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The Power of Their Ideas: Lessons for America from a Small School in Harlem
Teaching the lessons of New York's most famous public school, Deborah Meier provides a widely acclaimed vision for the future of public education. With a new preface reflecting on the school's continuing success.
212 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1995
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July 31, 2013
Deborah Meier writes of her experiences creating a school in Harlem where "90 percent of the students graduate from high school and 90 percent of those go on to college, this in a city where the average graduation rate is 50 percent."
She's clear-eyed and practical: they did all this while still complying with federal and state regulations regarding school (this is pre-NCLB, no idea how they're handling this now). She's honest about the difficulties and failures.
But, she writes, it turns out that all kids are indeed capable of generating powerful ideas . . . that ideas are not luxuries gained at the expense of the 3R's, but instead enhance them. . .. . there's a radical -- and wonderful -- new idea here -- that every citizen is capable of the kind of intellectual competence previously attained by only a small minority . . . all children [can] and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks" (4).
She argues that because we are talking about all children, this must happen precisely in the public schools, which will require us to rethink what education is for -- and how it should be structured.
She tells of how they structured the school around five "habits of mind" that they should use when they approach any subject, in school or out:
1. concern for evidence (how do we know that?)
2. viewpoint (who said it and why?)
3. cause and effect (what led to it, what else happened, the search for connections and patterns)
4. hypothesizing (what if, suppose that)
5. who cares?
Lawyers, journalists, and historians all tell them that these habits are at the heart of their professions. And when students are sent to her office, Meier uses them: "I ask [the student] to put their version of the story on one side and that of whoever sent them to me on the other, then we consider evidence that corroborates either version, discuss whether what's happened is part of a pattern, how else it might have been dealt with, and, finally, why it matters." (50)
The school day has been structured in various ways through the history of the school, but in general, "courses" of multi-age children are taught by interdisciplinary teams of teachers. At the high school, there's a two hour block of humanities, and a two-hour block of math/science each day, as well as a one-hour general study period where the students can work on their projects.
To graduate, students participate in a rigorous, iterative "authentic assessment." They prepare fourteen portfolios: literature, history, ethics, science, math, media, etc. Seven of them are given a cursory review; seven are presented to a Graduation Committee composed of two faculty, another adult of the student's choice, and a student.
"But ensuring that we have a set of shared and publicly defensible standards takes continual reexamination. We select a sample of items - including videos of Graduation Committee meetings -- for staffwide review and then, ultimately, for external review. The "outsiders" review the material ahead of time. They start off by discussing their ratings and reasonings. The ratings are then compared with ours, and then we join together to argue over our rationales. It's a form of assessment that builds standards,examines teaching practice, and raises issues of curriculum -- all at one and the same time" (42). And, she points out, while the standards the committee uses are rigorous, the stakes are never too high, because the student can always revise and try again.
She writes that they constantly discuss and struggle with issues of balance -- it it okay if a student can defend a portfolio on World War II in the Japanese theatre, but doesn't know much about the same war in Europe? If they can do a detailed genetics project but have a much more cursory understanding of photosynthesis?
The students help each other prep and debrief their presentations and serve on each other's committees from the time they are in seventh grade. The standards are rigorous, but the stakes are never too high - students whose portfolios don't pass can always rework and try again.
A key component of the school is excellent teaching in a community of practice. Teachers who teach together have the same planning time, and "the school's structure, from the placement of rooms to the scheduling of the day, is organized to enable teachers to visit each other's classes, to reflect on their own and their colleagues' practice, and give each other feedback and support." (56)
She writes of caring as a central component of what it means to be an educated person (in language reminiscent of Nel Noddings): "caring is as much cognitive as affective. The capacity to see the world as others might is central to unsentimental compassion and at the root of both intellectual skepticism and empathy." (63)
She questions the traditional categories and structures of academia -- "why [do] we believe that adding to one's knowledge and mastering certain classroom skills are legitimate school objectives but producing a play, tutoring younger children, editing the school newspaper, or writing for the poetry magazine are extracurricular?" (169).
