Wednesday, January 28, 2004
January 28, 2004
I'm a teacher at Murray High School, the first Glasser Quality Public High School in the world! I am excited to get a chance to talk to the world about the new system that we use at Murray to help students and teachers love coming to school and understand that their education is their own.
Murray students realize that their minds are theirs to cultivate and that it is up to them to decide what is valuable to learn and what isn't. Murray students participate in the organization of the school, including hiring staff. All of the major decisions are decided by consensus. All of us have one vote, which means that all it takes to say no to an idea is one vote. This gives each of us a lot of power to create change.
The best way to get something accomplished at Murray is to convince others that your idea is a good one. As you can imagine, there are many discussions about how education should be formed at Murray, because our days are our own. We don't belong to some system. The system belongs to us. If it doesn't work, we tinker with it together until it does work.
Our school is based on Dr. William Glasser's Choice Theory. The most important idea of choice theory is that the only person whose behavior we can control is our own. If we accept that concept, then we soon realize that we spend a lot of time using behaviors designed to control others' behaviors. Public schools, especially, have developed many systems designed to "control" their students. They use the 'F' grade, zeros and various punishments, such as In School Suspension. They believe that these behaviors control their students.
At Murray, we would say that the students who stay in those schools stay IN SPITE OF those controlling behaviors, because they believe they truly need that diploma. They choose to overlook those behaviors, or they believe that those behaviors are really controlling them. They might not realize that they can resist those controlling behaviors.
The students who choose to apply to Murray come here because they realize that their current educational system isn't working for them. They have usually tried various resistance behaviors, such as failing grades ("You can't make me work"), or skipping, or some "acting out" behaviors. They usually can't say, when they have been accepted to Murray, what it is that isn't working for them at their old school. They usually blame themselves for their problems.
At Murray, though, we help them see that their resistance behaviors were just survival skills they had developed to make it through an oppressive system that didn't acknowledge their skills. Most of our students are extremely intelligent and creative. They are especially great in the arts, but some excel in the mathematical/science fields, too. Once they get to become involved in the creation of their own educations, they soar.
There is much more to be said, and I'll keep writing here every day as examples come up. My hope is that students and parents who read this blog will study choice theory on their own and discover a way to create more schools like Murray. We don't want to be the only Glasser Quality Public High School.
Love,
C. Wellen
I'm a teacher at Murray High School, the first Glasser Quality Public High School in the world! I am excited to get a chance to talk to the world about the new system that we use at Murray to help students and teachers love coming to school and understand that their education is their own.
Murray students realize that their minds are theirs to cultivate and that it is up to them to decide what is valuable to learn and what isn't. Murray students participate in the organization of the school, including hiring staff. All of the major decisions are decided by consensus. All of us have one vote, which means that all it takes to say no to an idea is one vote. This gives each of us a lot of power to create change.
The best way to get something accomplished at Murray is to convince others that your idea is a good one. As you can imagine, there are many discussions about how education should be formed at Murray, because our days are our own. We don't belong to some system. The system belongs to us. If it doesn't work, we tinker with it together until it does work.
Our school is based on Dr. William Glasser's Choice Theory. The most important idea of choice theory is that the only person whose behavior we can control is our own. If we accept that concept, then we soon realize that we spend a lot of time using behaviors designed to control others' behaviors. Public schools, especially, have developed many systems designed to "control" their students. They use the 'F' grade, zeros and various punishments, such as In School Suspension. They believe that these behaviors control their students.
At Murray, we would say that the students who stay in those schools stay IN SPITE OF those controlling behaviors, because they believe they truly need that diploma. They choose to overlook those behaviors, or they believe that those behaviors are really controlling them. They might not realize that they can resist those controlling behaviors.
The students who choose to apply to Murray come here because they realize that their current educational system isn't working for them. They have usually tried various resistance behaviors, such as failing grades ("You can't make me work"), or skipping, or some "acting out" behaviors. They usually can't say, when they have been accepted to Murray, what it is that isn't working for them at their old school. They usually blame themselves for their problems.
At Murray, though, we help them see that their resistance behaviors were just survival skills they had developed to make it through an oppressive system that didn't acknowledge their skills. Most of our students are extremely intelligent and creative. They are especially great in the arts, but some excel in the mathematical/science fields, too. Once they get to become involved in the creation of their own educations, they soar.
There is much more to be said, and I'll keep writing here every day as examples come up. My hope is that students and parents who read this blog will study choice theory on their own and discover a way to create more schools like Murray. We don't want to be the only Glasser Quality Public High School.
Love,
C. Wellen
