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| The secret
heart of learning |
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the world's fastest-selling accelerated-learning foreign-language
training programs: "Of all the things thrown up by our research, probably the
most vital is this: our self-image is probably the most important thing in determining
whether we are good learners - or, frankly, whether we are good at anything else."15
Every school leader featured in this book would agree.
All use a variety of techniques to make sure each youngster's self-image flowers and is
grounded in practical achievement:
 When Dr. Dan
Yunk* arrived as new principal at Northview Elementary School in Manhattan, Kansas, in
1983, he found low test scores, little discipline and a dispirited staff.
Visit the school today and you'll find a complete
change in atmosphere - and results. You'll find fourth-graders learning fractions by
making pizzas, learning Spanish by singing, learning American history through plays and
songs. You'll find fourth-graders paired with kindergarten buddies, acting as teachers
themselves, and putting into written words the five-year-olds' stories.
You'll find youngsters in the school gymnasium from 7
a.m. You'll find all the different individual learning styles catered to: with plenty of
sight, sound and action; a school where most pupils now play musical instruments, and the
curriculum is rich with the arts.
In a work style that most teachers in other countries
would find be-wildering, in 1983 Yunk found teachers who "in 20 years had never been
in each other's classrooms".16 Today teacher cooperation is the
norm.
When he first arrived, "parents didn't feel
comfortable. Now they act as tutors, aides and mentors; one is even head of the computer
club." Of all elementary schools in the state in 1983, only about a third of
North-view's fourth graders reached the expected competency levels. By 1990: 97 percent -
in the top three percent. And in some areas in the top 1 percent. Yunk's recipe for
success? The same as Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard's in business: "Management by
walking around." "Empower pupils, parents and teachers; they have to feel that
they own it."
The City Magnet
School in Lowell, Massachusetts, is at the heart of a traditional Old England industrial
town. It was set up early in the 1980s - planned by parents and educational leaders as one
of the most unusual schools in the world.
For the school is much more than a school: it is a
society in miniature.
* Since then Dr. Yunk has moved on to more senior
supervisory roles.
Contents Page Preface
Introduction
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