Taste of adulthood makes learning fun

February 18, 1999 | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)

Author/Byline: LAUREL WALKER | Page: 1 | Section: Waukesha | Column: County Lines

796 Words | Readability: Lexile: 1130, grade level(s): 9 10 11-12

Part preacher, part teacher, Richard Gardiner is a spark -- no, a blowtorch -- that ignites students' minds.

"I'm a big kid," the 35-year-old Gardiner told me. "I like to play."

What better playground, then, than a classroom full of eighth-graders with oh-so-malleable minds? Especially when your teaching philosophy is that students learn better if they get emotionally involved -- if they have fun -- in the process.

We took a break from his morning classes to talk. His middle school students had just "graduated" from college, complete with caps and gowns, pomp and circumstance. Now they were struggling to complete their federal income tax forms, just one more assignment in the line-up of "real world" exercises for which Gardiner has become noted. One lad, already a step up on the real world, wondered if he couldn't just hire an accountant to do his taxes, instead.

Gardiner teaches eighth-graders English, civics and computers at University Lake School in Delafield. He's a playful pretender who uses real-world simulations to get his points -- and the textbook points -- across. Last quarter, for instance, students went to law school, took a bar exam, joined in a lawsuit and saw it through trial as they studied the judicial system.

This quarter, it's the "Real Life Project," where students must survive economically as adults. They interview for jobs, open bank accounts, pick a college, decide whether to get married or stay single, face unexpected calamities, make investments, retire, and more. Along the way, they experience rites of passage, such as college graduation and marriage, all marked with authentic-looking ceremonies.

Twenty of his 29 eighth-graders "graduated" this morning. Those who didn't will have to make up their work if they want to get a degree and keep up with the next stages of this life, he said.

"What I do is somewhat competitive," he said. Competition between students motivates -- and, yes, sometimes adds stress. "It's through failure that you learn," Gardiner said.

It was not lost on me that this "real-life" project was in a setting pretty far afield of the real-world classes of many public school teachers.

The exclusive University Lake School in Delafield is a college preparatory school of 336 elementary, middle and high school students, where the average class size is 14. Along with impressive academic credentials cited in its current newsletter is the number of "campus acres per student." (If you're curious, it's a half-acre per student.)

"I could never do this in public school, that's true," Gardiner admits, citing the inherent restrictions of state-mandated curriculum and public school funding. At ULS, "they allow me a good bit of ingenuity."

That aside, it seems to me that any teacher who brings Gardiner's imagination, enthusiasm and energy to the job -- be it in public or private school -- is bound to connect with students and lead them to learn.

Gardiner, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of Maryland and a master's and teaching certification from Princeton University's Theological Seminary, had been offered a Presbyterian pulpit, a ministry down South.

"Ultimately, my heart is with teaching," he said. And maybe that's the key. Here is a teacher who loves to teach. He took a job at University Lake School in 1995. He and his wife, Lesley, a registered nurse, live in the Town of Oconomowoc. Besides his academic courses, Gardiner coaches several sports and maintains the school's Internet site.

A big fan of technology, Gardiner uses school Web pages, which he maintains, to communicate with students and parents. He holds office hours for students in an online "chat" room, shows course outlines, every single assignment, the homework schedule, resources, and his answers to frequently asked parent questions.

Occasionally, there's a critic or two among parents who either question his methods or the substance of his curriculum.

He said his aim is not to make moral judgments or declare what ought to happen in the real world but to expose students to the way the real world operates -- good, bad or indifferent.

And he welcomes parents' participation in his projects.

Gardiner's students spent a few minutes giving me some impressions, summed up best, perhaps, by these two.

"I don't like school," said one young man who didn't want his name used.

"But I really enjoy this class." Added the other, "My dad has never seen me work harder."

If Gardiner gets hard work out of students, that's because he puts plenty of it in -- about 12 hours a day, he said.

For that, after four years, he earns $25,000. If success were measured in money, he said, he'd be a dismal failure.

"But I'm very happy," he said.

"This, to me, is play."

Photo

MICHAEL SEARS
STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

Eighth-grade teacher Richard Gardiner speaks at a mock graduation ceremony at University Lake School in Delafield, the start of a lesson in adulthood. Behind him are Renee Hill (center) and Molly Wilson.