A Time To Learn by George H. Wood - Book Report/Review Example

A Lesson Learnt Book Report on A Time to Learn by Dr. George Wood Dr. Wood makes some very interesting points in his book d Time to Learnand despite all the wondrous, imaginative and possibly difficult issues which he discusses, the most important point to note about the things he says is that they can be done. Even though there are critics who suggest that the example he gives as a model to others was not diverse or even sufficiently large, it must be pointed out that these come across as little more than excuses to keep schools from achieving their real potential. The subject of the book is clarified by the writer on the very first page where he states that, “This book is about the work it will take to reinvent our high schools, moving them from institutions to communities (Wood, 1999, Pg. 1)”. The author’s own experiences as an educator in the college as well as high school environment certainly add to the value of the book since the readers understand that the writer has been an active participant in the education process rather than an outsider looking in to act as a researcher or consultant. That is not to say that Wood’s work does not include any research since he worked for more than a decade as a professor of education which certainly entails its own requirements for research and experimentation. The combination of research and the experiential knowledge gained by Dr. Wood makes it possible for readers to understand clearly why most reform initiatives in schools today fail to meet their mark. Reforms which are half baked, non intuitive and do not take into account the needs of the students are hardly useful or even appreciated by those who are most involved in the process. As recommended in the book, teachers as well as students have to be made interested in the changes which are taking place in a school before the changes can lead to meaningful output. At the same time, participation from other stakeholders is also an important factor for the successful implementation of the reforms and these stakeholders include everyone from the parents who send their children to the school to administrative boards who have to maintain the legal guidelines and mandatory guidelines coming from the local, state or federal bodies for the governance of the American education system. Even the community at large can participate in how schools are run at a given location since they too can be affected by the operation and systems used at a school. A typical student spends more than five thousand hours of his/her life in high school and that is a significant portion of time by any standard. What Dr. Wood has pointed out is that a lot of the time is spent in activities which do not help the individual to grow because the general curricula are geared towards taking everyone on the same path at the same time. Individual difference and aptitude is a reality which exists without question and it is often a futile exercise to expect that all people can develop at the same rate with the same interests in the same fields. Instead of focusing on what is best for individuals, a focus on the collective can bring the education process to a crawl. The ideas presented by Dr. Wood are indeed radical and I was surprised to find out the detailed history of the Carnegie unit which is a measure developed more than a hundred years ago and is still in use today. The book does take a revolutionary approach since many of the ideas concerning education e.g. mainstreaming and no child left behind which are prevalent in the education system are countered with strong arguments, individual experiences and case studies which show how it is difficult to create a system that produces a standard for everyone to follow. Luckily, Dr. Wood does not bemoan the fact that we have such a system in place but rather gives us a position from which we can start to make changes to a system which is in desperate need of an overhaul. Comparing our schools and their historical development, the book shows that schools have become inflexible over time. While the better examples of schools are centered on the needs of individual students, the present general example of a high school would be more focused on the needs of a particular course. Speaking of examples, the Federal Hocking High School serves as a primary example of how a school can become a center of learning for the young adolescents in a community. Dr. Wood served as the principal of this school for a long time and during his tenure he changed the way things were run at the school by engaging the students as well as the faculty in the central purpose of why a school exists i.e. for learning. Students and teachers combine forces for the purposes of improved learning rather than come into constant conflict over how and what should be taught. The book carried many different examples of how students can be fully involved in the learning process. There was one example which strikes as being particularly useful and it is the case of students studying ancient cultures being grouped into various teams to see what sort of culture they can come up for their team. It seems that these sorts of exercises are very useful for students because they help them learn exactly what a culture is rather than simply know the names of kings and queens who existed thousands of years ago. Finding the application of even the simplest aspects of learning brings the course to life since it makes participants out of the students who might be acting as mere observers. Engaging a young mind in the learning process is what is required of our schools and no one does it better than Dr. George Wood. In fact, it is recommended that students should be engaged in the government of the school as will since the Federal Hocking High School worked with student body for organizing clubs, dances and student events with excellent results. Dr. Wood recognizes this as a revolutionary step and admits that, “No one would have ever imagined, for example, that turning over all student affairs to our Student Delegation (which is what we call our student government) would actually make them run better (Wood, 1999, Pg. 146).” Clearly, that would come as a surprise to any individual who holds a traditional viewpoint on how things should be organized in a high school. The book holds many other surprises and eye-openers for our present generation of educators and perhaps the greatest surprise comes when a person knows how successful the changes made by Dr. Wood have been for the school and its students. The results speak for themselves as within three years the school became one of the top schools in Ohio in terms of student attendance, improvements in GPA, college admission percentages and the overall student morale. Any logical and rational person would have to agree that the objectives set out by Dr. Wood were certainly met and the opinions given by the writer are very useful for all schools in the country. If they can not be used exactly as outlined by Dr. Wood, they can be modified in nature to meet the requirements of any school that wishes to improve itself. Of course to follow that path it requires a certain amount of courage and risk taking abilities since changes in the way things are done are often met with resistance to the change. However, as confirmed by Catherine Griffith who works at the Curry School of Education in the University of Virginia, “High school need not be described by the stale accumulation of Carnegie Units and scores on state exit examinations. George Wood describes a better way (Griffith, 2006, Pg. 45).” I can safely conclude that A Time to Learn is an essential book for those who care about education and the message within should be given careful thought by all professional educators. Works Cited Wood, G. (1999). A Time to Learn. Plume Publishers. Griffith, C. (2006). Time to Learn. American School Board Journal, 193(7), 45-46. Read More