In Conclusion
Many schools today still reflect their Industrial Age origins with rigid
schedules, inflexible facilities, and fixed boundaries between grades,
disciplines, classrooms, and functional roles.
The 21st century, though,
requires a new conception of education – one that breaks through the
silos that separated schools from the real world, educators from each
other, and policymakers from the communities they meant to serve.
The modern world demands learning environments that embrace the
wide world of people, places, and ideas, and are flexible in their
arrangements of space, time, technology, and people.
These connections will foster healthy cultures of mutual respect and support
among students, educators, families, and neighborhoods, serving their
lifelong learning and recreational needs, and uniting learners around
the world in addressing global challenges and opportunities.
In creating such learning spaces, we will have come closer to the
vision John Dewey articulated over a century ago: “…to make each one
of our schools an embryonic community life, active with the types of
occupations that reflect the life of the larger society, and permeated
throughout with the spirit of art, history, and science. When the school introduces and trains each child of society into membership within such a little community, saturating him with spirit of service, and
providing him with the instruments of effective self-direction, we shall
have the deepest and best guarantee of a larger society which is
worthy, lovely, and harmonious.”