Ryan Krohn stopped as we walked down a middle school hallway to point out what was in a classroom we were passing: rows of traditional student desks, neatly lined up.
That’s what we’re getting away from, he said. Those desks — and the kind of approach to teaching and learning that comes with them. We’re all in our places with (sometimes not so) bright, shiny faces and, if this is third hour, we’ll sit and listen to the teacher instruct us in math or social studies or whatever the schedule calls for during those 50 minutes.
Krohn, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the Waukesha School District, had just left an entirely different atmosphere about 100 feet away: Flight Academy, where 60 sixth- and seventh-graders this year have much different furniture and, more importantly, an approach to their school work and school days you would probably find hard to recognize.
I figure that at least once a year I ought to check up on how the revolution is going. So I get in touch with Jim Rickabaugh, who heads what is called the Institute at CESA 1, a state agency that assists school districts throughout southeastern Wisconsin.