She's clear-eyed and practical: they did all this while still complying with federal and state regulations regarding school (this is pre-NCLB, no idea how they're handling this now). She's honest about the difficulties and failures.
But, she writes, it turns out that all kids are indeed capable of generating powerful ideas . . . that ideas are not luxuries gained at the expense of the 3R's, but instead enhance them. . .. . there's a radical -- and wonderful -- new idea here -- that every citizen is capable of the kind of intellectual competence previously attained by only a small minority . . . all children [can] and should be inventors of their own theories, critics of other people's ideas, analyzers of evidence, and makers of their own personal marks" (4).
She argues that because we are talking about all children, this must happen precisely in the public schools, which will require us to rethink what education is for -- and how it should be structured.
She tells of how they structured the school around five "habits of mind" that they should use when they approach any subject, in school or out:
1. concern for evidence (how do we know that?)
2. viewpoint (who said it and why?)
3. cause and effect (what led to it, what else happened, the search for connections and patterns)
4. hypothesizing (what if, suppose that)
5. who cares?
Lawyers, journalists, and historians all tell them that these habits are at the heart of their professions. And when students are sent to her office, Meier uses them: "I ask [the student] to put their version of the story on one side and that of whoever sent them to me on the other, then we consider evidence that corroborates either version, discuss whether what's happened is part of a pattern, how else it might have been dealt with, and, finally, why it matters." (50)
The school day has been structured in various ways through the history of the school, but in general, "courses" of multi-age children are taught by interdisciplinary teams of teachers. At the high school, there's a two hour block of humanities, and a two-hour block of math/science each day, as well as a one-hour general study period where the students can work on their projects.
To graduate, students participate in a rigorous, iterative "authentic assessment." They prepare fourteen portfolios: literature, history, ethics, science, math, media, etc. Seven of them are given a cursory review; seven are presented to a Graduation Committee composed of two faculty, another adult of the student's choice, and a student.
"But ensuring that we have a set of shared and publicly defensible standards takes continual reexamination. We select a sample of items - including videos of Graduation Committee meetings -- for staffwide review and then, ultimately, for external review. The "outsiders" review the material ahead of time. They start off by discussing their ratings and reasonings. The ratings are then compared with ours, and then we join together to argue over our rationales. It's a form of assessment that builds standards,examines teaching practice, and raises issues of curriculum -- all at one and the same time" (42). And, she points out, while the standards the committee uses are rigorous, the stakes are never too high, because the student can always revise and try again.
She writes that they constantly discuss and struggle with issues of balance -- it it okay if a student can defend a portfolio on World War II in the Japanese theatre, but doesn't know much about the same war in Europe? If they can do a detailed genetics project but have a much more cursory understanding of photosynthesis?
The students help each other prep and debrief their presentations and serve on each other's committees from the time they are in seventh grade. The standards are rigorous, but the stakes are never too high - students whose portfolios don't pass can always rework and try again.
A key component of the school is excellent teaching in a community of practice. Teachers who teach together have the same planning time, and "the school's structure, from the placement of rooms to the scheduling of the day, is organized to enable teachers to visit each other's classes, to reflect on their own and their colleagues' practice, and give each other feedback and support." (56)
She writes of caring as a central component of what it means to be an educated person (in language reminiscent of Nel Noddings): "caring is as much cognitive as affective. The capacity to see the world as others might is central to unsentimental compassion and at the root of both intellectual skepticism and empathy." (63)
She questions the traditional categories and structures of academia -- "why [do] we believe that adding to one's knowledge and mastering certain classroom skills are legitimate school objectives but producing a play, tutoring younger children, editing the school newspaper, or writing for the poetry magazine are extracurricular?" (169).
December 5, 2007
At last I found someone who thinks ideas based in early childhood education need to be implemented in later grades as well!!
December 7, 2007
I read this for school, but it was fascinating. Interesting for anyone in education.
February 23, 2009
High school reform was my hobby for years and her ideas are some of the best.
