Ch.5

The author begins the chapter by talking about a charter school in North Carolina and a specific teacher named Duncan Germaine. She explains how his whole classroom is set up and how he begins his class and how he teaches his students new methods of learning. He wants his students to take what they learn in other classes and apply it to real world experiences. The kids have to come up with their own ways to work towards solutions and test their solutions in real world and experimental situations. Mr. Germaine let's the kids choose if they want to work in groups or alone on projects strictly to see the difference between independent versus group thinking, how some people take on a challenge and how other people let you down. All of these students at the charter school have trouble learning in their own ways and that is why this school is so different from other public education, it allows the students to learn at their own pace and decide their own grade.

The authors argument in this chapter is the difference of learning in a classroom with standardized testing versus learning in a classroom with group work and doing things that you can apply to real life situations. She is arguing that even if a student does have a hard time sitting in a classroom where all you do is take notes and do testing, that they can still be productive in our world today. She shows that by giving all these examples in the beginning of the chapter at the charter school where students our learning how to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks using a group or individually figuring it out. She is arguing the point that students are still learning very valuable lessons for the future without using standardized testing as a teaching method. These kids are learning group work and how to divide up money between each other if they win the prize by using percentages, interest rate, and collateral. These kids are learning valuable things that our essential to our everyday lives. They don't need to memorize or sit down and spit out information on a piece of paper that they will forget the next day to be successful in life, they need to learn essential tools that will allow them to succeed in the business world as they get older. Communication with other and working as a group is a huge tool you need to have in this world today to be successful.