Articles Beautiful Work

Beautiful Work
By Ron Berger, former teacher at Shutesbury Elementary School,

now Chief Program Officer for Expeditionary Learning
I am a public school teacher with a vision of in my classroom, their critique is always aesthetic,
education very different from the vision we are always a process of defining what elegant work
hearing from politicians and from the media in that discipline can be. My students and I make
these days. What I value most in teaching is the our aesthetic and artistic vision a foundation of
opportunity to support students to do beautiful our classroom culture; we discuss it just about
work. I use the term beautiful work broadly: with every day.
my students it applies as much to their original
scientific research and math solutions as to the
We bring almost all work
eloquence of their writing or the precision of their
architectural drafting. Always, in all subjects, through multiple drafts
there is the quest in my classroom for beauty, for or rehearsals to refine
quality, and we critique all that we do for its level and improve it.
of care, craftsmanship and value.
This would hardly seem a controversial stance: When guests to our classroom are curious about
being a champion of quality in education. Unless the origin of student excitement, dedication and
you took the notion of quality seriously, as I do. care in work, I reply that it is no surprise. These
Unless you engaged students to pursue beautiful students have a different mission than students
work with a passion, and found that taking the in many schools. They are not here to fill in the
time for this pursuit is no longer considered blanks on worksheets: they are here to accomplish
appropriate in many schools. The new national original, beautiful work. The classroom itself is a
focus on standards seems to be less about high gallery: elegant work is displayed everywhere on
standards than about covering required material, walls and on shelves and students take pride in
and there is little time left in most schools for the the beauty of the classroom.
quest for real quality.
The artistic nature of our classroom culture is not
I believe that beautiful work in any field has an just metaphoric: the structures and strategies that
aesthetic core. My students and I often work with support quality work in all disciplines come from
professionals scientists, architects, historians, a heritage of the arts. We bring almost all work
writers, artists and all of them articulate a sense through multiple drafts or rehearsals to refine and
of beauty in work done well in their discipline. improve it. In this process of revision, we engage
When these professionals critique student work in formal and informal critique sessions, and
For
2 0more
12 B FreeBIEs N S Tbie.org
U C K I visit ITUTE FOR EDUC ATION P B L 1 0 1 / R E S O U R C E S / 61
Beautiful Work continued
we also invite critique from masters experts Our thank-you letters were not quickly done. Each
from outside the school. We post work publicly in went through multiple drafts, with critique from
draft form and in final form for public comment. me, as teacher, and from peers. Each student has
Final draft work is completed not simply for our learned italic calligraphy and each labored with a
own eyes or for my eyes as the teacher, but for a calligraphic pen to create a letter and envelope that
broader public beyond the classroom and often would be visually stunning as well as thoughtfully
beyond the school. Sometimes this sharing of composed; many included colored illustrations
work is through gallery exhibitions and other and decorative details. In their letters, students
times through publications or projects for the described the scientific endeavors in which they
community. had been involved, so there was new discussion
and revision of scientific writing. The letters took
We use models of excellence to set the standards us most of the morning, and some students took
for our work models from former students in them home for more work.
our school or other schools, and models from the
professional world. Just as in the world of arts, we In todays educational climate, not too many
encourage what we call in my classroom tribute teachers would feel comfortable dedicating this
work: student projects that build from the ideas amount of class time to such a task, or even
of former students and honor it through imitation allowed to do so. I wonder: what could be more
and improvisation. What in many schools might important than doing this job really well? Is there
be called cheating is considered wise practice in a more profound lesson than taking pride in
our classroom: studying great work to learn what creating work of importance and beauty for a real
we can borrow and what strategies we can learn. audience?
Just last week my students sat down to work on

a task that in many classrooms would take twenty Is there a more profound
minutes: thank-you letters. Each of my students lesson than taking pride
had been paired with a local scientist, and had
individually interviewed and worked alongside
in creating work of
that scientist in his or her laboratory or field site in importance and beauty
a day-long or multi-day internship. The internship for a real audience?
and interview experience was for a book we will
prepare to send to local schools, celebrating the
work of local scientists.
62 R E SFreeBIEs
For/ more O U R C Evisit
S /bie.org
PBL 101 2012 BUCK INSTITUTE FOR EDUC ATION

Articles Beautiful Work

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Articles Beautiful Work

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Articles Beautiful Work

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Beautiful Work

By Ron Berger, former teacher at Shutesbury Elementary School,

Just last week my students sat down to work on

You might also like