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mm hmm. Which ones will make it? And which ones won't If you're a parent, you're already concerned with that somewhere. Generally at a rather early age, there comes a profound moment in the consciousness of most Children when they decide that school is either for them or

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not for them. That brief moment can result in priceless human resources for a world that desperately needs bright young minds and intellects to cope with. It's potentially fatal illnesses or it can lead to a form of social quicksand that becomes more hopeless with each passing year

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for the unprepared and uneducated. The american tragedy of today is the school dropout. Whether it is a physical or psychological dropout. But while we invariably think of this in terms of pupils, we should be very sure whether it is not our entire educational system that has

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become a dropout. These are times when it is absolutely essential to their futures and to the future of this country for all of them to make it among the most dedicated to that proposition are today's educators. But for many years they have battled against heavy odds

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Out of this has come a growing conviction that we should examine our entire educational system according to many prominent educators. Education may well change as much in the next 20 years as it has in the past 200 Already, some tangible and exciting steps have been taken

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in that direction. One of them quite close to you who view this program, this is the Granada community school based on the rotational plan focal point for tonight's KPI X. Report on tomorrow's school today. Mm hmm. Mhm. Yeah, mm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm

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hmm hmm hmm hmm hmm mm hmm mm hmm. In 18 47 boston was the scene of a revolution in education. The first fully graded public school was built. The Quinns E school prototype of the american school house for 100 years. Here, the basic box method attained

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near perfection. A room of a fixed shape and size became the ideal in education and with the inflexible box went. These features an inflexible curriculum and an inflexible number of students group for the most part by age, not ability learning the same thing. At the same

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time, students were added and taken away the system provided for a greater population by adding more classrooms. More boxes, they were arranged in squares, strung out in rows built into taller buildings. But the box was never altered until fairly recent times. We have come to a

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time when many searching questions are being asked about education and a number of them have focused attention on traditional school architecture, with the result that in recent times, the four walled learning box has been broken desks, uprooted walls, made mobile or non existent teachers and students

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are meeting in new circumstances and in new surroundings. The schoolhouse. For years. The step child of public architecture is finally coming into its own and with it equally new concepts of teaching and learning that are adapted to the new school architecture. An exciting example of this

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is to be found quite close to us in the bay Area complex. It is the Granada community school and Teacher education center, part of the reed union school district that includes belvedere Tiburon and Corta Madera in marin county California. And while it is not the first

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nor for that matter, the only school of its type, it reflects an educational philosophy that is now attracting national attention. The Granada community school and Teacher education center is located in a pleasant residential suburb of san Francisco. Mhm mm hmm. Outside it looks and is quite

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different from schools familiar to most of us. It is just as different inside Each Granada schoolhouses. So named because it is a lot like the original one room school except that it is much larger. It covers about 5000 square feet, roughly five times the size of

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the conventional one room school. It has no interior walls to separate sight sound or students. And the first thought is whether this may distract students in their studies. I really like it quite a bit different and you're not nuts box with windows in it here, you're

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in a place that different modern and just plain different. I guess it's a space in the, in the room that makes you feel like you're kind of not by yourself, but you're able to do things by yourself. Alright. Yes. Each schoolhouse in the Grenada plan will

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contain groups of learners of different ages, like the schoolhouse of old to a total of approximately 100 Children per schoolhouse. With four teachers plus student teachers in training and with additional non professional help, all directing attention to each large group rather than one teacher to each

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25 or 30 students. This accomplishes something very important. Under careful scheduling at certain times, it allows a given teacher to instruct a very large group, Perhaps many more than the old school, 25-30. In this way, several other teachers may be freed to work with other groups

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of smaller sizes in the same big room. These groups may include Children that require this more specialized and concentrated attention. Not only the Children, but the teachers seem to respond to this opportunity for individualized contact. We feel that Grenada school is unique in that we work

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with the individual needs of the student, particularly if he is weak in any area. We can work in small groups with him at special times to bring up these deficiencies where he can perform in the group If he is an advanced student. Precocious youngster, he will

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work with a a group of youngsters who are older than himself who are working at a higher level parents of Children attending Grenada school expressed themselves. I have observed that since my Children have moved from the school, we were attending before in the reeds school district

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and were transferred here when Granada was built. that they have benefited by more individualized attention that they receive here. I like the idea that there is a teacher available to help the ones who are having problems in a very small area. This brings into focus another

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basic difference between Granada and the average school at Granada. There are no grades and no report cards. A teacher is selected to be the major counselor advisor to each child, working closely with the child and his parents. This teacher draws up a contract that sets a

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reasonable learning goal for the child. The contract may be amended at any time depending on the student's rate of learning. If he moves rapidly, he can aim for higher goals. If he falters, teachers can give him more work in his weakest area. Based on these contracts,

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students are assigned to teaching groups of varying size and level without reference to age or year in school. In an ordinary school, these youngsters would probably be assigned to a graded class, a square box filled with kids of about the same age, those who learned the

