Book Review

Meier, Deborah. (1995). The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem. Boston: Beacon Press: 1-195

Summary

In the book The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem Deborah Meier defends public education by sighting the successes of her small public school in East Harlem. Facing the challenges of both being located in one of the most economically depressed areas in the state, as well as reaching a student population with racial divides (1/2 African American and 1/3 Latino), Central Park East successfully produced college ready students. Her book starts with an explanation of the school she helped create, Central Park East Elementary School. This small school was originally set up in the wing of P.S 171 in East Harlem. The schools mission was to provide at the public school expense for the most disadvantaged students with what the most advantaged brought their private school children. After outlining the school’s beginning years and its’ successes Deborah uses the rest of the book to outline her philosophy as to why the school was successful, in an attempt guide other public schools in America.

While Deborah gives her blueprint to building successful public schools her most simplistic advice is that successful schools promote good teaching. Finding staff that are capable of reaching children is a necessity. Deborah goes onto to explain in her chapter on effective teaching, that teaching is about quick, instinctive behaviors. There are so many unintended actions we make daily as teachers, from “correcting a child’s writing, calling on students who don’t have the hand raised, complimenting a child on his or her clothing… all carry messages of importance, and all involve decisions that must be made instantaneously”(Meier, 139). So much of the culture in one’s classroom depends on these unintended responses, which as an administrator can be hard to gage potential candidates responses to these situations. Instead, Meier outlines qualities that effective teachers should demonstrate. Because she says it is nearly impossible to find candidates who display all of these qualities, it is up to the school to draw these qualities out of their teachers. These qualities include being reflective about how your students learn, and more importantly how they don’t learn. This is important because it allows the teacher to reflect on what isn’t working in the classroom, so their students get the most beneficial instruction for them. Sympathy towards others is another crucial trait. And most importantly, perseverance, energy and devotion are the character traits that successful teachers demonstrate.

Meier also raises a wonderful point about the importance of lessons. She says often teachers get too worried about covering standards. The point of education isn’t to learn content, but rather to learn how to think. She proposes that if a student is learning a lesson on the five causes of WWI, the importance of the lesson isn’t memorizing facts, but rather the process of investigating historical events. With this in mind, teacher driven lessons are considered weak and should be shy away from. Lessons that are teacher driven can be winged or spontaneously made up by good teachers. This happens because the workload and thinking is being done by the professional rather than the students. Optimally, a teacher’s efforts should be put on the planning rather than the delivery, so that the thinking is being done by the students.

Another reason for her success was because of the small school size. In public education Deborah believes that small school sizes are pivotal for many reasons. First of all, small schools are essential in creating thoughtful school cultures. The smaller the school is the easier it is to foster an environment of collective learning. In Harlem this was extremely important because they were trying to change the mentality of an entire community. Secondly, they allow experimentation to happen without treating students like guinea pigs. If something doesn’t work, in can be reversed the following day because logistics aren’t as complicated. And finally, personal relationships are the key. Deborah Meier preaches the importance of building these personal relationships, and believes that building those relationships made the success of her school possible. Teachers in small schools are able to learn specifically how their student learns and what suits them best. This kind of personal detail is another key to help creating successful public schools.

Response

Reading this book really made me question not only the way I teach but the way my school is run. I currently teach at a relatively small school serving low-income students. Immediately I began to think of how this could be an advantage for my students. Most teachers already have great personal relationships with their students, which can help increase the effectiveness of their instruction. However, what I don’t see is a school that makes quick changes in response to successes and failures of the school. Too often I feel as though administrators and teachers alike allow the failures of the school to continue because they are simply part of the norm. Deborah talks about the great advantages our schools have being small, as logistics can change quickly. What I believe the real problem is in our school is that although everyone talks about changing the culture and environment, they do it half heartily and aren’t truly behind it. It is easier to allow the failing routines to continue that to take initiative and risk by changing things. Our schools is blessed with small size so that logistics could change year to year or even day to day, however as faculty we are scared of change.

As far as my own teaching practices goes, one message from Deborah’s chapter on effective teaching truly struck a chord with me. She wrote about how often times teachers whom are skilled are able to wing lessons of the top of their heads, because they have superior critical thinking abilities. Deborah suggests that these “good teachers” are smarter than their peers, and therefore are able to deliver strong teacher driven lessons off the top of their heads. To be completely honest I do this often. I am able to show up to work with a post it with my objective and a couple of sample assessment questions written on it, and can create an entire lesson on the fly. Deborah explains how teachers who do this rob their students of chances to grow, because in these lessons it is the teacher who is doing all of the critical thinking in their heads. The reason they are able to make up lessons on the fly is because cognately they are able to think quickly, and have their brains racing a mile a minute throughout their lessons. Rather than having the class teacher driven, their efforts should be on planning lessons that have students drive the class. I believe this is truly the point of education, as students should be driving their own learning, not me standing up at the front of the room solving examples at the board. In the future I am going to try and continually remember that education isn’t the content we bestow on our children, but rather the skills we give them to critically think.