Cancelled Ride

Sorry, have to pull out last minute.

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Researching Classical education models for my current position on the board of a local classical school, I came across an article written by Terry Roberts, director of the National Paedeia Center. Below is an excerpt which seems to contradict much of what I've claimed and included on this blog.

"What we now realize is that we live in a time and place where our technology has outgrown our humanity; where our technological ability to communicate has outstripped our human ability to understand one another. And as a result, we are now in more danger than ever before from the evils bred by a lack of understanding and a lack of shared good will. Thus, it is our responsibility as teachers to reach back into the past for the classical skills of discourse—reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking—and disseminate them to all our students in all our nations. Likewise, it is our responsibility as teachers to teach the classic works of our shared culture that have to do with what is fundamentally human, so that by reading and discussing together, our students come to better understand themselves and each other. These things we must do so that they (and we) might survive as wiser, kinder human beings."

SO . . . ?

Math and Science Teachers Should be Paid More II

When I first read Susan Ohanian’s What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? in 2002, I was shocked at how creativity and physical activity were being systematically removed from the classroom with the goal of improving test scores. Seven years later, I still remember one anecdote about entire districts abolishing recess and others going so far as to take away the children’s break if their test scores dropped. I also remember checking Ohanian’s sources because I couldn’t believe her seemingly-outlandish claims. Unfortunately, she was right.

Up until last year, I hadn’t seen first hand the outrageous removal of such vital education. However, this past year when our district attempted to close a $9.4 million gap in its budget, some of the first to receive pink slips were all elementary and middle school physical education teachers, and their counterparts in music. Here it was, in my own backyard. Backwards thinking.

Fortunately, researchers such as Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind) understand that linguistic and computational intelligence are not the only “important” intelligences. He takes Gardner’s multiple intelligences one step further and focuses on our society’s changing and pressing need for right-brained thinkers. Note, he doesn’t argue for the insignificance of left-brainers, but rather the crucial addition of right-brainers, or “R-Directed Thinkers” as he calls them, in order to compete in the global market. Pink asserts that due to cheap labor (Asia), access to anything we desire (Abundance), and better, faster and stronger computers (Automation), there is now virtually no difference in products purchased from different companies, so the reliance on marketing (design) has become radically important.

He claims that American workers will need to command a new set of aptitudes. Because workers elsewhere can do the same work for much less money, our workforce will need “. . . R-Directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.”

Improving our test scores will not help us realize this goal.

Thankfully, in our district, the physical education, music and art teachers will continue their jobs and our kindergartners will not be missing recess to prepare for THE TEST. At least for this year. However, if we continue to wait for “somebody else” to set our priorities, legislators instead of educators, I fear our educational system will continue down the wrong road. A road with inept and ill-prepared travelers.

Post repeat. Just seeing if anybody's reading this anymore.

What Do You Love?

What Do You Love? is a children's book that has a small dog answering his mother's repeated question, "What do you love?" His answers are just what a mother would like to hear. He loves "Mud pies and Mommy's eyes," "Jumping puddles and Mommy's cuddles," "Read-alouds and sunset clouds," "Silly tunes and full moons," "Long walks and quiet talks," etc.

After reading this story to my sons at bedtime, I asked them what they loved. Eli, my compliant, eager-to-please, sensitive son replied, "I love you and Mommy. I love swimming and Esther (our daughter). I love watching the flowers grow and the sea monkeys too. I love Jesus." And then there's Abe, our wild, zany, marching-to-the-beat-of-his-own-drummer son. Abe says, "I love My Lucky Day (the next book we were going to read). I love Superman and Batman and Spiderman and Star Wars and Star Wars Legos and I love chocolate and cookies and race cars and legos and I love Star Wars Legos and I love Jesus too. He says this so fast I find myself wondering how he could string such an impressive list together and spit it out in one breath.

As I was about to prompt him to dig a little deeper, I realized he didn't need to. These were all things that he loved. A good reminder for me that each of my students brings something special to the class; each brings a "valid" answer to such an open-ended question. Sometimes it's difficult not to value and praise the answer I'm expecting more than others.

Nothing earth-shattering, but a valuable reminder.

Math and Science Teachers Should be Paid More

 When I first read Susan Ohanian’s What Happened to Recess and Why Are Our Children Struggling in Kindergarten? in 2002, I was shocked at how creativity and physical activity were being systematically removed from the classroom with the goal of improving test scores.  Seven years later, I still remember one anecdote about entire districts abolishing recess and others going so far as to take away the children’s break if their test scores dropped.  I also remember checking Ohanian’s sources because I couldn’t believe her seemingly-outlandish claims.  Unfortunately, she was right. 