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fastest and those the slowest would be taught at the same pace by a teacher with the impossible job of being all things to all Children. The Children would be promoted at the end of the school year at Granada. There is no set time for promotion. Consequently,

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there is no embarrassment. If a youngster stays with one group a little longer than others. Or even if he moves back a step for a while. Dr Edward pino, Superintendent of the Reed School district of which the Grenada school is a part commented on the philosophy

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of individual attention to the Children at this school. We had to read school district believe very sincerely that the unique and unshared responsibility of the public school is a development of intellectual curiosity and critical thinking and that this must be done for each individual to the

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highest hallmark of his individual potential. We believe the Grenada plan is the best attempts so far in this district at least to try and identify the individual potential of each learner to cope with it and to do something about it. During the day, each child will

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move to several different learning groups, small or large and no matter what subject is being taught, these groups will be on the same learning level as he is. He will not have to speed up or slow down to accommodate himself to the pace of the group

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learning this again underscores the difference between the teaching philosophies at Granada and those of ordinary schools in a sense, the child steers his own course from group to group. This helps develop motivation and personal initiative as well as identification with the group. It seems that change

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is probably the biggest single factor with which our youngsters are going to be faced in the future and having been educated in a school with such a wide range of flexibility, These youngsters will really be prepared for a, the tremendous amount of change that they're bound

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to be faced with. Four large one room school houses make up the Granada Community School, each with its so called team or family of approximately 100 students. Each family has been given a greek name, Alpha four Children from 5 to 6. Mm hmm, Beta for 67

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and eight year olds, Gamma for ages 89 and 10 and Delta for those 9, 10 or 11, multi age grouping is an ideal way to group Children together who are performing at the same educational level. Whenever a youngster becomes more typical of the boys and girls

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of another team or cluster, he will move into a new schoolhouse. This is the plan of learning progression rather than promotions. We asked john Fitch principle of Granada school that this might be confusing to the students. Many have asked that question. We found that Children aren't

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confused at all as they pursue their various teaching stations in the Grenada experience. Mhm. The Children who are involved in the learning task know where they're to be and when they should be in those various positions. It is confusing to those of us who traditionally have

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had the responsibility of knowing where the Children are to watch them as they move to their various teaching stations. Perhaps the thing which is the most disconcerting is to recognize that the Children have a responsibility in initiating a relationship with the teacher. Traditionally, we have assigned

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Children to the teaching stations and in the grenade experience that Children can really reach out to find that teacher who has just the right answer to the problems which he may be having right. The important fact for all of us to remember is that Children are

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purposely going about their business of seeking learning and education. They're looking within the learning group at the level in which that child's individual needs can best be met. Teachers in the grenade experience must be better planned so that Children have an opportunity to learn those things

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which we know they need to know and have an opportunity to reach out to find those areas in which they are particularly interested at Granada school. We feel that we are practicing the creator the teaching art in a very creative fashion. It's true that in some

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instances time schedules make it necessary for us to interrupt a learning sequence at a time when one more moment might have made it particularly rewarding. Perhaps this business of being rewarding would be mostly concerned with the teacher. The Children themselves have already learned all that they

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would have learned from a teaching sequence. We have felt though that by moving time schedules by moving Children, by moving the walls, we do indeed have a better learning experience for each youngster, our goal is the individualization of the learning experience. We feel that the Granada

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plan allows for this individuality and better yet makes the individual and operate a member of the learning teaching team. The key to individualized attention for the students at Granada school is the availability and flexibility of the teachers themselves. By the same token, the teachers are available

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to each other a great deal more. This stands out as a very significant difference between Granada and other schools. Look at it this way in many schools, the teachers seldom, if ever sees another teacher during class is much less does she have an opportunity to confer

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with or share responsibility with another teacher for her own classroom activities during classes. I know one because the classes at Granada school are conducted in this large open schoolroom. The teachers are geographically close to each other. In other conventional schools, walls would separate and isolate them

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At Granada, a team of four teachers, assisted by student teachers and non professional AIDS takes joint responsibility for all of the classes. In this single large schoolhouse up to 120 pupils, they are always in touch. It is this immediate availability to each other's classes or learning

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areas plus the shared responsibilities that make unique teacher interaction possible. This interaction permits more than one teacher, sometimes several to join forces and share in conducting the activities of a certain class. This is eight and comfort to any teacher. It brings about spontaneous and productive exchanges

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of ideas brief conferences that often result in a better allocation of activities, Not only the students but the teachers benefit from the interplay parents are aware of this team and teacher interaction. The advantage of team teaching is for the advantage of the Grenada plan in my

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estimation is that we are attracting the best teachers. It really doesn't make any difference in in this situation if our Children were in a contained classroom or in agronomic cluster because we are getting the best teachers but we wouldn't be getting them if we did not

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have this plan. Mm hmm. It is important for the community to be aware of these things because they reflect relations between the community and the school authorities. This is the concern of David Ring, who is apparent as well as chairman of the school district Board of

