Metro-Detroit Whole Schooling Consortium

Who is the Metro-Detroit Whole Schooling Consortium?

Our organization is made up of K-12 educators, parents, students, university professors, and college students. We came together in 1997 because we believe North American schools are the center of society, and because our core values about schools and communities are often violated by demands made by outside bureaucracies. We are interested in organizing teachers, parents, and kids around our positive principles. We urge you to join us!

Our Vision of Community

Our society creates enough abundance for all people to live well. We can build democratic communities, good schools, care for one another, live productive and enjoyable lives, if we study our surroundings and act to realize our vision. Good communities require active, conscious citizens.

Whole Schooling: Core Principles & Strategies

1. Becoming a citizen in a democracy is the core goal of schooling: giving students ideas, tools, and skills to improve their own lives and contribute to social change, creating a more just, equitable society.

2. Learning together: place inclusive education for all learners at the center of a school reform that includes: detracking classes for all types of learners.

3. Teaching well: designing instruction for diverse learners using active learning approaches such as multiple intelligences, active learning, project based learning, thematic instruction, and critical pedagogy.

4. Support and community: includes realignment of special education, bilingual, Title 1, and gifted personnel, to engage in collaborative teaching with regular education teachers. Focus efforts on building community among students, teachers, parents, and administration in the neighborhood school.

5. Partnering: engage in genuine friendships with families and the community. We cannot reform our schools if we do not also change our communities.

We believe that good communities include at least the following elements...

good jobs that pay good wages
schools that empower, excite, and stimulate the learning and development of all our children
democratic action: diverse people learning, working, playing, and celebrating together
support (emotional, fiscal, resources) to individuals, families, and local communities
sharing, trust, love, and enjoyment of one another
equality: from each according to their ability, to each according to their need
connecting--interacting with other communities and power structures that effect the life of families, individuals, and the total community

We are democratic. We believe we have a right to expect to share in the control of the processes and products of our workplaces and our communities. We are anti-racist and anti-sexist. We think that if we do not move to demolish these forces in our society, racism and sexism will be used to demolish us. We are hopeful. We think we can understand and act in order to transform our lives--for the better. But we need to act together.

We have seen that an injury to one really only precedes an injury to all. We need your ideas, criticism, strategies, and participation. Join us! You can write for our newsletter--and subscribe. You can come to WSC meetings and provide leadership. You can share in the creation of an organization that can change your life. What you do counts.

To contact WSC, write 217 Education Building, Wayne State University, Detroit 48202.

Email: j_m_peterson@wayne.edu, or call 248-543-0002

Web page created by Amber Goslee