July 25, 2012
A mixture of the author's experience as a teacher/leader at CPE (public school in East Harlem) and her ideas and opinions of education in general. Interesting (leftist) take on school choice.
January 8, 2013
Truly inspirational!
June 23, 2013
Fantastic! Will certainly refer back to in concerns to her school's 5 habits of mind.
November 11, 2015
This woman is my hero!
March 25, 2018
Even though this book is more than 20 years old now, Meier's vision for what public schools can be is no less needed today than when it was published. From her experience launching several new schools within New York City's public school system, she lays out a new way that education can happen, where schools are small, class periods are long, and boundaries are blurred between subjects and between classrooms. She pushes back on the critics who claim it can't be done for various reasons — building sizes, funding, demographics — with evidence from her own experience. In between laying out this vision, she inserts her own reflections from her personal journal and occasionally from the school newsletter, where she transparently shows that nothing is easy about forging a new way forward and that she continues to have uncertainty every day about what they're doing.
Besides laying out the overarching vision of how a public school can function, she dives into several controversial topics, including why she's a proponent of choice but not of vouchers (and what the difference is) and why she thinks we need to question everything we've accepted as the canon of what students should learn because so much of "academics" is self-serving. She also directly confronts the myth of "the old days" of public education, pointing out how few people even had access to education once upon a time, and how even fewer were expected — by their family or society — to make it past a few years of schooling. In forging a new way forward, we cannot rely on myths about the past.
I wish that Meier had spent a bit more time talking about teaching itself and the qualities of a good teacher — there was a lot about the organization of schools and about what content to cover, but little about how, and few stories of specific students. I was confused by the breakdown of the grade levels in CPESS, which seemed to graduate students after 10th grade, and when she talked about graduation requirements being met by portfolio I thought the school didn't give out grades until she mentioned later that they had a dual system that used both methods, and the potential problems with that. This murkiness was part of some general disorganization in how the book was put together — for example, she includes a newsletter article making reference to a "sixth habit" the chapter before she introduces the school's five habits — but overall that didn't affect the power of her larger ideas.
It's hard to say how the last two decades, particularly with the changes in technology and governmental regulations, would affect the ability to put Meier's ideas into practice. However, I think the questions she asks, about what and how students are taught, are valuable for every generation, and certainly still relevant to today.
Besides laying out the overarching vision of how a public school can function, she dives into several controversial topics, including why she's a proponent of choice but not of vouchers (and what the difference is) and why she thinks we need to question everything we've accepted as the canon of what students should learn because so much of "academics" is self-serving. She also directly confronts the myth of "the old days" of public education, pointing out how few people even had access to education once upon a time, and how even fewer were expected — by their family or society — to make it past a few years of schooling. In forging a new way forward, we cannot rely on myths about the past.
I wish that Meier had spent a bit more time talking about teaching itself and the qualities of a good teacher — there was a lot about the organization of schools and about what content to cover, but little about how, and few stories of specific students. I was confused by the breakdown of the grade levels in CPESS, which seemed to graduate students after 10th grade, and when she talked about graduation requirements being met by portfolio I thought the school didn't give out grades until she mentioned later that they had a dual system that used both methods, and the potential problems with that. This murkiness was part of some general disorganization in how the book was put together — for example, she includes a newsletter article making reference to a "sixth habit" the chapter before she introduces the school's five habits — but overall that didn't affect the power of her larger ideas.
It's hard to say how the last two decades, particularly with the changes in technology and governmental regulations, would affect the ability to put Meier's ideas into practice. However, I think the questions she asks, about what and how students are taught, are valuable for every generation, and certainly still relevant to today.
June 27, 2020
I should start with - I am a homeschooling parent; I am not directly helping Ms. Meier’s cause of improving schools and communities jointly. But oh, her ideas so resonate with me. I love, LOVE how she hammers home over and over that only through proper schooling can we have a healthy democracy and healthy citizenry.
