Erica Jacobs: I Am Horace: More thoughts on Theodore Sizer’s progressive educational philosophy

Theodore Sizer’s death has led me to discover how accurate he was in describing why high schools are similar to what they were one hundred years ago, and why public school reform is a hard sell. Last week I wrote about “Horace’s Compromise,” Sizer’s book about teachers who enter into an unholy agreement with students to keep classrooms genial and undemanding at the expense of intellectual depth and student engagement.
 
Most teachers can see themselves in Horace, but Sizer’s 1984 book was only the first of three about the educational system. In “Horace’s School” and “Horace’s Hope,” Sizer gives teachers reasons to believe that not only can the educational system be changed for the better, but they be instrumental in that change. Sizer’s reforms are part of 600 schools nationally, the Coalition of Essential Schools, where many of his ideas have come to fruition.
 
Now, as I think about his career and legacy, I am struck with how well he nails the reality of high school. Sizer’s dissertation was on nineteen-century schools, and that foundation is one of his strengths. He was able to see that today, just as when schools were largely rural, our calendars and classroom techniques have not changed much.
 
We still have summers off (to tend the crops), we still get up early and come home early, students still are moved from room to room with robotic precision, like cogs on a factory conveyor belt. The educational workforce is still largely female, and still underpaid compared to other professionals with equivalent degrees.
 
Teachers are sometimes treated like professionals, but have much in common with other members of the service industry—those who wait tables, for instance. Teachers continually feel a tug between the demands of administrators (often viewed as petty and arbitrary), the demands of parents (often viewed as self-serving), and obligations to both teach students, and keep them happy.
 
Yes, it’s complicated! Sizer’s gift was that he never went for the simple solution. The fatal flaw with No Child Left Behind is its simplicity: 100% results. Achieving 100% of anything involving large numbers of people is difficult. Was anyone surprised last week when the Department of Education accused states of setting the bar too low on the tests they use for NCLB compliance? With a 100% goal, the bar is bound to be low.
 
 What is Horace’s hope? I lived that hope for 23 years, and I can testify that the principles Sizer lists as the hope of education really work. Public high schools should not be about memorizing bodies of knowledge—they should train students to think deeply, and take the skills of critical thinking and a spirit of inquiry into college and the workplace. Standardized tests measure what students know, not how they discovered it. Teachers need to coach students, not lecture at them. But are those principles practical for our public schools?
 
The answer is yes. They are part of a successful inter-disciplinary course at Oakton High School that has changed the way both teachers and students view education. As a bonus, students learn a body of knowledge for Advanced Placement. More on Senior Seminar, Sizer’s principles, and the obstacles impeding large scale reform in next week’s column.
 
Erica Jacobs, whose column appears Wednesday, teaches at George Mason University. Email her at [email protected].