Okay. I can't remember the last time I've done one of these blog entries, so "this week's" certainly isn't true. But I am enjoying the quite of a Saturday morning and feel like writing and sharing.
Here we go.
First up, an interesting read from Forbes: My Kids are Straight-A Students And They Know Nothing.
The author, a father of three teenagers, realizes that what passes for 'education' in the school where his kids attend is really just the basic memorization of facts to do well on quizzes and tests. His kids 'know' nothing - that is they don't have the ability to put any of that information into contexts, which would then render it useful. Here is an example from my world of English - it doesn't do you any good (really) to be able to diagram a sentence or label its parts. That might get you an A on a grammar test, but will it help you write an effective resume or application letter or scholarship essay? And will those skills help you to actually learn anything and apply it to your life? Which I think is the true purpose of education.
I recall one of the best professors I ever had, Dr. Diane Drake, explaining how knowledge was like a web. The more knowledge you had, the more connections you could make between the knowledge, and, as a result, the more your web would spread.
This explains why when I first sat in on her American Lit class in the fall of 1992 and she began to go over important dates and events in early American history, I was at a total loss.
Sure, I had done very well in American History in high school. I loved my teacher, Mr. Matzke, but I had grown skilled at doing well in the 'class' and not necessarily learning much. I could take great notes, review those notes, memorize the information, read it again in the chapters of our textbook, and then regurgitate it or identify it on the test. Then we'd move on.
Mr. Matzke was giving me all the 'knowledge.' The school system (and I'm to blame for this plenty too as I didn't do much on my own either to deepen my knowledge or connect it to other classes or events) didn't give me any chances to connect my knowledge to other things and to create context.
It wasn't until my second quarter in college - when I had Tyrone Berkland - for American Lit 112 - and we studied Stephen Crane and he mentioned 'muck-rakers' that I had a connection to a term Mr. Matzke had me memories three years previously when we studied 'yellow journalism.' Only then was context created. My web began to broaden.
I fear we do this far too little in schools.
Why?
Well, off the top of my head, here are some possibilities -
1. It's difficult to get curriculum to align. We all talk about it and agree that it's important, but then school starts and we are rarely given time to meet and work on this. Even when we do have meetings - our time isn't particularly sacred and we get stuck doing other crap that makes up traditional meetings instead of staying true to aligning curriculum.
2. We never get the chance to see what is happening at the middle school English department or at Challenger.
3. Students are used to treating school as a 'game' and not a place of learning. This has been going on for generations. Memorize the information, pass the test, and move on. Rarely do kids get the chance to apply what they learn to real world situations and create context.
4. The massacre that was NCLB. This called for high stakes testing. A lot of learning opportunities were chucked in the name of passing those tests.
What can we do to stop this?
It won't happen. Not as long as we continue to worship at the alter of the ACT. Maybe if we chuck this insanity of test obsession and college-for-all curriculum and go back to what education was 100 years ago: apprenticeships. Maybe we have a shot then.
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A Life Lesson from a Volunteer Fireman
What a great talk. Would you run into a burning building to get the home owner a pair of shoes? Don't wait to be a hero. All acts of kindness, charity, and heroism matter. Just like our work. It matters. Every. Day.
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We have all heard of the 'helicopter' parent. Right?
I recall when I introduced this to my College Comp class a number of years ago, one student began nodding her head vigorously. She said, 'That is my mom to a T!"
The funny things is, I don't think her mother even had a clue that her daughter thought of her as a helicopter parent! That's how insidious this phenomena has become.
But worse than the 'helicopter' parent is the new 'lawnmower' parent or the 'snow plow' parent.
Meet the lawnmower parent.
And here are Seven signs you might be a 'snowplow' parent yourself!
I was at a coaching clinic last weekend where I had the pleasure of hearing former NFL player Matt Birk talk. He mentioned how he thought the high school football coach was the most important person in America right now because they helped young boys grow into young men and learn so much about life through the simple sport of football.
He said that, sadly, very few young men get this lesson at home. Thanks to their parents.
He said parents used to prepare their children for the path to success. This is exactly what a great teacher or coach does.
But now Birk lamented too many parents (the lawnmower and snowplow parents) don't prepare their kids for the path of success; they prepare the path for their kids! Of course, it's one thing to prepare a child and it's quite another to manipulate and bully teachers, principals, counselors, coaches, and employers into making exceptions for little Jane or Johnny. That is what preparing the path look likes.
Luckily, though, here is how NOT to be a snowplow parent.
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I'm thinking of starting a column of posts this summer along the lines of a 'behind the scenes of life in school' or 'what they don't tell you about teaching in college' or even 'what they don't tell you at the back to school night' or 'the dirty truth about teaching.'
The first topic I want to tackle is this - no meaningful learning activities ever happen the last week of school.
This is true.
It didn't always used to be this way. I used to have 75 8-16 page research papers come in on that final day. Talk about holding graduating seniors' feet to the fire!
I even had a few seniors thank me for that since they were able to convince their parents that they had so much work to do on this final paper that they couldn't help them clean and decorate for the upcoming graduation party that the student was exempt from cleaning to get my paper done!
Ah, the glory days!
But now, I've totally changed how I treat that last week.
You see those graduation party that kid's parent was so busy decorating and cleaning for - the one thing their parents have devoted thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours focusing on since Christmas? That's the problem with why I can't assign meaningful work over that week.
You see, for some reason, our grades are due the following Monday or Tuesday after graduation. That is the real problem.
If I'm to attend even half of the graduation parties I'm invited to (and I average 45-60 invites every single year), then that leaves me absolutely no time to get any of the grading done that is due the following Monday or Tuesday.
So that is why I've sacrificed that last week and moved my due dates up one week. Then I spend that entire week grading papers while students either watch a movie or have some light reflection assignment that can be graded quickly due over that final week.
That's the first topic of the dirty truth of teaching!
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