Bird Droppings March 1, 2010
Do we teach or are we taught

It was an interesting weekend and seldom do I miss writing for two days straight. I often will skip a Saturday here and there but my school email was on the fritz and up through late last night I was not communicating very well with the outside world. As a weekend goes it was good though as our girl’s basketball won there first leg of the state tournament at the buzzer in a real nail biter Saturday night. Sunday was a day to relax and get my bearings. In my drives about it seems as if I were followed by several red tailed hawks. Three times my path was crossed by a great hawk. As I stood gazing at the full moon glowing orange as it rose this evening from the east I was in silence and at ease with myself.
As I slowly get myself on track writing my dissertation I keep coming back to an interesting fact. I find as a teacher I am learning as much or more than my students so many times. I wonder do we teach or are we being taught. Over the weekend I had contact with several former students and friends I had not communicated with in some time. This morning braving the cold I walked out forgetting my moccasins and my toes are frostbitten, when is spring coming, when will I learn to when I see below freezing on the weather note to listen? I do think as we grow older and wiser sometimes we to become stubborn often more so than our students in class and children.

“The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.” Albert Einstein

So many times when discussing students who are having a difficult time and it is that individual teacher’s perspective often that is all that matters. Recently I was about to thump another teacher in the head listening to comments about how if that student had a better work ethic they would do better. I have heard work ethic a lot lately these students need a better work ethic. But what if you really do not like that teacher and or subject and better yet what if you have a disability that inhibits you in many ways from enjoying or even appreciating the subject. Every day I see square pegs hammered into round holes. It is the way our education system works at least this is what is said on most days.
I am always amused that Mr. Einstein was one who did not have a great work ethic in school. As a matter of fact he failed math a time or two. Years later he rewrote the books.

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

We rely so much on prepackaged, prewritten, preformed, precooked, pretested, pre-read, and pre-understood in education for everything that creativity, imagination and uniqueness get left on the shelf. We are giving make up Georgia High School Graduation tests currently and soon the real thing again. In theory these are tests of content with a smattering of cognitive questions thrown in. However several questions while multiply choice could be answered in numerous ways.
In some instances there are high school students trying to analysis and answer questions for example that science teachers question the validity of. What if you miss one of those questions and get a 499 and 500 is passing. A good friend who graduated eight years ago had taken the science test four times and failed by a total of ten points total and has never graduated. What if each time this person answered that one question the same way, a question that is either incorrect or not answerable and has actually been removed from the test. This particular person was an A and B student and after four tries is far to frustrated to try again.

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” Albert Einstein

How, why and what should be taught are always at the crux of curriculum and instructional administrators challenges. But one of the most difficult aspects of education is instilling a desire to learn. It is that wanting to seek the mysterious to borrow from Einstein. Far too few students truly want to learn most just want to pass and get on. In nearly ten years one of my greatest moments was being asked who wrote the poem when I read Dylan Thomas. I was asked by a kid who most thought could not read and he read the entire book that weekend. Even though severely dyslexic between turning the book upside down and his mother reading aloud he made it through it. The mysterious is a mysterious thing I have found. So for another day and week my dear friends please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird