Hi...my inaugural post. Actually, feels momentous. I decided to create this blog to start a conversation and I invite anyone to join in. I happen to have spent a great deal of my life being educated or educating others (sometimes I was really good at it and then there were other times...). I am 53 and was educated in parochial schools until college - I admit this so that you have some sense of me, but hope too you won't hold it against me. I am a fan of the triple dot ending to thoughts... (and full disclosure) and the occasional emoticon ;) just to stay friendly.
So, why this title? Our national debate on public education (of which I am a fan) is backwards in my estimation. It is much about what can we (government, public, administration) do to "fix" it. So we test and we evaluate and we test some more. Rarely do we ask or consider what the professionals at the center of this debate - teachers - think and even rarer is what our students think. If we reframe our approach, if we put the kids and teachers front and center in our thinking/talking and invite both into the decision making process then we might just find a new way. And a way that works.
I don't have the answer. But I am hungry for the conversation. If this is a new world (read Daniel Pink and Ken Robinson) than maybe those who know no other world might just have a few ideas for us to consider. Kids might just make it easy for us to do this.
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Hi Claudia,
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like such a great dialogue to have. I am not in education but I was a student once and I know that no one cared what the student thought. All the experts were doing their thing but no one ever asked the student what they thought. I hated school and I now know (I'm 52) that I was done a great disservice at school. Yes, I held my breath and survived. But what if it were a place to thrive?
Maybe that was then. Because now it seems that it is ALL about the child. It seems as if every kid is shown that no matter what they do they are all 'gifted'. This spotlight on their every move as being brilliant may show that the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction.
I'm not sure if this is the discussion you were looking to have. But one thing seems clear to me. In both situations the 'experts', the teachers were doing the child a big disservice. So how is this to be fixed? I'm not sure but maybe your suggestion to bring the child into the discussion somehow is good.
Thanks Suzy - I have no preconceived notion of how this conversation should go. You bring up a good point for discussion, that is- has the pendulum swung in favor of making us too child centered? If so, is it a school phenomenon or a parent phenomenon? If everyone is "gifted", then really, is anyone "gifted"? I have noticed what you point out in my own neighborhood but not necessarily what I see in most schools. Schools today still seem to function much as they did when we were growing up. They work best when everyone is treated the same - and yet we know that humans come in an infinite variety. I would love to see some fun and joy accompany learning - we know it is possible so how do we get it to happen on a broader scale?
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