“The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business”

by Dennis Littky with Samantha Grabelle

Chapter Summaries
by Daniel Smith

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Chapter 1: The Real Goals of Education

Littky describes what it means to be educated. He insists that exhibitions are the best way to
measure learning and ascertains that knowledge is not power, but the "use of knowledge is
power." Littky points out that learning is personal, about learning how to think, and about being
mindful rather than memorizing.

Chapter 2: Kids, Schools, and the Bigger Picture

Schools are meant to help students obtain knowledge, but schools should also help them believe
in themselves and others and give them the drive to achieve. They should “love to learn.” He also
states that learning is about the 3 R's - relationships, rigor, and relevance. Schools must teach to
mind and the heart, making sure they are okay first.

Chapter 3: Atmosphere and School Culture

The Met utilizes an advisory system in which a teacher meets with a small group of kids on a
regular basis. This “second family” assures them that at least one person is looking out for them.

Research on small schools shows that performance in math and science is higher, attitudes
toward learning are better, dropout rates are lower, attendance increases, self-concept improves,
sense of belonging develops, interpersonal skills improve, and parent involvement increases.
From an educator’s viewpoint, it’s easier to lead a small staff, coordinate activities, and get to
know students. They are also safer and easier to secure. The downside appears in the number of
specialists, like music and art teachers, and the diversity of sports teams. However, the upside is
that the community that can include everyone.

Chapter 4: One Student at a Time

Schools should be more personalized and flexible. Reorganization should start with the student,
not subjects or classes, and be concerned with what knowledge students acquire and how they
apply that knowledge. Personalizing education means that every student has a completely
different curriculum. In doing so, “kids worry more about failing themselves” than they do about
competition. The ultimate goal at Thayer is for “all our students to choose a place in life rather
than being forced into one.” In a personalized school, diversity is recognized and respected
because everyone is forced to work with each child’s background and current family situation.
The school should balance each child's sense of individuality with that of being a vital member
of the community. Also, in a small school, it easier to approach one staff member at a time as
well since teachers and principals are learners too.

The idea is to change the behavior not to punish for the behavior. Problems need to be resolved
in ways that respect the student and his family. The environment should also be considered. If
kids enjoy class and are involved with real-world situations, few behavior problems arise.
Schools should promote the idea of self-discipline so that students learn to manage time well and

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work with little direction. Littky summarizes his philosophy in his remark, "Personalizing
education means not only personalizing the support each student receives, but also greatly
increasing the amount of responsibility each student has for his or her own learning.”

Chapter 5: Learning Through Interests and Pursuing Passions

Littky feels that kids should be allowed to learn through their own interests. Like the Reggio
preschools and kindergartens across the country that are “kid-led” or emergent where “they trust
kids enough to allow them to help direct their own learning.” Teachers should “figure out where
each kid is at and develop his or her learning from there.”

Littky asserts that “When we are interested in what we are learning, no one has to force us to
keep learning: we just do.” Students are motivated to attend school, to work on their
assignments, and to complete them for homework. Littky realizes that people who are passionate
about their jobs make the best workers. Why should learning be any different? Every topic can’t
be covered (as it is in the NC curriculum). The Met strives for “depth over breadth” so that
learning becomes a “way of life” for students.

Chapter 6: Real Work in the Real World

A lot of good activities are conducted in schools that are hands-on and applicable to the real
world. However they are not applicable to that child’s world. They are not real enough. When
students take on real responsibilities that have real consequences, they do more than just what it
takes to get by. He told stories of kids working on election campaigns and registering people to
vote, creating brochures for a real estate agent, keeping a dump out of town. These projects had
meaning for the students.

Chapter 7: Giving Families Back Their Power

“We Enroll Families,” reveals a philosophy that includes the parents as an integral part of a
child’s education. Not only do students write an essay for application to the school, but parents
must write one as well. Parents become members of their child’s Learning Plan Team, serve as
panel members at their child’s exhibition, and provide critical feedback on their child’s progress.
At graduation, they also sign their child’s diploma. Littky makes a powerful statement when he
remarks that he has “seen The Met transform entire families by helping parents take control not
only of their child’s education, but also of their own lives – some for the first time.”

