Replacing direct instruction

One of the best examples of giving students experience that I have seen in the last 6 years was in an elementary school.  Every Friday they operated stores in a town.  One grade level was responsible for setting up the stores, another providing sales in the stores, and still another for cleaning up after the event.  Grade levels rotated from one responsibility to another each Friday.  Each store was responsible for counting and reporting the amount of money (tokens) they collected, the mayor of the town was responsible for reporting how close to the goal they were, and if reached was responsible for implementing the distribution of the goal.  After a goal was reached a new mayor was selected for the next goal.

It worked well, the children looked forward to it, and they learned a plethora of lessons that "seat time" could never teach.  That's just one example.  I have seen others that weren't so regular, but that were still good.  I have seen greenhouses for raising a variety of plants.  I have seen miniature aquariums for raising fish to sell and to eat (and to learn about aquatic life).  I have seen regular trips to the planetarium with a different objective for each trip (one for almost each week of the school year).  I have seen art galleries maintained weekly that feature the artists and the stories behind either them or their particular piece in the exhibit.  I have seen others that would classify more as projects, which would work for beginning experience, but not the kind of experience that more consistent repetitions yield.

There are a million ways to give experience to the training students receive in the early grades.  When experience makes training relevant to present and future needs, students engage in and learn valuable, immediately useful lessons.  Making experience the norm would require a change in the way space is used in a building.  It would also require a different kind of lesson planning on the part of teachers.  And, it would require a different type of evaluation of student performance.  It would change the focus of schools away from the classroom model, and a reallocation of money for the needs of the new focus.

Parents of the classroom model are the greatest resistors to a the idea of experience as a teacher.  It's not something that can be measured with an average on a report card.  They think there is no accountability for teachers who don't spend their time endlessly reinforcing basic knowledge.  Redirecting parents' expectations would have to precede and continue any reform moving to an experience model of teaching.  Change has happened before and it wouldn't stop with this leap forward.  But, it would have to happen with plenty of solid answers to many questions.  Providing all the proof in the pudding would need to happen for a couple of years in advance of the change and continue at least the first three afterward
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