You all know Pioneer Woman, right? If you don't, I highly recommend checking out her very multifaceted blog and I highly recommend her recipe for sangria! She is pretty much a Jack Jane of all trades and has mad cooking skills as evidenced here. Today her blog featured a guest post from a woman by the name of Kristen Chase called Does School Help or Hurt Intellectual Growth referencing this article...
which starts off with this quote...
Here are some excerpts:
I tried to pull out some of the really catching ideas presented in the article, but if you are interested to read the whole thing (please do!) you can find the entire text here.
Thoughts?
I have mixed feelings when it comes to people who criticize the education that takes place in schools. On the one hand, as a teacher, I definitely recognize areas of our current educational system that need improvement. I am focusing my doctoral work and my current specialty paper on culturally responsive instruction and what we can do to meet the needs of culturally and linguistic learners, especially in the context of being given a scripted program as if the preselected stories and images can possibly apply to all children and their unique experiences. I frequently wish that I could simply close my door and teach my students in the manner that I know is more appropriate, yet there is another side to the coin.
When I read or hear remarks from people who speak negatively of what happens in schools, I start feeling very defensive because I know that teachers work incredibly hard to do the very best we can for our students, working with the day in and day out to help them succeed and often feeling like they belong to us and we are solely responsible for their very well being. We bust out butts in our work and we are skilled at what we do.
We do the best we can with what we have.
Yes, I want my students to be creative.
Yes, I want my students to be critical thinkers and problem solvers.
Yes, I want my students to be kind people with strong character and work ethic.
Yes, I want my students to navigate different situations and interact with each other.
And guess what... those things happen in my classroom.
Despite the mandates to use a teacher manual to teach Phonics and Math, my students are not simply robots. Sure, I would love to have more freedom to teach in different ways and yes, I do feel restrained by the requirements for a particular number of minutes on each subject and the very tightly packed schedule that we have in half day Kindergarten, but I definitely think that my students benefit my being in my classroom. They grow as people and as learners and I hate that despite who we are as individuals we have a bad rap for stifling creativity and squashing dreams.
This whole topic is exactly what fuels me in my dissertation work because I agree that we have to change and we have to do more to navigate American education in a new direction. I very much agree with the article's author about types of activities and thinking kids should be doing and I try my darndest to include those things in what we do and what I teach so that children experience education in my classroom in a way that opens them up to a world of learning and experiences.
I want more of those experiences for my students so perhaps a little of my own creative disobedience is in order, but it's difficult because it feels like going with my beliefs results in being a rule breaker....kind of like Kristen says in her post. This article was really interesting to me and I hope you read both Kristen's post on Pioneer Woman and the article. Here are the links one more time...
What are your thoughts on the article or the bits I pulled out?
What do you do with your students to encourage creativity and critical thinking?
How much freedom do you have to teach how/what you want?
Discuss!
3 comments:
No discussions? Boo.
I found the article to be great. I read the whole thing and saved it for a discussion board in the Leadership & Tech. class I'm teaching this fall (and spring).
I am not a supporter of homeschooling. I am a proud public school teacher and believe it in more for the social aspect than the learning itself. I do believe we stifle our children at times by giving them all the right answers. So much of our lives are moving in the direction of immediate and short term learning.
What happened to exploration? What happened to making mistakes? I think we as public school teachers are so hard on our students for giving things a try and failing that they are hesitant. It's a waste of time, we say... when it's easier this way. And the answer is immediate. But there is something to say for discovery.
Our students are coming to us with shorter attention spans and less interest to discover. It's a generational concern. And I suppose that to an extent, some teachers are stifling, too.
I actually considered this article to be eye-opening for the way I intend to parent. Teach, sure, but to an extent I already feel like I foster creativity and less provide answers. But as a parent, I think that's where more of the challenge is.
I work at a great school and my principal is awesome. She lets us teach the way we want to teach Textbooks and other programs adopted by the district are just resources. She allows us to use them as we see fit. As long as the kids are learning that is all that matters to her. My classroom is usually pretty crazy. There is lots of talking or music playing. There is lots of movement. I sometimes feel bad for the custodian in charge of my class because during science time we make a mess but they learn and I run an afterschool art club for kinder. They get to be creative. I;m not the kind if teacher that has a fit because my class is'nt walking in a super straight line with their hands behind their backs.
I too get very defensive when public school and teachers are being criticized. I agree changes are needed in public education but that doesn;t mean homeschooling is better. I don't have any children of my own yet but year year I get 18 to 20 kids in my class and I make sure to give them the best that I can.
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