Thursday, September 24, 2009
Thing #4 Linking to a blog post
I feel more than a little hopeless that the education system can be improved when I see the way students are slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) being pressed into a uniform mold that strips away their curiosity and creativeness. I see it in curriculum standardization, staff development, and even in my own misguided attempts to plan lessons that make sure all students know the canon of knowledge I have decided is required. Kris Bradburn of Wandering Ink. outlines the "murder" of creativity using the book "How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci" as a lens through which education can be viewed and criticized. I was horrified as I read because I recognized every misguided teaching attempt that educators make, stuffing and pressing students into either a blob of blandness and robotic response or a sharp edge zealot, fanatically regurgitating pre-packaged knowledge bites that represent EDUCATION. What are we doing? What are we creating? What is the end result? My stomach turns as I have the inevitable panic attack that signals my inability to comprehend and cure for what feels like and incurrable disease, taking the art out of the artist.
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Blakester, your comments got me to thinking about my six-year-old. Although, I usually don't like to use my kids as examples to the problems with education, for this instance, I must. This act of "pressing [kids] into a uniform mold that strips away their curiosity and creativeness" happens as soon as they walk through the doors of their neighborhood elementary schools. My son's kindergarten teacher told me in the second week of school that he was "academically behind." Admittedly, his writing was sloppy (motor skills not developed yet), he didn't know his phone number/address, or how to cut straight with scissors. However, this child can listen to a song on the radio and interpret the tone -- just based on the lyrics. He's continuously asking questions (to the point of annoyance)and everyday he is a different superhero. He can carry-on conversations with adults, has a great vocabulary, and remembers almost everything... anyway enough bragging. But according to the school's idea of academics (writin' perdy and cuttin' straight -- why must I slip into my dumb southern when I talk about education?), he was "behind."
ReplyDeleteWe want children to think for themselves, yet we don't let them. We want kids to be healthy, yet we forgo recess for math (yes, math is important, but I'm talking about 1 + 1 -- eventually, they'll get it). We want the kids to be creative, yet we minimize the arts.
Kindergarten means a garden for children, yet our garden is not a place of exploration, but a place of sterility.
Ouch! That last paragraph said it all. We (meaning the institution of education) have become so focused on high stakes testing that we leave out so much of what makes education fun. No wonder kids get depressed over school and obsessed with their computers. The web lets kids be who-ever or what-ever they want while they play games or facebook their hearts out. And I would say it isn't just that way for the lower grades; how many seniors have come back and told us they weren't prepared for college in the high-stakes courses? And not because the teacher wasn't teaching, but the curriculum was focused on one goal--scores--instead of the larger goal--an educated prepared young college student.
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