What We Say and What We Do.

AS AN OBSERVER of the public education scene -- a parent, an elected school board member, and a consumer of education journals -- I am confounded, amused, and distressed by the paradoxes that pervade the field. For example, we typically declare our high school students to be young adults, take pride in their accomplishments, and give them increasing responsibilities to prepare them for citizenship, college, and the world. Yet in their real world of school they get four minutes of between classes, which can involve getting from one side of a large building to the other lugging 20-pound book bags through crowded halls. If they dare to go to the lavatory, get a drink, or briefly socialize during this break, they risk incurring serious penalties. A larger percentage of our students graduate from high school today than ever before. More high school graduates go on to college than ever before. The information and communications explosion has given young people an awareness of the world that has never before existed. Yet international studies indicate that American students do not perform well in comparison with students from other, countries. Meanwhile, many educators believe that students do not know as much as those of previous generations, and business leaders complain that new recruits are unprepared in basic skills, lack the ability to function in a high-tech workplace, and display poor work attitudes. We have heard much discussion of longer school years, of restructuring our schools, of raising the quality and productivity of teachers, of the value of high standards and more testing, and so on. There have been commissions, conferences, seminars, legions of consultants -- practically a whole industry dedicated to fixing what's wrong with American education. The classroom has been under the microscope and on the operating table; it has been analyzed, theorized and hypothesized about, and experimented on. Yet, except in a few elementary schools, the classroom really hasn't changed, and high school today is much the same as it was 20, 30, or 50 years ago. Educators see students doing hard work, while students see themselves serving hard time. Humans become better at a task by doing it; they learn by being involved with the subject. If we love something and want to be good at it, our motivation to succeed is internal. If we do something merely to escape punishment or to get a good grade, our motivation is external -- and less effective. In the modern elementary school, especially in the primary grades, educators strive to use intrinsic rewards to motivate students. Students learn while having fun; their self-esteem is developed and reinforced; they interact cooperatively with their peers; they are in an environment that is warm and nurturing. They often enjoy school. Somewhere along the line that feeling changes. By the time students arrive at high school, where they face a great need to establish an identity and assert their independence, they find the bathrooms locked during passing time to prevent smoking and the stall doors removed. Lunch is squeezed into a short period, often with long lines to get food and only a few minutes to gulp it down. A physical education class is crammed into 45 minutes, with little time to cool down, shower, and groom oneself in a way befitting a students evolving self-image. A gym class may also be scheduled immediately after lunch, requiring exercise on a full stomach. And what corporate or even factory environment does not give workers a 10-or 15-minute break in the morning and afternoon for a cup of coffee or a soda and a chance to socialize and relieve stress? WHEN adults come home from a day's work -- whether from the office or factory, from the store or school, from the fields or the mines -- most of us relax for a few minutes, maybe read the mail or a newspaper, talk to whatever family members are around, have a drink or a snack, do a few chores, have a meal, and watch some television. …