Will Okun’s March 27 piece describes Hoops High, a hugely popular program in which Chicago students produce a weekly TV show covering high school sporting events. At the heart of the piece is this quote from the program’s teacher, Jeff McCarter:

“School does not have to be fun, but it should be interesting,” opines McCarter. “All these students have potential; we just have to figure out how to spark their interest. I think there is a great need for us to show these young people that we respect and believe they are capable of achievement. We should encourage them to express themselves and listen to what they say.”

The piece drew a range of comments that pretty much reflect the range of public opinion about high-tech or creative electives in inner city schools.

Some respondents agree with Okun, that programs like Hoops High are essential for getting kids to come to school at all. Research backs up that such classes do boost attendance. School has to be meaningful in the here-and-now, they argue, because inner city kids don’t have much access to visions of interesting futures.

But other respondents said that if kids produce a sportscast but can’t read or write, the experience hasn’t prepared them for a successful future. These kids, they suggest, need to buckle down and learn the real stuff that will prepare them for college and economic success.

Missing from the analysis is the accountability movement’s life-sucking impact on the regular curriculum. It used to be that good teachers freely mixed creative projects and real-world applications with the standard curriculum. As in, “While we’re learning about Vietnam, go interview one of your relatives, and we’ll make a web site of local heroes.” These projects built traditional knowledge and skills in the context of immediately-meaningful experiences.

But more and more, anything with a remote chance of engaging students is crowded out of the standard curriculum in the name of covering more material. That means that if school is fun at all, it’s only fun during electives, which are criticized for not building traditional skills.

School should be interesting - but not just during electives. We should be looking to electives to teach us how to do better with the regular curriculum, and not count on them to do all the heavy lifting of engaging students.

I’ll leave you with a quote from the always eloquent John Holt:

“It is a serious mistake to say that, in order to learn, children must first be able to ‘delay gratification,’ i.e., must be willing to learn useless and meaningless things on the faint chance that later they may be able to make use of some of them. It is their desire and determination to do real things, not in the future but right now, that gives children the curiosity, energy, determination, and patience to learn all they learn.”