posted by Tom Moertel at 9:17 PM /
I have always thought of Blog-Lebo as an electronic, home-town newspaper. One thing our newspaper has lacked, however, is a regular space for letters to the editors. No longer. Today, I am delighted to introduce Blog-Lebo Letters to the Editors!
Here's how it works. If you've got something to say that doesn't belong in a comment, write up a well-argued letter and email it to Joe and me. Use the subject "Letter to the editors." We'll collect the best and post them at regular intervals.
Not every letter will get posted. We'll pick and choose, just like any other newspaper would. To be selected, a letter should be well written and say something new; it should be insightful, informative, or entertaining, not inflammatory. In short, it should be worth reading.
If we pick your letter, we'll make up a title for it and publish it in the next Letters to the Editors post. We'll do the posts weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the volume of letters we receive.
And that's Blog-Lebo Letters to the Editors.
To get things started, we offer the following letter that we received yesterday.
Presentation offers glimpse into the “one-sided” thinking behind the high-school plan
On May 6, 2010, school board member Elaine Cappucci and Thomas Celli, architect made a joint presentation on “21stCentury School Design Promoting Entrepreneurial Education” at the Pennsylvania School Board Association School Design and Construction Conference in Lancaster. You can review the content of their presentation here:
http://www.psba.org/workshops/school-construction-conference/learning-journal-online/21st-Century-School-Design-Entrepreneurial-Education.pdf
The presentation, intended to advance the notion that architectural design is shaping the 21st learning environment, gave me insight relative to the current high school renovation design because the Mt. Lebanon High School design is included as a solution to the presented learning theories. As an opponent of the high cost $113 million renovation, I finally have a glimpse of the reasoning behind the renovation plan’s design features.
Having taught dry information technology courses at the college level for eleven years, I would never promote myself as an “educator”, but when I see charts like “Right Brainers Will Rule the Future” on page 5 I run the other way. The picture shows uninteresting robot-like workers in their prison-like cubicles in contrast to the colorful creative world of the glorious right brainers. (Notice some of the left brainers escaping to right brain.) What in the world will happen to our Mt. Lebanon graduates when they step into the realm of the left brained working life or the order-taking number crunching masses? Oh dear, the bubble is about to grow even larger! My students may have eventually unleashed their entrepreneurial vision, but without grinding through the uninteresting mechanics of how to first turn on the computer and develop proficiency in utilizing software application tools, they could have not reached the level of technological exploitation necessary to drive new solutions.
So, what are we trying to accomplish with the new high school and is there enough balance in supporting both necessary traditional education with creativity? Why are many of the pictures included in the presentation from higher educational institutions? Are we not to prepare our students with a strong foundation which can be built upon as they pursue further education where the path to learning explodes into infinite possibilities? I may not be able to espouse all the psychological theories of learning, including Howard Gardner’s theories in “Five Minds for the Future” on page 4, but I do know that we need to adequately prepare the next generation to meet the challenges of our world. Perhaps the right brain has been working overtime here considering the design is not in compliance with our real Lebo world municipal regulations on various levels. Perhaps one of those nerds on the left side would have caught the errors while performing the mundane task of comparing the design with our current zoning regulations.
Consider reading the following essay for another perspective on education:
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2010/Senechal.pdf
Charlotte Stephenson
Mt. Lebanon
Here's how it works. If you've got something to say that doesn't belong in a comment, write up a well-argued letter and email it to Joe and me. Use the subject "Letter to the editors." We'll collect the best and post them at regular intervals.
Not every letter will get posted. We'll pick and choose, just like any other newspaper would. To be selected, a letter should be well written and say something new; it should be insightful, informative, or entertaining, not inflammatory. In short, it should be worth reading.
If we pick your letter, we'll make up a title for it and publish it in the next Letters to the Editors post. We'll do the posts weekly or bi-weekly, depending on the volume of letters we receive.
And that's Blog-Lebo Letters to the Editors.
To get things started, we offer the following letter that we received yesterday.
