Implementing New Programs - Move Slowly

Observers of the American education scene over the last five or six decades are familiar with the fanfare surrounding the introduction of a new program or methodology. School boards and administrators sing its praises, and teachers attend seminars at which they redesign their lesson plans to correspond to the new pedagogy.

Wave after wave of "something new" has washed through the educational community in the United States. Some good, some bad, some unremarkable, these innovations recede quickly at the advent of the next novelty.

Given that our system is currently structured as a K through 12 matrix, any proposed change should be given, at a a minimum, a thirteen-year trial before any conclusion is drawn about its merits or lack thereof.

The wise reader will quickly chuckle at such a notion. The idea of a thirteen-year trial period goes so against the current of the political establishment that it would be almost incomprehensible to any elected or appointed educational bureaucrat.

While America's educational system has done much to harm itself, it, or at least the public portion thereof, is also at the mercy of the larger social framework in which it exists. Nobody's interested in thirteen-year studies. Even outside of education, researchers find it difficult to garner support for longitudinal studies. Quick projects, with the hope of instant gratification, find more support. Perhaps in some quiet corners of the private sector someone would be willing to engage in a long-term trial of a method or pedagogy.

With great ceremony a new program is placed into the school system, but administrative dynamics will not leave it in place long. Its introduction will be an important item on some agenda, but its demise will take place almost without notice, as it is moved aside for the next new thing.

The reality being what it is, we will continue to lurch from one initiative to another every few years.

[Ann Arbor Pioneer High School Teacher Andrew Smith currently teaches at both Huron High School and Pioneer High School. He teaches History and German. For the 2014/2015 academic year, he has two classes every morning at Pioneer and three classes every afternoon at Huron.]

STEAM in the AAPS

The acronym STEM, denoting Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, has become popular in educational bureaucracies across the nation. In Ann Arbor, administrators use a variation, STEAM, which indicates the addition of Arts to the emphasis. STEM and STEAM are, by themselves, not programs, but rather expressions of content areas which educators turn into programs. The following is not meant to be a comprehensive overview, but rather is a sampling of facts and anecdotes which illustrate what STEAM can do for students:

• To get AAPS students ready for what they'll encounter after graduating from high school, we can look at examples like these:
• The University of Michigan's program in Cell Biology and Molecular Biology informs students (on its website as of February 2014) that they should have some exposure to French, German, or Russian.
• The U of M's program in Physics and Astronomy likewise informs students (on its website as of February 2014) that they should have some exposure to French, German, or Russian.
• The U of M's Chemistry Department (on its website as of February 2014) informs undergraduate majors that they should have a reading knowledge of German.
• The U of M's School of Engineering teaches, in conjunction with the U of M's German Department, technical vocabulary and writing in German; the School of Engineering sends undergraduate interns in large numbers to countries like Switzerland and Austria.

For more information about the study of the German language can accelerate your career in science, technology, engineering, the arts, and mathematics, ask your local high school German teacher!

[Andrew Smith is a German teacher at Pioneer High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan.]