"This article originally appeared in the November 2012 School Business Affairs magazine and is reprinted with permission of the Association of School Business Officials International (ASBO). The text herein does not necessarily represent the views or policies of ASBO International, and use of this imprint does not imply any endorsement or recognition by ASBO International and its officers or affiliates."
Twenty-first century school configuration reduces operational expenditures and promotes student learning.
"...our preconceptions about what a school should look like must be challenged, and that can be difficult. School buildings, and particularly classrooms, have moved beyond being simple spaces; they are now iconic. The idea of changing their fundamental structure seems too radical to consider. But it shouldn’t be.
Think back to the corporate world of the 20th century. Picture the rows of offices, seas of desks and cubicles, and endless hallways. They supported a hierarchy and kept it firmly in place, much like the traditional classroom, with students in desks facing a teacher who delivers and filters knowledge “downstream.”Now, think about what the most innovative and successful companies of the 21st century are like. For example, “Google strive[s] to maintain the open culture often associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. . . . [Its] offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play” (www.google.com/ about/company/facts/culture/).How can our kids learn the skills that Google and other forward- thinking companies want in their people if they are learning in spaces designed to produce workers for past centuries?"
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