Presentation offers glimpse into the “one-sided” thinking behind the high-school plan
On May 6, 2010, school board member Elaine Cappucci and Thomas Celli, architect made a joint presentation on “21stCentury School Design Promoting Entrepreneurial Education” at the Pennsylvania School Board Association School Design and Construction Conference in Lancaster. You can review the content of their presentation here:
http://www.psba.org/workshops/school-construction-conference/learning-journal-online/21st-Century-School-Design-Entrepreneurial-Education.pdf
The presentation, intended to advance the notion that architectural design is shaping the 21st learning environment, gave me insight relative to the current high school renovation design because the Mt. Lebanon High School design is included as a solution to the presented learning theories. As an opponent of the high cost $113 million renovation, I finally have a glimpse of the reasoning behind the renovation plan’s design features.
Having taught dry information technology courses at the college level for eleven years, I would never promote myself as an “educator”, but when I see charts like “Right Brainers Will Rule the Future” on page 5 I run the other way. The picture shows uninteresting robot-like workers in their prison-like cubicles in contrast to the colorful creative world of the glorious right brainers. (Notice some of the left brainers escaping to right brain.) What in the world will happen to our Mt. Lebanon graduates when they step into the realm of the left brained working life or the order-taking number crunching masses? Oh dear, the bubble is about to grow even larger! My students may have eventually unleashed their entrepreneurial vision, but without grinding through the uninteresting mechanics of how to first turn on the computer and develop proficiency in utilizing software application tools, they could have not reached the level of technological exploitation necessary to drive new solutions.
So, what are we trying to accomplish with the new high school and is there enough balance in supporting both necessary traditional education with creativity? Why are many of the pictures included in the presentation from higher educational institutions? Are we not to prepare our students with a strong foundation which can be built upon as they pursue further education where the path to learning explodes into infinite possibilities? I may not be able to espouse all the psychological theories of learning, including Howard Gardner’s theories in “Five Minds for the Future” on page 4, but I do know that we need to adequately prepare the next generation to meet the challenges of our world. Perhaps the right brain has been working overtime here considering the design is not in compliance with our real Lebo world municipal regulations on various levels. Perhaps one of those nerds on the left side would have caught the errors while performing the mundane task of comparing the design with our current zoning regulations.
Consider reading the following essay for another perspective on education:
http://www.aft.org/pdfs/americaneducator/spring2010/Senechal.pdf
Charlotte Stephenson
Mt. Lebanon
Labels: 21st century education, high school renovation, letter to the editor
14 Comments:
A nice new feature to give more voices a venue to speak up, and I think this is a good letter to have started with.
Being the scientific, logic and number oriented left-brainer that I am (I'm a software developer), I do firmly believe in the need to develop a basis of knowledge to build upon. However, I do see that many of the people who have to tools to truly perform in the workplace at a high level have a balance of "brainedness".
Many of the problems that I see in education are a result of overspecialization. Too many graduates today simply do not have the breadth of knowledge to be able to evaluate and combine what they've learned in multiple backgrounds and combine them into new and exciting solutions for the future.
I guess this is what the School Board has to come up with as we drop lower and lower in rankings. Unfortunately, none of this is in sync with the strategic plan
[http://www.mtlsd.org/Bsc/] Nice try, Mrs. Cappucci. We aren't buying it.
Elaine Gillen
Nerd: The other n-word. I wish more people would see it that way.
Other than that, a very auspicious first letter to the editor.
Ms. Gillen,
The presentation was not one that was approved or even reviewed by the Board.
Without the benefit of the entire presentation it is tough to know exactly what was said to go along with the slides. I can infer from some of the pages that the presentation favors the idea that 21st Century education will revolve more around creativity and collaboration than it has in the past. The one slide suggesting that right-brained people will dominate the future and that left-brain people are a never ending, bland shade of boring gray has me a bit on edge. Bill Gates, right-brained or left-brained? Warren Buffett, right-brained or left-brained? Software geeks and numbers crunchers don't tend to fall on the "right" side of the brain track and yet somehow these two are two of the most successful people in the history of our great country. I doubt very much that they would be interested in uploading their own YouTube videos or painting the next Mona Lisa, yet they have managed just fine. Warren Buffett once said, "You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you. You are right because your data and reasoning are right."
Some of the other slides make blanket statements such as, "Students today learn from images". I am sure that not all academics believe this to be the case.