 

Up until last year, I hadn’t seen first hand the outrageous removal of such vital education.  However, this past year when our district attempted to close a $9.4 million gap in its budget, some of the first to receive pink slips were all elementary and middle school physical education teachers, and their counterparts in music.  Here it was, in my own backyard.  Backwards thinking. 

 

Fortunately, researchers such as Daniel Pink (A Whole New Mind) understand that linguistic and computational intelligence are not the only “important” intelligences.  He takes Gardner’s multiple intelligences one step further and focuses on our society’s changing and pressing need for right-brained thinkers.  Note, he doesn’t argue for the insignificance of left-brainers, but rather the crucial addition of right-brainers, or “R-Directed Thinkers” as he calls them, in order to compete in the global market.  Pink asserts that due to cheap labor (Asia), access to anything we desire (Abundance), and better, faster and stronger computers (Automation), there is now virtually no difference in products purchased from different companies, so the reliance on marketing (design) has become radically important. 

 

He claims that American workers will need to command a new set of aptitudes.  Because workers elsewhere can do the same work for much less money, our workforce will need “. . . R-Directed abilities such as forging relationships rather than executing transactions, tackling novel challenges instead of solving routine problems, and synthesizing the big picture rather than analyzing a single component.”

 

Improving our test scores will not help us realize this goal. 

 

Thankfully, in our district, the physical education, music and art teachers will continue their jobs and our kindergartners will not be missing recess to prepare for THE TEST.  At least for this year.  However, if we continue to wait for “somebody else” to set our priorities, legislators instead of educators, I fear our educational system will continue down the wrong road. A road with inept and ill-prepared travelers.  

web 2.0

Just received and read this book yesterday (along with these: Classroom Blogging, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, The Brain That Changes Itself, A whole New Mind).  

As usual, I found myself vacillating between my appreciation of seemingly different ideas.

Example: Two country's approaches to changing precollegiate education systems.

China is refocusing history textbooks from "wars, dynasties and revolutions to economics, technology, social customs and globalization" (Kahn, 2006).  One author of the new textbooks says that the alterations "reflect a sea of change in thinking about what students need to know . . . The goal of our work . . . is to make the study of history more mainstream and prepare our students for a new era."

If you've been following my blog, you'll recall my appreciation of and fascination with the approach of Classical Education.  With a focus on the classics (and one's ability to logically formulate and clearly present an argument), it's difficult to reconcile the supplanting of "wars, dynasties and revolutions" with "economics, technology. . . and globalization."  That difficulty would be predicated on the assumption that the study of economics was not being taught beginning with Aristotle's examination of the "'art' of wealth acquisition" and questioning of "whether property is best left in private or public hands." Or if technology were not being taught by period and geography, beginning with the stone age.  Chances are the technology and economic focus would be on the "flattening" of our world a la Friedman.  

Conversely, Japan is "remaking its vaunted education system to foster greater creativity, artistry, and play.  The Education Ministry has been pushing students to reflect on the meaning and mission of their lives, encouraging what it calls 'education of the heart' (Pink, 2006).  Pink claims that the future belongs to "designers, inventors, teachers, storytellers - creative and empathetic 'right-brain' thinkers."   

I guess the approaches aren't mutually exclusive.  The North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL; 2003) has identified the following categories of skills required for success in today's world: Digital-Age Literacy; Inventive Thinking; Effective Communication; High Productivity.  A couple skills which would be helpful to effective communicators  or inventive thinkers would be teaching and storytelling, both from Pink's list.  

Ultimately, it boils down to using 21st century technology (web 2.0) to find people from whom we can learn, ask questions of them, comment on their thoughts, and have them do the same for us.  We are still a learning community, collaborating now with blogs and podcasts along with book clubs and the traditional classroom.  

Check out  Sir Ken Robinson's ideas on education at Ted.com.

Thoughts?  Anyone?  Anyone?

Odds 'N Ends and The Meaning of Life

Not sure if I've ever seen Odd 'n Ends juxtaposed to The Meaning of Life, but here goes. . . 

Yesterday I played around with Edubolgs a little more and appreciated the many options the site offers. I spent some time beginning a Classroom 42 Blog (for those in the know, that happens to be the meaning of life).  The posting was easy, similar to Blogger, but I found the "Pages" to be more difficult to edit.  When you take a look at "Mr. Newman" under Pages, you'll see the spacing issues I was unable to fix despite 20 minutes of tinkering.  

Feedback needed

I sat down with our new administration yesterday and discussed some potential changes to our Language Dept.  I won't offer my thoughts as I'm interested in your unbiased opinion.  We're making the change from heterogeneously grouped classes to ability grouped classes.  Please share your thoughts and experiences with either or both, including pros and cons.  I look forward to some feedback and dialogue. 

Oh, if you're wondering about the pic at the top, it's a little cookie store in Cayucos that brought many smiles to my wife, mother and children last week.   The chocolate chippers weren't great, but the others were amazing.