Published: October 1, 1998

As I first meet Michael Sturdevant, he has just turned 8 and is in the 2nd grade at Commoner School, a public school in his neighborhood. His parents, Jon and Marci, have called me in the state of stunned anxiety parents enter when they've been told for the first time: "There's something wrong." Midway through the school year, Michael's teacher called them in for a conference; they were further disturbed to learn that she had asked the school psychologist to observe him without their knowledge. Such informal observation doesn't require parents' permission, but it bothered them.

I quickly learn the basics about Michael's school environment: It's fairly typical of grade schools today. There are 32 children in his class. The teacher, Mrs. Gray, has taught at the elementary level for 10 years. She works alone in the classroom without an aide. When she first started teaching, she had about 25 children in her classes and a part-time paraprofessional helping her. Both the physical arrangement of her classroom and her teaching style have changed over the years, reflecting new educational theories. The children's desks and chairs are no longer in parallel rows, nor is the teacher's desk at the front of the class. Indeed, there is no front or back in this classroom, a wedge-shaped arc in a circular building where all the classrooms open to a central community area. The desks and chairs are arranged in "pods," clusters of four desks placed throughout the room. The teacher keeps her materials at several "stations" in the room.

The chief goal of this physical arrangement is to encourage cooperative learning between the children; according to this theory, children can learn best when they interact with and help one another. It also allows Mrs. Gray to teach from several points in the room so that no one group of children has the "favored" position of being nearest the teacher all the time. Mrs. Gray's curriculum guides discourage a didactic approach to teaching. Instead of primarily talking or writing on the chalkboard, she is encouraged to emphasize "experiential" learning, in which the children can leave their seats to "experience," touch, play, and work with what's being taught. This approach is supposed to make learning...