Let’s face it: education is, and always has been, a pendulum. It seems as if the people who lead the charge in our educational system feel we have to choose just one way make our children proficient in academics. Then, politicians promote it, college professors seem to be apathetic to it, and, for the most part, teachers accept it, knowing that in a few more years the pendulum will indeed swing back to the other side and strategies and mandates will change yet again.

In the meantime, our students suffer and I wonder, why is there never a middle? We seem to forget pendulums have a middle, directly under the “point of support.” Why then can’t we choose the middle? Isn’t that what we want to be for our students—a point of support?

For our current opposing strategies, consider the sanctioned/safe method of study—Common Core Standards—and, on the other end, a technique that is a little less structured and a little more risky—Project-Based Learning. As often happens, neither of the two “ends of the swing” seem to be the right fit for every child, in every subject, in every situation.

The problem with not recognizing the middle is that we become shortsighted. We start to think all students can learn the same way, and even worse, we believe the same student will learn everything he or she needs to know using that same preferred method. Given our country’s pride surrounding diversity and embracing differences, we should already know this progression just doesn’t make sense. And given current statistics, this theory doesn’t make proficient students, either. 

I do get it. Schools are under significant pressure to perform within the confines of the Standards, and in the minds of administrators it is much easier to perform under what is presumed a stable and more “in the hands of the adult in the room” setting. A given set of standards with specific skill sets does provide a jumping off point for most students and a more discernable way to evaluate progress.

These skill sets, although important, will not provide necessary critical thinking, team-building, creativity, and communication skills needed for our students to survive in today’s real-world scenarios. Furthermore, they will not even provide the skills needed for the students to pass the newest test on the block, Smarter Balance.

On the other hand, PBL provides the opportunity for the student to choose. The teacher no longer does the evaluation or synthesis. Students are actually given the opportunity to formulate their own ideas regarding a given thought or practice. Administrators claim to want this type of learning atmosphere and student, but it has been my experience that they don’t want the methods that will provide them. The push-back for teachers who choose PBL in a Common Core world is often devastating to teachers and students.

Don’t get me wrong. I am in no way trying to say there shouldn’t be specific skill sets all students must know. On the other hand, I am also not saying that supplying the students with “big questions” in which they have to work as a team to examine solutions, ideas, and/or processes is not a necessary part of a true education. So, what is the answer?

• Create assignments that use skill sets included in the Common Core, with the core ideas and values that exist in any respectable project management atmosphere.
• Allow students to use their problem-solving skills. This is a necessity to being successful in life.
• Engage students in reading—anything and everything—and teach them how to talk about it.
• Ensure students have a strong skill-set base in math, reading, and writing. This includes being able to evaluate what’s important, what’s not, and what’s different or the same about both.
• Teach students that every idea, thought process, and text has a sequence. Figure it out and you open the door to meaning.
• Allow students to fail. There is something to be said for the idea that failure builds knowledge and character.

Or…simply find the middle and use a little bit of everything.

Pam Andreavich is a middle school writing teacher at a charter school in Middletown, DE. She is an executive board member for Delaware’s Odyssey of the Mind program.