The second link in Mrs. Stephenson's editorial links to a paper by Diane Senechal that I posted on my blog back in March. The take on 21st Century Education trends in that article is much different:
When the frenzy over 21st century skills passes—and it will—students will see that their opportunities depend largely on their knowledge. Many will graduate with blogging experience, but those who can write a strong essay on a Supreme Court case will be better prepared to enter the fields of history, law, or journalism. Many will have online science portfolios, but those who have studied calculus, read parts of Newton’s Principia, and can prove Kepler’s second law (for example) will be much better prepared to study physics at an advanced level. The ability to make a YouTube video or podcast will mean little in the long run, if the other things are absent. Moreover, those technologies may be obsolete in another few years, but literature, science, languages, mathematics, history, music, art, and drama will stay.
My beliefs are more in line with Senechal's.
Thanks for the post Blog-Lebo. It's a terrific idea.
What on earth are Cappucci/Celli really advocating ? Was this reviewed and approved by the Board prior to it being presented in a state-wide conference and now available worldwide on Google ? I think not, at least not in public. Does this not blatently violate Board policies ?
What exactly is meant by "Entreprenuerial Teachers" ? And "What we all need to do...is insist on developing entrepreneurial teachers..who embrace risk, challenge the status quo" ? My immediate reaction to that is yes, absolutely; and, the very first thing for them to do is reject the law on tenure followed immediately by rejecting teachers unions and 48-page employment contracts, followed by insisting on enactment of a law to prevent teachers strikes. Agree to become "at will" employees like the vast majority of people who pay their salaries and ever so sweet benefits. Agree to freeze defined benefit retirement plans and adopt defined contribution plans for all teachers. After that, and only after that all is a *done deal*, will we consider "entrepreneurial education" when it is fully defined and passes our *smell test*.
This sounds like another experiment in public education to distract attention from the failures of preceeding experiments...new math, whole words, open classrooms, middle schools, etc..and the failure of U.S. public education relative to both the developed and developing countries of the world. This may work at some college undergraduate and/or graduate levels, but only after students have been taught to use both left & right sides of their brains.
"Right brainers will rule the future "...oh yeah, it reminds me of the '70's and the favorite expression of the flower children and hippies, "tune out and turn on", something like that.
This is an unfortunate self-serving, unauthorized presentation. And our name tag is on it for all to see. It might even be a drawing card for more migrants from San Francisco and areas where public education is dysfunctional.
Form follows function is a principle associated with modern architecture and industrial design in the 20th century. (Wikipedia)
In the 21st century, some seek to break the paradigm.
Well into project design on July 20, 2009, the Master Design Team "agreed that on August 4 there will be a meeting with the senior staff at Mt. Lebanon High School to push for them to think outside the box and how education is changing and to try to solicit more creativity around the idea of DaVinci Studios or interdisciplinary teaching or uses of technology in teaching, etc. ... In a subsequent meeting with the staff, it was agreed that an August 4th morning meeting would be developed in order to try to solicit from the staff more creativity in teaching" (Tom Celli)
It appears the time spent collaboratively developing the Educational Specs for the building, followed by the substantial input of the Design Advisor Committee and continual input of faculty and staff, may not have supported Celli & Friends vision of how MTLSD should teach in the 21st century.
Accordingly - the design team sought to push our professional educators for more "creativity in teaching."
No wonder the Solicitor's Office is working so hard to deny Right-to-Know Requests. This information was not supposed to get around.
I encourage all to file a Right-to-Know request to see if Cappucci and Celli filed expense accounts and spent public money to spread this message statewide. The form for the Request can be found at:
http://www.mtlsd.org/district/righttoknow.asp
Send your Right-to-Know Request to:
Ms. Jeanine Szalinski
Open Records Officer
Mt Lebanon School District
7 Horseman Dr
Mt. Lebanon, Pa. 15228
Bill...I do not think the general public know who the members of the Master Design Team (MDT) are. Beyond SB members Remely & Cappucci, architect reps. of CFB and OWP/P, CM P.J.Dick, Dist. Project Mgr., and Carol Walton, the "educator" members are the Superintendent, Asst. Super., Teacher/MLEA President, and the HS Principal.
I wonder if the MDT reviewed and approved the presentation before it was presented in Lancaster. I do not recall it being mentioned in the April 2010 MDT meeting minutes.
