I was not a straight A student in High School. If my memory serves me correctly, my worst grade my Senior year was in French. I do remember one meaningful assignment. In the French language there is an archaic verb tense that is only currently used in literature - everyone can read it but almost no one speaks it. It is used for writing certain types of literature, including fairy tales. As part of studying this tense, we were given the very practical assignment to write a fairy tale. I wrote a fairy tale, a three page, complete sentence, fully developed fairy tale. There were grammar errors; there were faulty constructions. There were all the faults you would expect from someone working with only a partial knowledge of a language. But it was a story, and it worked. My assignment floored the French teacher - it was so unexpected.
I think my relationship with that teacher changed after that assignment. Until that assignment, I think I was in her mind a mediocre student who had little potential. (Of course, this may not be fair, she may have been far more aware than my 18 year old mind gave her credit.) There were nine students in the class. I had the lowest grade in the class - I was the bottom. I speculate the teacher had expected me to drop out for three years - it wasn't helping my grade point average, I had met the two year language requirement for some universities. I knew something the teacher didn't - I expected I would need the skill later, I was doggedly working at it because I felt I needed to. And the assignment appealed to me. I have speculated since then with other students from that class about how that teacher would react knowing, I alone remained functionally fluent. I still make mistakes, but I can read and write and make myself understood. That assignment alone was worth the other four years of slogging through.
I currently have two children in the local public schools. Like me, they are not particularly "good" students. They are not very responsive to outside motivation, get frustrated, are prone to day dream, need to move to process some information, and don't complete assignments on time. However, both are very curious, voracious readers. When they have free time, they are likely to be reading a comic book, magazine, newspaper, or novel. And if they aren't reading they are building, drawing, or creating something.
As a parent I want specific things for my children. Call them my "critical to quality" items. You may or may not agree that these are important. I want two things for my children from the public education system:
- I want my children to love learning at least as much as they did when they entered the school system. I want may children to remain curious, so that they will be life long learners. I can't predict what they will need to know ten years from now, let alone what they will need to know fifty years from now, when I will likely not be around to help them. I can help them acquire the skills that will allow them to find out what they need when they get there, if they have the desire and the skills to be life time learners. I would appreciate if the schools don't beat that desire out of them in the name of education.
- I want my children to have their specific needs met. Both of my children struggle with small motor skills - this will impact writing, drawing, and keyboarding. One is struggling with the concept of meaningful practice. While, I understand the primary responsibility to provide for their specific needs remains with me as their parent, I would appreciate if the schools could allow the time and flexibility to meet the individual needs of each student.
Here are three modest proposals that I feel would go a long way toward improving the quality of education to meed my critical to quality items:
- Start classes two, three, or four times per year. I just spent a week walking around with cub scouts as a parent "den walker" volunteer. I observed two excited boys that both interacted with their surroundings in very similar ways. Both boys had trouble following directions - they were excited. Both were trying to follow directions, but often reacted before they had complete information. Both needed to be reminded to wait in spite of their excitement. One child had a disability label, the other did not. One difference was one boy was born before the annual cut off date for school, and one was born after the cut off date for school. They were a year apart in school. One boy was expected to act like boys almost a year older, while the other was being compared to students almost a year younger. While I don't want to discount that disabilities do exist, I am concerned that younger children are more like to be labeled as having a behavior problem. Each month of maturity makes a big difference when you are 5, 6, or 7. How is a student supposed to continue to love learning when they lack the maturity of their "peers" and can't keep up? Similarly, why should a student who is mature enough to be in school have to wait almost a year to start school and risk boredom when they get there?
- Encourage different styles of learning. I am an introvert. Often, I need quiet time to quietly work through something to learn it. However, I also benefit from listening to the questions other have and engaging in discussions. When I was in graduate school, I found I benefited greatly from the discussions. I found the things that helped me the most were the questions someone else asked. Teachers need to have the latitude to create crazy tumultuous time with active discussions and confusion, and quiet time for reading and reflecting.
- Abolish, or at least reduce the number of standardized tests. As part of "no child left behind" in Virginia we have the Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. These tests tell us very little. They don't record any of the factors outside of school that contribute to the score. They don't encourage lifetime learning. They don't tell us which schools or teachers are giving individualized education. The don't teach meaningful practice or small motor skills. All the SOL tests tell us is how well students can regurgitate bits of fact someone thought was important enough to put onto the test. I suspect we as parents and tax payers can access our schools more readily by walking around a school building while school is in session. You would be surprised at how much you can learn by just listening.
I would love to state these ideas are totally original and I am brilliant, however here is a list of some of the sources for these ideas. Check them out:
- Outliers : the story of success By Malcom Gladwell
- Punished by rewards : the trouble with gold stars, incentive plans, A's, praise, and other bribes By Alfie Kohn
- Never too late : my musical life story By John Caldwell Holt
- Drive : the surprising truth about what motivates us By Daniel H. Pink
- Quiet : the power of introverts in a world that can't stop talking By Susan Cain
- Bounce : Mozart, Federer, Picasso, Beckham, and the science of success By Matthew Syed
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