(Note: I photographed this back in May, 2012)
Most of my Education Week work a bit “inside baseball” — which makes it inherently interesting. Education Week is the newspaper of record for public schools, grade K-12 in the United States. Their audience is smart and specific. Stories about policy and programs are the norms. Common Core is a big topic these days, as I’m sure No Child Left Behind was back in the day. But this Education Week story about Introverts transcends policy and programs. It’s about learning styles. And all of us who have gone through school understands there’s a ton of shortcomings and compromises involved in getting an education.
I think this quote sums up the “big picture issue” when trying to teach introverted students…
“I actually think our [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] shortages are a cultural problem as much as a pedagogical problem; the type of kid who likes to sit by himself and do math problems or science problems is not supported,” Ms. Cain argued. “Most science operations are done as teams, but scientists still have quite a bit of privacy and autonomy to their workday,” she said, noting that such environments are also hard to replicate in classrooms.
Now, I’m an introvert, but I would have LOVED to have attended a school like City Neighbors School in Hamilton. It’s not a school for introverts. The charter schools in Baltimore City are kinda like petri dishes. There’s so so much diversity in teaching. It’s really fascinating. The cool thing is, a lot of them are finding success. This place allows students to work by themselves and, even nap, as long as they’ve shown their teacher they’ve worked hard and got everything done.
If you’d like to see more photos from this shoot, check out the archive page.
This kid’s clearly not an introvert. But I couldn’t leave this gem out of the edit.
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