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Trustees. Any public school system which fails to maintain its relationship with its citizens, is likely to find itself in difficulty in very short order. We have devoted a great deal of time and effort in this district to maintaining channels of communication between the schools and the

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public in order to develop a depth of understanding and support for what's going on in the schools. Some eight years ago, for example, we formulated a statement of objectives of what we thought a very good school system should seek to achieve. And then through community discussion

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and survey, we undertook to determine how far the community was prepared to support these objectives. After a great deal of study, we concluded that they were widely supported and since that time these objectives have become the basic policy of this district underlying the plans and programs

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which we have developed and which we believe are moving in the direction of better education. Stated very broadly, these objectives look toward a program which will challenge to its fullest extent the mental ability of every child in the area, whether his capability is great or small,

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of course the necessary starting point is to employ and retain the best teachers we can find and to develop a strong curriculum in the basic subjects and in the fine arts. Beyond this, however, we have felt that the quality of the program can also be improved

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by reorganizing the classroom to make better use of teachers and facilities. The teaching teams are carefully organized with a team leader, she or he must be a superior classroom teacher and a veteran teacher of the district. These team leaders also have extensive experience in training student

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teachers. They are effective coordinators, purposeful but patients with other members of the team, They ensure that daily and long range plans are carried out. They worked closely with senior teachers in evaluating pupils and assigning them to groups. The team leaders and senior teachers usually take responsibility

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for large group lessons teaching low ability groups or guiding student councils positions as team leaders and senior teachers are particularly attractive to people of high ability who wish to advance to positions of responsibility without leaving the classroom. The Grenada plan offers them added prestige and better

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salaries for continuing to do the job for which they have been trained, less experienced teachers joined the team in positions of junior teacher or teacher intern. These junior teachers or interns are exceptionally well qualified. Fifth year graduates who after an initial student teaching assignment are recognized

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as strong teacher candidates. They are then recommended to work as full time salaried teachers under close supervision. This is one of the areas which dramatically distinguishes a grenade a school from other conventional schools. This is the matter of teacher education on the job, so to speak.

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At Granada, they are in very similar positions to medical interns at hospitals. They learned their craft under realistic and authentic conditions from experienced practitioners. Student teachers are supervised by many people, but particularly by a college or university supervisors such as Dorothy Blackmore, professor of education and

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Director of Student Teaching, Dominican College san rafael Dr Blackmore is a participating partner in the Grenada plan. The active participation of college and university people makes it possible for the interns and student teachers and all the team members for that matter to relate theory to practice

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and to make the university work more meaningful. I feel there are perhaps five different ways that the professional team helps us in turn helps to identify the teacher. This is an important psychological emotional step for a beginner to gain from working with other professionals by exchanging

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ideas and to benefit from the experience of others. Um, not to have to teach in isolation but in a cooperative effort and to understand herself better. To be aware of her own strengths and weaknesses, to appreciate the strength of others and unquestionably to be become tolerant,

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understanding of their weaknesses. I feel that this plan dignifies the task of the new teacher. She's frankly a beginner. She is accepted as a beginner. She is a learner in a most fortunate position both to learn and to contribute. She thinks of herself as a learner,

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not as a finished product. Wouldn't you agree sally that in reviewing the story of this school, it would be possible to illustrate and discuss many additional features. Many are no different from those found in the majority of equally modern but more conventional schools, except at Granada.

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There is more equipment and it is located so that it is more readily available. This includes familiar mechanical teaching aids, improved picture projectors and other equipment. KPI X feels that the essential differences between this and other schools are the essence of this. Report those essential differences

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are the benefits to Children, benefits that are observable in more teacher time and attention, which means individualized instruction to each child and more and better opportunities for the teachers themselves to provide that individualized instruction. The Grenada plan is not new, It is being tried in other

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areas. Neither is it claimed to be the final and only key to the ultimate in educational procedures. It is unquestionably a step and perhaps a very significant one in that direction. It is new enough so that only history can provide an answer to that. Many leading

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educational authorities throughout the land have hitched their futures to it. One of these is Doctor robert Anderson, author and consultant to the Grenada Plan since its development. Yeah. I travel around the country a good deal. And I work with school systems that are developing one or

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another of these patterns of school reorganization. I'm happy to testify that Granada is almost certainly one of the three or four most excellent and interesting elementary schools in the United States, the skill with which dr pino and his staff have created an atmosphere for enlightened change

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and the validity of the underlying pedagogical concepts which combined to make this a very real lighthouse for american education. This is an exciting school. As you have seen, it's a school in which the right things are happening to Children. I'm very proud to have been a

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part of its development for thousands of years. Teachers have dreamed of being able to give every youngster in their classrooms the individualized attention and instruction needed to fit their special needs. We believe the Grenada plan is the best approach so far to making that dream come

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true. We are indebted to educational facilities. laboratories founded by the Ford Foundation for use of certain film sequences. Mhm. Yeah, wow. Mhm, mm hmm. Yeah.