| ||||||
Poor Italian Schoolboys Have Lessons for Today's Teachers |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
From Ascribe Newsfeed: A veteran teacher, administrator and education researcher is reviving interest in one of the classic stories of 20th-century education -- the experiences of disadvantaged schoolboys inspired to overcome discouragement and adversity by their teacher, who also was a priest in their remote Italian village. "You Won't Remember Me: The Schoolboys of Barbiana Speak to Today," published by Teacher's College Press at Columbia University, is an account of the school where students learned to overcome social-class limitations. "It resonates today as educators help socially disadvantaged students realize their potentials," said Marvin Hoffman, founding director of the University of Chicago's North Kenwood Oakland Charter School. For me, it simply means that it had a major impact on a whole generation -- my generation -- of teachers, and it confirmed the belief that teaching could be a means to bring greater equity to our inequitable society," Hoffman said. The schoolboys in the small Tuscan town brought discouragement with them when they came to the small school operated by maverick priest Don Lorenzo Milani. The first paragraph of the book, a letter addressed to a composite teacher, sets the tone and provides the title for Hoffman's work: "You won't remember me or my name. Urban schools seeking to improve outcomes for students frequently have to increase the amount of time students spend in school. John Dewey, an early Chicago professor who founded the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, also respected that principle, as do teachers and administrators at the University Charter School campuses.
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