Is this plan the Walton/Steinhauer Opus?
@James Fraasch, the slide that says right brained people will rule the future has me livid, as well. My son, a right brainer like myself, is majoring in photography. He looked at the presentation and said that the right brainers will never rule the future because there is no money in those jobs. He already knows that he will not make a lot of money as a photographer. He certainly won't be able to afford the Lebo taxes! Another thing that Ms. Cappucci should address is that 21st century learning is not teacher centered or textbook-driven. Also, there is a need for after school programs, because the learning doesn't stop at 3:00. I wonder how the teachers' union feels about this. Also, this new generation is called the MEdia generation because they are digital learners. They sit in front of computers.
We have become the laughing stocks of Pittsburgh. Unfortunately,
21st century education still relies on test scores and core subjects. Looks like another reason to go back to the drawing board! Come up with a better plan that is within our budget.
Elaine Gillen
Let's not forget that the left brain isn't just about math and science, it also processes language, including reading, writing, speaking, and listening. I'm pretty sure the people who do those things well will continue to be our leaders.
The whole "left-brain, right-brain" argument should be seen as a metaphor for skills, not as a biological truth. Unless a person has had one of their cerebral hemispheres removed or suffered a stroke or other brain lesion, we use both sides of our brain in an integrative manner. Even language, which has major centers in the left hemisphere, includes neural circuits in the right hemisphere for communication. To continue the metaphor, we need to teach to both sides of the brain and any "left-brain, right-brain" argument should be considered specious and perhaps not as well researched as it may first appear.
Cheers,
Elizabeth Mazur
(aka Dr Mazur, PhD, associate professor of psychology, PSU).
I found the first 2 points on slide 34 to be very interesting. I'd love for the School Board to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to the upcoming teacher negotiations. I hope Mrs. Cappucci and her colleagues are truly prepared to "challenge the status quo" when it comes to the teachers. They just missed the boat with respect to the district's other employees by rewarding average or below average results with across the board raises. I assume to our finance director was the recipient of one of these raises, even though her most recent highlights include recommending we pay millions more in borrowing costs for premium bonds and then recommending a 10+% tax increase. I'm scared to think what someone in the district needs to do to get a pay reduction???
Also, I believe that points 1 & 2 are correctly prioritized AHEAD of architecture issues. Let's face it . . . until we can honestly say that we are getting the best/most out of our teachers, the bricks and mortar don't mean anything.
Lastly, before Mr. Celli hits the speaker's circuit lecturing on how best to educate children, perhaps he should teach his own staff architects and planners how to read zoning codes and ordinances. The project sits motionless due to his staff's inability to focus on those pesky left brain issues.
Interesting presentation by Cappucci/Celli, but it reminded me of a Bloglebo submission by a high school building proponent a few weeks ago... "To me this building project is about a facility w/an aged infrastructure that has outlived its useful life..."
Hmmm, useful life, sounds like a great argument for a new building, but current evidence seems to suggest the high school is still functioning at a very high level!
Here's some numbers from 2010:
154 students received Highest Honors
72 students received High Honors
73 students received Honors
87 made Cum Laude Society
128 made National Honor Society
4 were National Merit Program SemiFinalist
12 received National Merit Program Commendations
Throughout the year our kids achieved the following:
Girls Softball- WPIAL Champions
Girls Basketball- State Champions
NAMM Foundation honored Lebo as one of Best Communities for Music Ed.
Modern Millie- Best I've Seen, PG Review
Boys Baseball- #1 Ranking, Tribune Review
Boys LAX- 4 times state Champs
Swimming- finished 5th in state
2010 Hunt Foundation Award for Arts
2 students selected for National Honors Band
Award of Excellence from World Affairs Council of Pittsurgh
2 students win Best Buy Award in TV production
Jr. student wins Concerto Certificate
So, this building project is about a facility w/an aged infrastructure that has outlived its useful life... to the school board and proponents "where's the beef?"
A $113 million building is going to dramatically improve upon the above results?
Ms. Cappucci and Mr. Celli now tell us in large type on page 15 of their presentation, in the 21st Century "Students will learn through images (not words)"
Year after year MTLSD students are academically successful.
We're already ten years into the 21st century and still seem to have an enviable level of achievement.
Dean Spahr
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