John Merrow tells it like it is

I started writing this blog entry on a flight to California from New York; I’m headed there for another book party and a meeting of the Learning Matters board.

For the last 30 minutes or so, I have been listening to a father talk about his two young children, ages 7 and 10. He’s an older Dad with at least one adult child, and he radiates child-like enthusiasm about what amounts to a second go-round of childrearing. He’s been telling me about their endless curiosity; they always are asking “why?” and “how does this work?” and so on.

As I listened, a dark cloud flickered across my eyes and I wondered: what would their schools do to their spark?

Nurture it, tolerate it, or extinguish it?

If you’ve read my new book The Influence of Teachers, you know my concern that most schools remain obsolete “answer factories” in a time when our kids need help formulating questions and guidance sifting through the flood of information that engulfs them, 24/7. Schools and teachers can help turn information into knowledge, help kids separate wheat from chaff (and choose the wheat).

Answer factories.  That's what we have become.  And it's too damn bad.