The Way We Were Indeed, teaching and learning on a typical day here look much as they did decades ago. A Spanish teacher standing behind a lectern reviews a list of vocabulary words and then discusses a short story with the whole class. A 7th grade geography teacher assigns students to put a map, flag, and facts about a European country on a poster after finding at least three library books to use as sources. The traditional approach extends to discipline. When the bell rings to begin each period, students are already sitting quietly in their seats, and teachers are standing in front of their classes, handing out graded papers.
Academic standards are high.
D'Evelyn students must take at least three years of a foreign language to graduate, while their counterparts elsewhere in the Jefferson County district can graduate without taking any. All students interviewed during a recent visit, particularly those who didn't start at the school in 7th grade, said the D'Evelyn curriculum is challenging. He said he spends about two hours a night on homework. Everything in Its Place D'Evelyn is not devoid of computers. The school provides Internet access for students through nine multimedia computers in the library, and it offers an elective course on computer programming.