I think we can all agree right now that we have a problem. Protests over injustices of every kind towards blacks, unbelievable politicizing of basic steps like wearing a mask to protect the public health, a government that embraces misinformation and denial instead of true leadership. We’re simultaneously seeing how unhealthy our citizenry is.... and waking up to the solutions.
We need to start thinking like a people, instead of individuals. No more us vs them. As Ms. Meier repeatedly demonstrates, democracy is UNCOMFORTABLE. You are constantly exposing yourself to other perspectives, other solutions, other ways of life. But from this comes personal and community growth unlike any other.
As for her main point on schools - I have never seen a more compelling argument for public schools, and I admit I feel chastened for homeschooling. I’m uncomfortable, and considering how I can better help my community, not just my family. So, then, comes the growth.
I look forward to reading her other books.
I think we can all agree right now that we have a problem. Protests over injustices of every kind towards blacks, unbelievable politicizing of basic steps like wearing a mask to protect the public health, a government that embraces misinformation and denial instead of true leadership. We’re simultaneously seeing how unhealthy our citizenry is.... and waking up to the solutions.
We need to start thinking like a people, instead of individuals. No more us vs them. As Ms. Meier repeatedly demonstrates, democracy is UNCOMFORTABLE. You are constantly exposing yourself to other perspectives, other solutions, other ways of life. But from this comes personal and community growth unlike any other.
As for her main point on schools - I have never seen a more compelling argument for public schools, and I admit I feel chastened for homeschooling. I’m uncomfortable, and considering how I can better help my community, not just my family. So, then, comes the growth.
I look forward to reading her other books.
February 14, 2023
Buku ini menarik tapi untuk diaplikasi di Malaysia agak sukar atas beberapa faktor terutama dalam bab praktikal. Deborah ini co founder kepada Central Park East sebuah sekolah independence daripada apa apa birokrasi kerajaan terletak di tengah New York. Ideanya adalah ingin membebaskan pendidikan dari belenggu lama dan mencapai makna ilmu itu sendiri. Kepelbagaian warna kulit juga main peranan kerana US terkenal sebagai Land Of Hope untuk immigrants. Para pelajar dididik menyangi sekolah seakan milik mereka atau self belongging dan merapatkan jurang antar guru, murid dan ibu bapa. Menjadikan sistem sekolah bersifat lebih sosialis berpandukan keadilan. Mengecilkan sekolah dan bahagi kepada kumpulan kecik akan membantu pentadbir untuk mengurus dan boleh fokus kepada pendidikan. Sistem ini membuatkan sebuah pendidikan tapi perlaksanaannya menjadi seakan pekerjaan. Demonstrasi membantu memahamkan teori agar pelajar lebih menghargai nilai sebuah pendidikan.
February 24, 2020
One of the very best books and most important on education. Deborah Meier is an engaging writer. The style is conversational. Each chapter tackles a different issue of education, within the theme of public, progressive democratic eduction, much in the spirit of John Dewey. She tells this in the context of her success creating and directing a public school in East Harlem serving primarily low-income minority students.
September 13, 2024
Inspiration book describing how Meier was able to compeltely turn around a low-performing school by believing in the students and granting them the power that they never had.
Want to read
March 14, 2017I read this way back and got a copy of the "advance copy." The writing is clear and practical. East Harlem public education is the focus and is a good read for those wanting to know more about the challenges facing urban education. (I'm adding this review in 2017, a good 20 years after the book was published).
July 26, 2011
This is an essential read to any person considering a career as a teacher in the American public school system. It provides an in-depth look at education reform in America, more specifically East Harlem. Initially, Meier’s introduction to her beginnings as both a student and educator left me feeling put off from her writing.
Meier describes her childhood as being that of an upper class background full of privilege, including the attendance of a private school in New York City, “Each year we were told the stirring story of the founder’s wish to create a school for working men and women, to teach the arts of democracy in the interest of an egalitarian vision of society. That not a single working man’s child now attended our school was acknowledged, oddly enough as a sign of the schools success.” (6)
Ironically enough, it may have been Meier’s early experience of attending a private school founded for the working class, yet eventually unattainable to that socioeconomic group, that stoked her interest in public education. Meier sent her own children to public schools, a firm believer in the system. The largeness, discord, and ineffectiveness of many public schools in the country moved Meier toward a scaled down model as she and colleagues formed their own unique school.
