is with the sort of funding and inquiry that produces 114 page full color reports. Certainly 36 Children should not ring true 40 years later if the proposed advances in school reform of the past... 40 years... had achieved their goals.

Can OST afford to go down this path to quality, or must the field in the coming year look for other ways to demonstrate quality? Can the outcomes over time that quality environments for youth lead to fit into the same check boxes?

Out-of-School time will need to look hard and fast at the question of quality in the coming year so that programs can thrive and survive. It is no secret that this next fiscal year will bring with it intense pressure on programs, organizations, and individuals. We may find that in the effort to "professionalize" the field, we have lost the one part of quality that cannot be afforded no matter how many trainings or manuals are created, and that is the spirit to make a difference in the lives of young people and the work ethic to show up every working day to do so.

Sometimes things that appear to be made one way are in actuality comprised of much different material. That city pictured above. That's a collection of pots and pans.

Quality may be taking a step back and seeing that different materials can produce the same results or looking close up at what may look like a system from a distance turns out to be a number of diverse and unique parts.