My daughter finished school 8 weeks ago… her interest in reading and writing slaughtered by work sheets and repeated regurgitation. As each small child that I know begins “school” I mourn the loss of their joy in creativity and the encouragement given to their screen addictions. She is taking some time to unlearn the time constraints, to find her own rhythm to breathe when she wants to. Thankfully the instincts and intuition inside remain strong. To value and trust those intuitions is the key learning we can send them out with… and hopefully it takes us all outside and we feel we are held and we belong under our shared sky and on the earth.
So with you here. Too many young people exit school having lost access to those rhythms, that intuition…ensnared by clocks, deadlines, schedules. It’s not only bad for each individual; it hurts society and the human relationship to the Earth. We must break out of this unhealthy pattern!
I liked my high school experience with the teaching of literature, with one notable exception. Senior year, when our English class was devoted to world literature, we began the year with The Iliad. A dreary prose translation of the epic.
That was academic 1964-65. The Lattimore translation was available. Why the English department chose the awful prose redaction, printed in a minuscule type face, is beyond me.
I gave up on reading it. I spoke with another student about it. She (I do not remember which she) said that we should have read The Odyssey "where all the mythology is."
We were given a test similar to the one described above. Of course, I failed as I hadn't read the redaction. I wish I had thought of buying or borrowing a readable text. It never crossed my mind.
However, the kind of test described is like the tests we took twice a year to determine our reading levels. This style of testing has more to do with memory than with the interpretation of the text.
About 30 years later, as a married woman and mother, I was curious about both The Iliad and The Odyssey. I bought both which I suspect were the Lattimore translations. My ex commented upon how eagerly I read The Iliad. ""It's like a bravura science fiction novel," I answered. He read them after me and then the two older kids, who were probably 12 and 10, read them with enthusiasm.
I think the problem is two-fold. School is seen as something to be quantified. Hence, we have No Child Left Behind, which has as its foundation, a series of tests, which are expensive to administer and which also tend to replace classroom time that would better be spent in discussion, which AP kids should be doing.
And who is the quantifier, the standard setter? Corporatism. The bill for NCLB was a collaboration between two Republicans, John Boener and Judd Gregg, and two Democrats, George Miller and Ted Kennedy.
Hailed as a product of cooperation between the two parties, it generated a great deal of frisson and still does, despite the law's expiration.
Yes, it's so hard to quantify learning. Rote memory is certainly not learning. I am dreaming of education that incites and delights and excites children's creativity. Instead what we too often have now is exactly the opposite. Creativity withers on that vine.
This student is obviously capable of discussing this with his teacher, knowing that his father will back him up, hopefully. It’s good practice for when he is on his own in college. And instead of just disliking the assignment, and complaining to someone who can’t solve the problem, he can come up with a creative proposal. His teacher may not agree, but then again, it’s good practice. As teacher and a parent, don’t see the point in blaming education or parents. Eve younger kids are capable of approaching this kind of behavior as a problem to be solved.
My daughter finished school 8 weeks ago… her interest in reading and writing slaughtered by work sheets and repeated regurgitation. As each small child that I know begins “school” I mourn the loss of their joy in creativity and the encouragement given to their screen addictions. She is taking some time to unlearn the time constraints, to find her own rhythm to breathe when she wants to. Thankfully the instincts and intuition inside remain strong. To value and trust those intuitions is the key learning we can send them out with… and hopefully it takes us all outside and we feel we are held and we belong under our shared sky and on the earth.
So with you here. Too many young people exit school having lost access to those rhythms, that intuition…ensnared by clocks, deadlines, schedules. It’s not only bad for each individual; it hurts society and the human relationship to the Earth. We must break out of this unhealthy pattern!
I liked my high school experience with the teaching of literature, with one notable exception. Senior year, when our English class was devoted to world literature, we began the year with The Iliad. A dreary prose translation of the epic.
That was academic 1964-65. The Lattimore translation was available. Why the English department chose the awful prose redaction, printed in a minuscule type face, is beyond me.
I gave up on reading it. I spoke with another student about it. She (I do not remember which she) said that we should have read The Odyssey "where all the mythology is."
We were given a test similar to the one described above. Of course, I failed as I hadn't read the redaction. I wish I had thought of buying or borrowing a readable text. It never crossed my mind.
However, the kind of test described is like the tests we took twice a year to determine our reading levels. This style of testing has more to do with memory than with the interpretation of the text.
About 30 years later, as a married woman and mother, I was curious about both The Iliad and The Odyssey. I bought both which I suspect were the Lattimore translations. My ex commented upon how eagerly I read The Iliad. ""It's like a bravura science fiction novel," I answered. He read them after me and then the two older kids, who were probably 12 and 10, read them with enthusiasm.
I think the problem is two-fold. School is seen as something to be quantified. Hence, we have No Child Left Behind, which has as its foundation, a series of tests, which are expensive to administer and which also tend to replace classroom time that would better be spent in discussion, which AP kids should be doing.
And who is the quantifier, the standard setter? Corporatism. The bill for NCLB was a collaboration between two Republicans, John Boener and Judd Gregg, and two Democrats, George Miller and Ted Kennedy.
Hailed as a product of cooperation between the two parties, it generated a great deal of frisson and still does, despite the law's expiration.
Yes, it's so hard to quantify learning. Rote memory is certainly not learning. I am dreaming of education that incites and delights and excites children's creativity. Instead what we too often have now is exactly the opposite. Creativity withers on that vine.
This student is obviously capable of discussing this with his teacher, knowing that his father will back him up, hopefully. It’s good practice for when he is on his own in college. And instead of just disliking the assignment, and complaining to someone who can’t solve the problem, he can come up with a creative proposal. His teacher may not agree, but then again, it’s good practice. As teacher and a parent, don’t see the point in blaming education or parents. Eve younger kids are capable of approaching this kind of behavior as a problem to be solved.
The problem is he didn’t see it as a problem to be solved, just as an affliction to be borne.
So that’s a starting point, a place to discuss whether he just wants to complain and subject himself, or wants to share his view.