As I read the Art of Possibility this month I felt torn. The last year was undoubtedly one of the toughest years of my life. I faced a difficult teaching assignment and an intense master's program, shuffled my personal commitments and tried to appease my children, all the time telling myself that it was almost over. Shear exhaustion had put me in survival mode and I was riding the downward spiral. The Art of Possibility helped me to start looking up again. I have never been the type of person to accept defeat. I loved reading the chapter, It's All Invented. It allowed me the opportunity to redefine my accomplishments and rise above the downward spiral. I had allowed myself to sit in my seat and play my part, instead of leading. I have too much to contribute to sit quietly in my chair.
It is easy to talk about what is wrong with education, but that is the downward spiral. We must start talking about the possibilities and the framework for change. Everyone deserves the opportunity to play their part with so much passion that they become a one-buttock player. We must start the conversation that allows individuality and personal freedom to prevail in the educational system.
Zanders made an important point about the calculating and the central self. I believe we have a limited window in education to influence a child's mind, before the calculating self within that child fights back to gain control. If we haven't helped them find their passion by the middle grades, we need to start looking harder, because force feeding the same education to them beyond that point will be met with pure resistance. Traditional education may work perfectly for some, but it does not work for everyone. We need to encourage young people to find the plan that works for them, without painting them as failures. Choosing a different route is just that; a different route.
Particularly, in light of our country's economic woes we need to find alternatives to forcing a child to take courses over and over again that they don't want to take and make no effort to pass. Even if the child eventually passes the class; what have we taught that child? Unless that child assigns some value to being in the seat, we are wasting everyone's time. Virtual school, blended education, magnet schools, career academies, technical and trade schools are all viable options that would allow the child the opportunity to discover the central self and nurture their passion. A child that has discovered his passion can inspire others and contribute to society. A child that is not allow to discover his passion can destroy society.
Anne, You really hit the nail on the head here about not trying to force every child into the same mold. By the time I get many students in my high school Art class that window of opportunity feels like it is almost shut sometimes. The more options we take away from our students, the more students get crammed into the classes they don’t care about and the more they fail classes because they do absolutely nothing or they just skip class, because they don’t want to be there anyways. As the 11th grade homeroom teachers, including me, were working on cumulative folders on Friday, I heard some of them mention students that had taken classes 3 and 4 times, and couldn’t believe it. We are doing a great disservice to our children as education keeps being cut, and these other options are being taken away.
ReplyDeleteAnne-
ReplyDeleteTotally agree. It is so easy to talk about what is wrong with education. I hear so many teachers talk about it and the students hear it too. I hear the students say things like, "well, Mrs. So-and-So thinks this is dumb" and so the kids are disengaged as well. I loved this book and trying to get the mindset of what possibilities are out there for the students, for education, even us as people.
And I agree, a child with passion truly inspires others. I see it in class when I let those with a passion for my class hep teach their peers in the same class.
Great post.