Anyone who's followed education might be wondering how I missed this, but I don't have children, nor do most of my friends, nor either of my two siblings. I'm not an aunt, not even an honorary one.
I had almost nothing to do with education until I started working in a high school this year:
it wasn't until last night that I watched the most-viewed (77 million views) TED talk, Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?"*
(tldr: yes)
He says what I wish I heard at work, but don't:
the skill we need most at this time--when the future is so uncertain-- is creativity.
Not (just) for personal development and healthy societies, but for survival.
I'd talked about this with a couple young coworkers:
Shouldn't we be teaching the students (and ourselves!) to figure out how to survive an apocalypse?
How to start a fire.
How to set up a government.
How to think.
How to treat trench foot.
Speaking of which--Marz did hate every minute of getting up at 3 a.m. to pack canoes, and then paddling and portaging with wet feet all day.
They were warned of the danger of developing trench foot, but were given no time to dry out their boots.
She said the whole experience reminded her of some kind of war-games reenactment.
What was needed in the 18th century as the West industrialized and grew empires was workers and foot soldiers, and a smaller number (20 percent, Ken Robinson says) of managers to run the businesses and empires, etc.
Education systems developed to meet that need.
And the rise of standardized testing has kept us locked into a factory model of teaching for efficiency.
And that feeds Control.
I SEE THAT.
I've mentioned being surprised that a student--let's say "Chris"-- who writes good stories online is getting a D in English.
Why?
I asked the teacher, who said Chris does not proofread their work---it is full of punctuation and capitalization errors.
_____Now, Chris has said out loud in class that it is frustrating to have autism and ADHD.
“ Due to the fact that we highlight mistakes, make them wrong and stigmatize them, we are educating people out of their creative captivities.
By the time kids become adults… they become frightened of being wrong.”
--Ken Robinson
_______________
If I were the teacher, instead of pushjing them to focus on details, which is obviously extra-hard for them, I'd work to strengthen their creative writing, and I'd give them a pass on punctuation for the time being, as the work is readable. (It is.)
On Friday, I was sent with four students, including Chris, to another room to help them re-do some assignments.
I usually leave Chris alone because I can see they're working, but that day I pushed--"Please let me help you proofread one assignment."
They sighed, but agreed--I think just to be nice to me.
Truly, except for the absence of periods and some wonky capitalization, the assignment was good--showed intelligence and creativity--and was perfectly readable.
We cleaned it up in 15 minutes, and I suggested Chris proof a few more old assignments over the weekend:
"You could get your grade up, even if just to a C."
(I asked the teacher how many assignments were needed to raise a grade.
They said, "I don't know. I'd have to figure that out, and I don't have time."
So I couldn't even offer that information as an incentive, like, "you only need TWO".)
Anyway, the student said, "But I don't care about my grade."
Heh. Can't argue with that.
I said that they are a good writer, I could tell from their stories.
"I know I'm a good writer," Chris said. (Good!) "When I work on my stories, I can go at my own speed. I can close my computer and come back when I'm ready."
"That's wonderful!" I said. "Choosing your own pace for creative projects works well."
I'm sure they've heard all the arguments for Working Hard on Schoolwork, so I didn't repeat them.
Also, I don't agree with them.
If I were the teacher, I'd work on this student's own stories with them--if they'd let me. That would spill over into everything else they write.
The student isn't oppositional, or not for no reason. When we finished proofreading, they thanked me. It hurt my heart a little.
Fertilize the field so the plants thrive, flower, and fruit.
Not because flowers are beautiful, but because we need to eat.
_____________________________
*The TED talk is 19 minutes--I liked the more in-depth 55-minute podcast interview,
"Sir Ken Robinson (still) wants an education revolution".
No comments:
Post a Comment