In evaluating the schools that our children attend (or may attend), there are four overlapping questions we can ask. First, to what extent does a given school meet the basic psychological needs shared by all students—for example, the need to have some say about what one is doing, the need to feel connected to other people, and the need to feel competent at doing things that are seen as meaningful?1 Second, to what extent does it meet my child's unique needs (or, for that matter, any child's unique needs)? Third, to what extent is it likely to promote the long-term goals I have for my child ([>])? Will it help him or her to grow into a caring and responsible person, an independent lifelong learner, and so on? Finally, to what extent does it reflect my general sense of the purposes of education ([>])? Is this school more concerned with promoting democratic skills or with preparing students to take their place as workers, more interested in teaching everyone or in deciding who's better than whom?
This chart is meant to bring such questions down to a concrete level, to point to specific, observable features of a classroom or school that exemplify the ideas offered in this book. Here we leave the abstractions behind and try to make sense of what may actually be seen or heard during a visit.
If the school or individual classroom you're observing matches a number of features in the right-hand column, you'll have to decide whether it is sensible (or possible) to enroll your child elsewhere or whether to stay and press for change. If you opt for the latter, you will likely have to pick your battles as well as thinking about whether it makes sense to approach administrators or individual teachers, when it can help to organize other parents, and how you can preserve good relationships with educators while respectfully expressing concerns.
This chart can, in any case, put certain classroom practices (as well as their consequences) in a context. If your child seems bored or unhappy in school, this may reflect problems with the school rather than with your child. Conversely, this chart may be useful in reassuring you about certain things your child's teacher is doing; if they show up in the left-hand column, that may help to turn a reaction of puzzlement and suspicion into one of gratitude and even delight.
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NOTE: An earlier version of this chart was published in Educational Leadership (Kohn, 1996b), then reprinted as the title chapter in Kohn, 1998b, reflecting some helpful suggestions from Jim Beane, Harvey Daniels, Rheta DeVries, and the late Sylvia Kendzior. I subsequently embellished it a bit, incorporating ideas from three other, remarkably similar lists: Routman, 1991, pp. 475–76; Wood, 1992, pp. xiii–xv (from whom I borrow the phrase "sense of purposeful clutter"); and Zemelman et al., 1998, [>].