I began to respect Meier more and more as I got further into her text. Meier proves her merit through hard work, tenacity, and compassion for children of all walks of life, “The capacity to see the world as others might is central to unsentimental compassion and at the root of both intellectual skepticism and empathy.” (63) Meier continues with a quote from Henry Louis Gates, “there is no tolerance without respect - and no respect without knowledge.” (63)
The effectiveness and astounding success of Meier’s CPE schools in East Harlem are notable. The graduation rate and pursuit of post-secondary education are some of the highest of inner city schools in New York City. The work that Meier does with children seems to reflect her genuine belief that each child, no matter the adversity or circumstance, has the ability to become an educated and vital citizen in the global and local community.
More than any other part of the text this quote seems to boils down the essence of what Meier is trying to achieve in her academic construct, “Small autonomous schools are, when all is said and done, a way to reestablish for us all, adults and children, the experience of community, or conversation, of the stuff of public as well as academic life. They expose us. young and old, to the workings of our political arrangements as we see how the politics of school life, the decisions made by kids and teachers, actually happen and how we can affect them. (118)
Meier is entirely too quotable - a text densely packed with information, real world experience, and trial and error. Meier’s voice is a cry to arms in defense of the necessity of public education: without which our already comatose “democracy” may be revealed to be a complete and utter sham.
Meier describes her childhood as being that of an upper class background full of privilege, including the attendance of a private school in New York City, “Each year we were told the stirring story of the founder’s wish to create a school for working men and women, to teach the arts of democracy in the interest of an egalitarian vision of society. That not a single working man’s child now attended our school was acknowledged, oddly enough as a sign of the schools success.” (6)
Ironically enough, it may have been Meier’s early experience of attending a private school founded for the working class, yet eventually unattainable to that socioeconomic group, that stoked her interest in public education. Meier sent her own children to public schools, a firm believer in the system. The largeness, discord, and ineffectiveness of many public schools in the country moved Meier toward a scaled down model as she and colleagues formed their own unique school.
I began to respect Meier more and more as I got further into her text. Meier proves her merit through hard work, tenacity, and compassion for children of all walks of life, “The capacity to see the world as others might is central to unsentimental compassion and at the root of both intellectual skepticism and empathy.” (63) Meier continues with a quote from Henry Louis Gates, “there is no tolerance without respect - and no respect without knowledge.” (63)
The effectiveness and astounding success of Meier’s CPE schools in East Harlem are notable. The graduation rate and pursuit of post-secondary education are some of the highest of inner city schools in New York City. The work that Meier does with children seems to reflect her genuine belief that each child, no matter the adversity or circumstance, has the ability to become an educated and vital citizen in the global and local community.
More than any other part of the text this quote seems to boils down the essence of what Meier is trying to achieve in her academic construct, “Small autonomous schools are, when all is said and done, a way to reestablish for us all, adults and children, the experience of community, or conversation, of the stuff of public as well as academic life. They expose us. young and old, to the workings of our political arrangements as we see how the politics of school life, the decisions made by kids and teachers, actually happen and how we can affect them. (118)
Meier is entirely too quotable - a text densely packed with information, real world experience, and trial and error. Meier’s voice is a cry to arms in defense of the necessity of public education: without which our already comatose “democracy” may be revealed to be a complete and utter sham.
