NOTE: My thoughts on this are relatively new. They won't be perfect and there will be flaws. I'm bringing it up so that I can get respectful and thoughtful feedback and build better, fresher, brighter ideas forward.
- At age 5, (or however old a kid is in kindergarten) every child takes a class for a year designed to comprehensively assess an individual child's learning habits and the initial skills of each child as well as start their foundation for knowledge. I think this would need at least two teachers per class and would need a different kind of teacher training to accurately get a clear picture of how each child learns. After that, they would be placed in the class that reflects their learning capabilities. Some classes will be for the brilliant prodigy and they will probably have a faster track. Some will foster excellent learning habits and allow a child to flourish in a comfortable setting. The key is to figure out what each child needs and get them that. Not categorize and generalize our kids education based on something so flimsy as age. It would probably be ideal to have this class happen every two or three years with those special teachers so as to not trap a child to a single track based on how they behaved when they were 5...
- Every class and grade should be made to push children harder and also build self-efficacy. We underestimate the capabilities of our youth and if we raise the standard of expectation, and convince them that they have the capabilities, I'm confident they will rise to meet it. They should also be encouraged to question what they're being taught and build critical thinking skills. How do you do that?
- To answer that question: How do you build critical thinking and foster creativity in school? I think it's about what classes and opportunities are offered. I've been hearing stories from my peers about excellent teachers and excellent courses that set them on a track for success. I have my own story like that. But also, it's got to be what is available for the students. First, The Arts. Music, painting, theater, writing, drawing, sculpting, etc. are all crucial towards numerous things. Theater aided me wonderfully in engaging people and speaking publicly. Writing is obvious. Communication is so important and writing well enough to get your thoughts across and in understandable form is a key in communication. (Was that sentence a horrible example of communication? I think so...) Next, debates! The whole world of philosophy, debate, and logic have aided me so much in college! They sharpen your mind and inspire you to look around and ask "Why?" They inspire you to look at all of your other classes critically as well and when you come at a class like that, it engages you so much more and you learn infinitely better in my experience. Next, a heavy reading load. In my world, this is self-explanatory. Reading is of utmost importance. Reading anything and everything is crucial. Schools should definitely push their students to read all of the time. And when a child struggles, provide the teachers that would love to help a kid. We need to get reading skills down as soon as possible in our youth. It is just so unquestionably important. And the final one I thought of was language. In Europe, (I'm not saying Europeans are geniuses but this is a good policy) most children master a second language by the time they are out of middle school and begin to take on a third in high school. This puts American students way behind. Where I'm from, language classes aren't offered until high school. Learning about another language and all of its nuances aids a student in learning about their own language. Particularly Latin based or Germanic languages if English is your primary language. It would greatly increase understanding and communication between cultures as well. Does anyone else find it bizarre that we are engaged in a war with a group of people we cannot even speak to? That's alarming to me.
- So that was a big topic. I'm sure there was more though because that was a big question. But what about teachers? They are the gatekeepers of education and guide our children through their most impressionable and vulnerable stages of life. I believe that they too need to be held to a higher standard. They are pushed to pass all of their kids so that their schools look good and are given such strict guidelines to meet a standardized expectation that is not molded to the children. This is a two part problem. 1) Teachers need a more rigorous and engaged method of working. There needs to be a better way to analyse the quality of a teacher and they need to be thoroughly trained to encourage their students and also push them forward. I'm not saying that this isn't happening now, but there needs to be a way to weed out the bad teachers because, yes, they exist and most are allowed to continue working because of seniority. 2) Teachers need the freedom to work with the needs of their students. Advanced children are bored in the class that caters to the ones falling behind and slower children are drowning when the class doesn't pause to help them. (This would be avoided if they weren't just classified by age as I mentioned earlier...) Teachers can't be tied down by standardized testing and given no way of molding their lesson plans to the individual set of students before them.
- This is a lot. I'm going to leave that as it is. I would love some feedback, some criticism, and some new ideas. Let's get this thought process rolling!
I think in a perfect world, where schools get the funding for these wonderful ideas, this could work out.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of putting children in a class based on what they need and not their age. To say someone is at a, for example, 7th grade reading level is so vague. What does that mean? These standards of "well you're 14, 7th grade, you should be able to read this" is ignorant because kids don't learn at the same rate or the same way.
However, you also said that we need to have them be more self sufficient. This is where I'm a bit confused, because I agree but if we're catering to different learning styles are we allowing them to be self sufficient? (Merely a question). Wouldn't being put in a class that's moving a little too fast *force* a student to be self sufficient? (This is NOT *my* argument. Just a loop hole that people are probably going to see).
What needs to be done is that teachers need to realize that students don't all learn the same way. Some are visual, some are kinesthetic, some are aural learners. It would be a great first step, and sadly more realistic, if teachers created lessons that catered to every form of learning so that not only is everyone included intellectually but a concept can be seen from a different perspective by all.
As for creativity in school...well you know where I stand. It's shown that students who commitment themselves to the arts (music is the one I've been reading about but I'm confident it can be applied to most if not all of the arts) do much better in school and are less likely to be involved in drugs or what have you. Being involved in a musical ensemble, a theater program, art, a poetry club, etc, gives kids a chance to be part of something and be responsible for their part of that community (concert master, club president, lead role, etc).
If I have more to say or realize what I said didn't make any sense, I'll probably comment again. I hope you enjoyed reading this :)
Wonderful blog dear,
<3Christine
You should read "The Passionate Intellect", by Jens Zimmerman and Norman Klassen. More about the idea of what a modern university is than about pre-university education, but it's still really interesting food for thought about what a true education is, and all that.
ReplyDelete“Only the painstaking exercise of discipline illuminated by imagination, and imagination channeled by discipline, can lead to the rediscovery of an authentic humanism. Only such a humanism, in turn, will have something to say to those who, having finally found enough to eat, will recognize with shock that even in the midst of their famine they were yearning for life, not only for a living.”
Evie, this is one of the most intelligent and thought-provoking things I've read in quite a long time. I had been hoping someone shared my belief about teacher seniority (that it tells you nothing about whether a teacher is doing the job well)!
ReplyDeleteI think the problem is that none of this will ever go into practice. Maybe it's too expensive, maybe people in positions of authority are just too rigid and/or cowardly to try something new even if the old system isn't working.
But I see no reason to stand aside and support a broken system. I say we put your ideas into effect.
If I had anything to add, it would be that I think standardized tests should be abolished altogether. Look at WA-- we got rid of the WASL, but replaced it with a clunky and confusing system of equally useless smaller tests. As long as there are standardized tests, teachers will be forced to teach for the tests.