As always, Teacher Tom you hit the nail right on the head and with your usual power. It is if seasoned teachers are doing something wrong by teaching kids to think. We have to rise up against this factory model of education! I shudder to think what our world will be like in 20 years... Thank you.....
I wanted to take a moment to add to your ideas about efficiency, "productivity" and the dangers of creating rote curricula in our neo-liberal capitalistic society.
I think that a discussion around the benefits of developing curriculum frameworks rather than prescribed curricula could be useful here. I am a huge proponent of values based frameworks that present a small number of broad-based learning goals and promote project based learning programs that include engagement with open-ended materials as playthings that support inquiry, discovery and problem solving (like berry baskets and plastic straws). With this approach to education the dangers of replacing play with rote becomes far less of a risk because the implementation of such frameworks requires teachers to play, reflect and plan on an ongoing basis. They also require that teachers engage deeply with children as they co-construct knowledge and new understandings alongside each other. To me this is REAL education that not only prevents teacher burn-out (because the job always remains new and interesting) but also prevents "burnout" for children who, enrolled in programs with rote curricula, lose their intrinsic motivation to learn very early on in their educational experiences. Ken Robinson says it very well in one of his TEDtalks when he articulates that we must take an approach to education that is more similar to agriculture than manufacturing. He says (and I am paraphrasing here) that we cannot determine the results of human development so instead we should do our best to create the conditions in which children can flourish.
Oh...and you should see my "school supplies closet"! Not a theme or a label to be found because I think there is real value in playing and re-categorizing materials before I present them to the children in new and exciting ways. This is to my own benefit as well as theirs and while it me be less efficient it certainly saves a great deal of money as I use and reuse materials to teach any number of concepts to children.
I was mesmerized by the photos in this post! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE construction/building projects for kids and have never used the idea of strawberry baskets and straws/sticks. Awesome!
As always, Teacher Tom you hit the nail right on the head and with your usual power. It is if seasoned teachers are doing something wrong by teaching kids to think. We have to rise up against this factory model of education! I shudder to think what our world will be like in 20 years...
ReplyDeleteThank you.....
Teacher Tom,
ReplyDeleteI wanted to take a moment to add to your ideas about efficiency, "productivity" and the dangers of creating rote curricula in our neo-liberal capitalistic society.
I think that a discussion around the benefits of developing curriculum frameworks rather than prescribed curricula could be useful here. I am a huge proponent of values based frameworks that present a small number of broad-based learning goals and promote project based learning programs that include engagement with open-ended materials as playthings that support inquiry, discovery and problem solving (like berry baskets and plastic straws). With this approach to education the dangers of replacing play with rote becomes far less of a risk because the implementation of such frameworks requires teachers to play, reflect and plan on an ongoing basis. They also require that teachers engage deeply with children as they co-construct knowledge and new understandings alongside each other. To me this is REAL education that not only prevents teacher burn-out (because the job always remains new and interesting) but also prevents "burnout" for children who, enrolled in programs with rote curricula, lose their intrinsic motivation to learn very early on in their educational experiences. Ken Robinson says it very well in one of his TEDtalks when he articulates that we must take an approach to education that is more similar to agriculture than manufacturing. He says (and I am paraphrasing here) that we cannot determine the results of human development so instead we should do our best to create the conditions in which children can flourish.
Oh...and you should see my "school supplies closet"! Not a theme or a label to be found because I think there is real value in playing and re-categorizing materials before I present them to the children in new and exciting ways. This is to my own benefit as well as theirs and while it me be less efficient it certainly saves a great deal of money as I use and reuse materials to teach any number of concepts to children.
I was mesmerized by the photos in this post! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE construction/building projects for kids and have never used the idea of strawberry baskets and straws/sticks. Awesome!
ReplyDelete