I was just reading this post by my good friend Lucy, wherein she talks about how hard it is to write good history and how important it is.
And just today I was talking to my mom about how it took me 24 years before I started to get even a glimmer of interest in history. All throughout school, history was always a THING which was already FINISHED by men years ago and which we needed to MEMORIZE in order to pass tests and write papers and whatnot. It wasn’t until very recently that I started to realize that history is actually a PROCESS of reconstruction, which can–nay must–be done by EVERYBODY and then USED to live better and smarter in the world.
But that doesn’t come across in 7th grade history class. The only people who were ever into history in 7th grade were history geeks. Just like only the math geeks liked math, and only the sports geeks liked gym, and only the music geeks liked chorus.
When we were talking about this, my mom mentioned that when I was growing up, she saw somewhere that all of mathematics up through calculus can be taught to kids in 1.5 years.
1.5 years.
And we take 13 years to learn it.
So where do the other 11.5 go?
I think the answer is that they go into force feeding. Because most kids aren’t that interested in any given topic, you have to force them to learn useful stuff. Getting kids to love their subjects, and doing activities that will make them dying to do more… that’s the kind of stuff teachers just don’t have time for. Not when there are multiplication tables to learn. So the love is left out of the curriculum. Maybe we’ll do something fun when we have time. But right now we have to prepare for your big 3rd grade statewide exams.
I think we need a school that teaches love. There would be one goal in the mathematics curriculum: get the kids to fall in love with math. Same for history: make them love it. Get them addicted to exercise. Get them geeking out about books. In fact, turn them into total geeks about every subject.
And don’t teach them a damn thing. No multiplication, no Shakespeare, no American Revolution. I mean, give it a try, but if they don’t bite, forget about it. Move on to something they might actually be interested in. If the way they fall in love with history is by doing detailed research into the Super Mario franchise, then so be it. Better they love history and don’t know that America was a colony of Britain than they know what year Columbus landed, but can’t stand the thought of peering into the past.
I’ve never heard of a school like this. But if there is one, that’s where I want my kids to go. And if there isn’t, I want to start one. Who’s with me?
Issues with “make them love it” aside, I agree that the way we’re teaching kids in school isn’t helping kids. The underlying goals aren’t the three Ws but rather the two Ps - Productivity and Professionalism.
My son’s school has a principal who likes the whole testing-as-measure incentives and thus Carter has art once a semester (step-by-step assembly isn’t art, but that’s what they do), homework in Kindergarten, and precious little time to socialize and play. Not that she’s alone in this thinking or that it’s new. About a decade ago, I worked with my old school district on a career fair, and she said, “Well, you went to college to get a good job, right?” (No, actually, I went (a) out of social expectation and (b) to explore.) The mindset that school is for creating little workers (in the employment sense) is problematic even if it may be practical.
Your concerns above might be addressed if kids were taught how to learn through exploration, rather than through memorization. I was good at figuring things out and memorizing stuff, so I thrived. I don’t think I learned how to write a paper until well into college and had a very late epipheny about how to learn. My K-12 schooling had little to do with that, other than maybe some recommendation letters to get me into college.
Try looking into the concept of “unschooling” and read Alfie Kohn.
Have you read anything about democratic schooling? Democratic schools are very unstructured and allow kids to follow their own interests pretty much exclusively. The student’s grade depends on their presentation of a portfolio on what they’ve learned at the end of the semester. I have a couple of friends who went to September School, a democratic school in Boulder, and who loved the school but felt that they were at a severe disadvantage once they reached college. They said basically that they knew everything about their own loves and creativity but nothing about the basics of any subject. Anyway, food for thought.
I think I’m suggesting something significantly different than student-driven learning. A School of Love could still be highly structured, with a well developed curriculum coming from “on high”. It’s just that the focus is on general appreciation rather than learning specifics.
And I don’t know if disadvantage in college is an issue. College is important, but a passion for the pillars of modern civilization is more important.
I actually just took a class from the education department, and the Prof was a full time researcher into education (she actually goes into classrooms). I think she found your class of love in LA in a very poor neighbor. Its a 2nd grade classroom with two teachers, both of whom are bi-lingual, and teach the class bilingually. They totally don’t follow any of the state mandates, but rather teach the class in a very contextual and hands on way so the kids understand why they need to learn this and are engaged and want to learn. I totally agree with your statements and these teachers styles, because the kids actually ARE learning. They are located in one of the poorest neighborhoods in LA and the kids are getting amazing test scores on the standardized exams, even though the teachers totally don’t teach to the exam. That is proper teaching!
It does sound close to my general thoughts on education.
My general thought on the two most important things to focus on:
- Teach kids how to search for/find things out online
- Inspire kids to want to learn
The idea being that if you give them a tool that can allow them to learn anything they might want to know and teach them how to use it, the rest should follow.
starting schools like that is what i wanted to do before i discovered hci, when i was working with harmony and nsrf in my year with americorps.
now i want to build tools that will make the whole world into a school like that. and you are already helping. :)
that’s kind of tim’s point, i guess, but i think there’s more to it than just teaching them how to pull information, and i also think that there are some foundational things that all children should learn even though they might not think of them on their own, and pointing those things out is our responsibility as the elders of the tribe.
but yes, there are a lot of people trying a lot of interesting things, and thinking about my own eventual children does bring the matter back to the front of my mind.
but that’s what the commune’s for, yo. ;)
duh.
if you want to get more fired up, find and read some jonathan kozol, and these guys have what i consider to be a crackerjack approach to highschool.
I remember in early high school, back in the nascent days of this new technology you logged an incredible number of hours developing with the primitive tools available a fairly definitive website on the current hot game—was it Quake? Working with an archaic dial-up modem well before Google you did extensive research footnoted in your summaries, and developed your own conclusions which you then submitted to your online peers and defended in challenge. Does the concept sound familiar? You loved it and gave your soul.
Does everyone hear this song? I fear not. We’re not taught, or allowed in a mass education system to find who we are. Rather than complain about the system, I suggest to all the complainants, find a child who needs a mentor. Hear his/her song and encourage it where school or parents aren’t able. Help them trust their voice. One at a time makes a difference.