December 21, 2014
A kind of manifesto for the small schools movement across the country written by one of the pioneering 'mothers' of the movement. It's a really hopeful book and one that takes the feeling that something's amiss in our public schools, and puts words to how that uneasy feeling can be changed to something that works, especially for our most 'disadvantaged' students and communities. I really enjoyed reading about the 'nuts and bolts' of small schools: how they get started ('incubated'), the school structure, size, classes, ideas about learning, working with families, etc. that goes into creating a small school community. Some chapters about the 'big picture' can be skimmed or skipped over, but the ones about her experiences with her own small school in NYC are like stumbling upon pots of school reform gold. Even though it took me awhile to read, I especially liked it because of my own immersion in a few small schools in Oakland for the last 2 years, which seemed to follow the ideas in this book down to the letter. I think her ideas are great starting points to talk about what's missing from a lot of schools, but with some refining still needed. As much as her ideas are about low-income students, I don't think she brings up race once in her whole book which is quite an unfortunate oversight. The writing is choppy, but the ideas are gigantic and so gets 3 stars.
August 27, 2011
What an inspiring book! Deborah Meier is a rare intellect. She possesses both a first-rate mind and the drive to use it. She is a champion of small schools: schools that can specialize and adapt to the changing demands we make of them; schools that teach their students to think deeply and work actively as a community of learners and citizens. I'm not sure I agree with her quantitatively, but she certainly makes interesting points. Beyond her recommendations for transforming America's schools, I found her provocative meditations about the goals of teaching to be really helpful. This is a book I will want to pull out and reread regularly.
August 26, 2011
In the ongoing debate or argument about public school reform, very rarely are the voices of people actually WORKING on school reform from the inside heard. Deb Meier has been working to improve the educational outcomes of students in communities from California to Pennsylvania to New York and her research and results are interesting. I'll be using her Habits of Mind in my classroom this year as a framework to improve student writing, reading, and critical thinking. The book is very readable, and while I wanted more details, she does a nice job of telling a story about how to make schools more student-centered.
February 18, 2008
Debbie Meiers musing on what made Central Park East work. She describes lots of little things- like building an observation platform into a classroom so teachers could watch a visiting master at work- that made CPE a community of excellence. Also has some interesting insights on why the school succeeded, such as her observation that she learned best as a child by piecing together fragments from the adult conversation happening over her head; perhaps, she says, CPE kids turned out special because they were constantly exposed to a community of teachers hashing out their ideas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
July 4, 2015I have long respected Deb Meier for the ideas behind community schooling and the Coalition for Essential Schools (and whose colleague Vito Perrone was the leader of the HGSE program through which I got my M.Ed and cert). Both reasonable and insistent as always, this book rewarded me by inspiring a number of ideas I have enjoyed considering, although I don't agree with all of her points. Meier is one of America's great liberal educators, and should be considered if you care about education, even if you end up discarding some or even most of her stuff later.
Read
January 16, 2016I loved this book! It tells how the author created public schools (Central Park East in Harlem) that are more like some very elite independent private schools. And it brings up a lot of very thought provoking ideas in regards to education. Like this one for instance. "No school shall have graduation requirements that cannot be met by every professional working in the school, and therefore these requirements shall be phased in only as fast as the school can bring its staff up to the standards it requires of its students."
June 17, 2013
Those interested in educational leadership in a postmodern world and are tired of the semantic-laden educational reforms that are really a repackaging of failed traditional schemes of student management should read this book and look for ways toshkent what this school does a part of their ideology for real student achievement.
August 3, 2007
Good ideas, but not realistic for the public schools I have worked in. Ther whole model is based on a "school of choice" that has a very different student population than the regular default public school when the children or their parents exercise no choice.
March 18, 2016
Meier is the guru of educational achievement mainly because she respects the students and (as a true constructivist) sets up the learning environment to teach the students when the right thing at the right moment. She has a proven record as a reformer.
March 23, 2007
This book was inspiring and formative in my career development... it resonated with and shaped my earliest ideas of education reform...
June 16, 2007
Great book about how inner city schools can have a "private school" feel.
June 18, 2009
Why I teach!
August 23, 2009
This was a really powerful book that made me think a lot about how to affect change that is both substantive and sustainable.
August 27, 2009
A good simple book by a person with a good simple idea: small schools work. Then, she put her ideas into action. A breath of fresh air in the blather of education writing.
Read
September 22, 2009Read this one for my 1st Grad Class - Current and Interdisciplinary Perspectives in Education. Great book! All about CPE schools in NY.
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