Chasing The A

One of the blogs that I follow on my Google Reader is called "Pair-a-dimes For Your Thoughts," by David Truss.

David posted an article in reference to another essay. The essay David references is called, "Why Our Current Education System is Failing," and it appears on a website/blog called, "A Boundless World," written by Bud.

David makes a couple interesting comments:

I think that the ‘missing piece’ when it comes to education today, is that it tries to fill us with important things rather than make us feel important and valued… it feeds us content, but doesn’t leave us contented in any meaningful way.

Marks seem to take our attention away from what matters. I find it funny that we can assess young kids without grades and then around Grade 3 we suddenly start indoctrinating students into the paradigm of good marks = success…. and the really important things we learn in Kindergarden about sharing, respecting and loving one another, as well as communicating how we feel and getting along with each other, suddenly takes a back seat to achieving some sort of success beyond these things that really matter.

Bud's article contains some great nuggets of wisdom that give me, as a educator, food for thought. I encourage everyone to read it. The article is written by a high school student, which is a bit surprising, as it is very well written and strikes me as quite wise.

Bud's primary criticism is that too much emphasis is placed on grades and the pursuit of grades in modern schools.

We can be as happy and as successful as we choose to be. Our attitude, not our grades, determines our success.

I’m not suggesting that our current education system doesn’t do any good. It does teach us the basic necessities. However, much of what we learn in school is not practical in the real world.

Where are the courses on blogging? Where are the money management courses? Where are the classes dedicated to eradicate poverty? Where are the classes that help us find our purpose?

Our current education system places too much emphasis on the A and not enough emphasis on unleashing the promise that lies in each and every one of us.

Bud suggests that students should be allowed to choose the books they read. Education needs to be student-centered, to maintain student interest.

Education is about unleashing one’s confidence. Education is learning from failure. Education is growing from experience. Education is discovering your passions then pursuing them.

Education is not rote memorization. Education is not analyzing books that have no meaning to you. Education is not wasting your time on subjects you hate. Education is not being paralyzed because your afraid to fail.

Bud comments on life:

The traditional life time line:

High School: College: Grad-School: Job ( you most likely hate): Retire: Die

Why not:

High School: Find Your Purpose: Love Your Job: Live your life. Die Happy?

Bud's message is that passion should fuel our life:

Education is all about growth, it’s about experience, it’s about creating authentic relationships. It’s about being human. It’s about connecting with humanity.

Our current education system is inherently flawed. Times are changing. We must stop obsessing over becoming “book smart” and instead focus on unleashing our passions.

Without living out our passions we just add to the clutter of the world.

When we choose security, we sacrifice our passions, killing part of us in the process.

I have tremendous faith that the answers to today’s problems of the world: poverty, war, and disease, will be solved by the youth of today not because they are smart but because they follow their passions.

Bud concludes by telling teachers what to do:

We need to be inspired. We need to be encouraged. We need to spend time doing things we love. We want to change the world.

And finally:

In no way am I suggesting getting good grades is a bad thing; that would be foolish. Getting good grades is not the problem. Allowing grades to dictate one’s life is.

Grades don't guarantee success.

Passion + Determination + Positive Attitude = Success.

Photo by krikketgirl.

Sunday

Today is Sunday.

My wife and daughter are out of town. I stayed home with my son.

It was a very lazy, do nothing, surf the internet kind of day.

It was good to have a day like this to re-charge my batteries.

I spent a few hours trying to understand twitter.

It is nice to have a day with nothing to do. I should do it more often.

A teacher's life is so full of deadlines and tasks. My stream of consciousness is a constant litany of to-do's.

They say, a teacher teaches, always. When I am away from the classroom, my mind is still in the classroom. I would suggest that it is good to get away from teaching, mentally.

In fact, one of my character weaknesses, I think, is that I am not inclined to pay attention to the present. As Yoda quipped of Luke Skywalker:

This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away... to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph.

By the same token, I should devote my mind entirely to my students when I am in the classroom. I read a blog post recently about a teacher who devotes herself 100% to her students when she is in the classroom. I think this is a good policy. Sometimes, when I am teaching, I have a tendency to day-dream about my personal life and my personal problems. That's not fair to my students.

Photo by Chris Devers.

Covering Curriculum

I sometimes feel frustrated at the pressure that is created from trying to teach the curriculum versus dealing with the realities of the classroom situation, realities which make covering the curriculum difficult or impossible.

At times, I rush through the prescribed material.

I believe that, for teaching to be effective, it needs to be student-centered and not curriculum-centered.

I read a post by Angela Powell that describes the pressure to teach the curriculum.

The opportunity for students to actively construct knowledge MUST take precedence over the need to cover curriculum.

Angela suggests that teachers need to slow the pace of their instruction. Teachers need to take the time to have conversations with their students.

Learning takes place through personal involvement and discussion, and attending this conference shamed me into realizing that I simply MUST let my students TALK.

As a teacher, I cannot afford to skip this step, cutting off children's discussions in an attempt to impart a few more facts before the hour is up. I am now focused on going narrow and deep rather than wide and shallow, and I am consciously slowing down my instruction so that kids can share more.

I have heard teachers proclaim that they do not care whether students like them or not. I believe that it is important for the students to like you on a personal level. I believe that, for learning to occur, something called transference needs to exist. One of the best ways to facilitate learning, and to alleviate discipline problems, is to get to know the students as people. Along with conversing with the students, another effective way to nurture interpersonal relationships is by participating in extra-curricular activities.

Another reason to slow down the pace of teaching is to allow the students ample time to digest the material.

I am choosing to forgo the whirlwind review of an entire page of problems so I can allow my students to actively reflect on the strategies they used for the first few.

Angela makes the interesting observation that teaching is getting more difficult for a reason.

It seems like teaching is getting harder because it IS: we’re attempting to reach more kids than we used to, and address a wider variety of issues and needs. It’s critical for educators to understand the magnitude of what we’re attempting without letting the results overwhelm us. Low-performing students from ‘the wrong side of the tracks’ and those with learning problems are no longer siphoned off into special education classrooms while we wait for them to drop out. As much as we bemoan the pitfalls of NCLB, in our daily practice we are in fact attempting to leave no child behind—not even the ones who WANT to be left to their own devices, or who don’t have the cognitive or emotional capabilities to try.

Angela concludes her essay by averring that the only way to overcome the difficulties associated with teaching is for the teacher to have a personal vision of success and to for the teacher to remain committed to this vision.

All of the other issues on the table pale in comparison to this single truth. The commitment to a personal vision is what ensures success and brings both the teacher and student back into the classroom each day. And while it’s critical to create buy-in among students, the concept of a personal vision must originate within the teacher.