At The Met, parents know that their opinion matters and they are involved in real school
decisions. Littky discusses his past experiences with community-controlled districts,
neighborhood groups, parent outreach, and his initial efforts to involve parents in their child’s
education. He even organized groups of parents to read John Dewey, take the standardized tests,
teach them about education, and make them “true partners in the process.” Littky also described
his travels in third world countries and noticed that kids were with their parents all day long,
even at work. He continues to push for small schools and the advisory structure because the
traditional structure inhibits collaboration between parent and teachers and may even result in

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antagonistic relationships between the two.

Littky stresses the importance of parents building relationships with the principal of the school
and their child’s teachers. He further lists questions for parents to ask about the school. Staff
development at The Met involves teaching skills and developing tools to involve the families so
that students have a built-in support system. Over the years, they have tried different strategies to
keep their parents involved, such as a parents’ night during which the parents give their own
exhibitions, a “buddy program” for new families, and an “empty nest” night.

Chapter 8: Measuring What Matters in a Way That Matters

Littky asserts that letter grades are “lazy, disrespectful, and completely unacceptable.” We ask
students to write many pages, yet we only give them a single letter to help them see their growth.
In the real world, adults are given meaningful feedback about their performance and shown what
they need to do to improve. He continues with reasons why grades are meaningless and
subjective. Alfie Kohn has proven that grades reduce student interest in content, in challenging
tasks, and the quality of student’s thinking. Littky ended the chapter by describing how
exhibitions can be used as learning tools. He states that exhibitions must be used to promote
growth rather than sort students. They must also be conversations about learning between the
students and their teachers, peers, and families. They reveal the process of learning, and also
include goal setting for the future. Even in the worst exhibitions, students are able to see what
they do not know. Littky also describes the value of an exhibition as opportunities.

Chapter 8½: Standards and How Testing Has Nothing to Do with Them

Standardized tests have nothing to do with the standards we want our students to achieve. There
isn’t an indicator of success that fits everyone. Secretary of Labor Robert B. Reich explained,
“We’re creating a one-size fits all system that needlessly brands many young people as failures
when they might thrive if offered a different education whose progress was measured
differently.” Littky asserts that we should be spending our energy to find real ways to measure
what makes good schools and successful students. Rhode Island, the commissioner of education,
Peter McWalters, helped implement a measurement tool called the SALT survey that considers
things that are important but not measured with standardized tests. No one is measuring whether
schools are developing healthy students who love learning, are happy, respectful, kind, and have
real skills that will allow them to make a contribution to the world. Littky also explains how
absurd it is to reward teachers and schools for getter higher scores by increasing funding.
Instead, they should be giving more funding to the schools that can’t meet the standards. He also
describes the impact of testing on certain students. If they get low scores, they consider
themselves “dumb”. He also indicates that Texas is “leading the country in the current high-
stakes testing experiment” and their dropout rates have increased since implementing the
program. He further cites statistics showing that “Nationally, 9 out 10 states with the highest
dropout rates have graduation tests.”

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Chapter 9: Make It Happen

Not only should we be ready for change, we should enjoy the process. Littky discusses the fact
that perseverance makes schools strong. He insists that instead of complaining and letting
problems frustrate us, we should view them as opportunities for change. He further asserts that
our system of education and the strategies we use to teach children must change if we plan to
save our children. If necessary, that change might occur one school at a time. Littky describes
school as a living organism that constantly reflects on its practices and changes as needed to do
what is best for each child. He describes the opportunities for reflection that his Met staff
encounters such as monthly retreat days, weekly staff meetings, and monthly grade-team
meetings. These teachers write in their journals, hold discussions, and contribute to newsletters.
They have received feedback in the form of longitudinal studies of students as they progress
through the program. They reflect on learning, structures, assessments, curriculum, and teacher
roles. Littky assures us that we must feel good enough about what we do to accept criticism. As a
result of this reflection, the Met implemented a “buddy system” for incoming freshmen, rewrote
their transcript format to meet demands of colleges, noted imbalances in diversity and began to
recruit students to balance the diversity.

Littky feels that we must make our philosophy a priority. He states that we must, “Stick to
philosophy, pay attention to latest research, change paths used to carry our philosophy, according
to times, kids, and staff.” Instead of using textbooks and worksheets to keep kids quiet because
they don’t want to pay attention. In a personalized small school, students and teachers want to
listen to each other. When you create a culture of respect and caring, a crisis can become the
curriculum for the day.

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References

Littky, Dennis. The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business. Alexandria, VA: Association
for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), 2004. Paperback ISBN: 0-87120-
971-3

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