Bird Droppings May 3, 2011
All along the journey

It is teacher appreciation week and in my box this morning several letters from students current and past thanking me for being who I am and for how I teach. In my years of teaching directly and indirectly I have always felt there is a way to reach most any kid. Finding that is the key. My studies have led me to many great educators and thinkers over the years but I will say honestly John Dewey has been one of the greatest influences in my own educational thinking and philosophy.

“Who, then, shall conduct education so that humanity may improve?” John Dewey

A very deep and broad question I was thinking back to my own community and associations. We elect school board members who hire teachers and principals and they decide on what schools to build and place to build them and rules to govern schools. Often these folks are just local residents who may or may not have a college background and have been elected to the position based on in some cases no one else was running. Each state has a system for setting up local school boards and in Georgia recently all the state rules have been put to the test. Systems that were imploding due to board rivalries and corruption have been replaced and in some cases the state has taken over the system temporarily and the governor has intervened. So to start the morning what and how does John Dewey the great educator answer his own question?

“We must depend upon the efforts of enlightened men in their private capacity. All culture begins with private men and spreads outward from them. Simply through the efforts of persons of enlarged inclinations, who are capable of grasping the ideal of a future better condition, is the gradual approximation of human nature to its end possible…. Rulers are simply interested in such training as will make their subjects better tools for their own intentions.’ Even the subsidy by rulers of privately conducted schools must be carefully safeguarded. For the rulers’ interest in the welfare of their own nation instead of in what is best for humanity, will make them, if they give money for the schools, wish to draw their plans.” John Dewey

We are manipulated and educated as pawns in a society for the societies own good. There are times when I believe that watching new teachers come and teach in a manner that has been that way for a hundred years and we develop curriculums that are what was and will always be it is sad. Occasionally a bright note a light on the horizon a student of education or two sees a different view, a different point and follows a different path. Here I am thinking and routine keeps popping up. But an alteration to my morning routine and it bothers me. We want things to be smooth to run efficiently and effectively and OUR way. The further up the chain of command the bigger the OUR WAY is.

“The new idea of the importance of education for human welfare and progress was captured by national interests and harnessed to do a work whose social aim was definitely narrow and exclusive. The social aim of education and its national aim were identified, and the result was a marked obscuring of the meaning of a social aim.” John Dewey

Teachers and administrators like routine, sameness because it is easy to can and bottle borrowing from Sydney J, Harris “easier to stuff sausage”. The student effectively gets lost in the mandated and regulated manipulations of society.

“Is it possible for an educational system to be conducted by a national state and yet the full social ends of the educative process not be restricted, constrained, and corrupted?” John Dewey

I find irony in the concept of a democratic classroom which I do believe can be successful. I find paradox in our efforts to be so democratic in our own country and yet we tend to bow to where the majority wants even at the expense of free thought. We say individualism on one hand yet want the majority to rule and to dictate. Watching the several election processes in Iraq where one faction seems to win and the others literally do not vote in protest I wonder at why. As I look at education and our own country how often do we do this and then when that which we did not elect nor even cared about happens we whine, we complain and we are faced with a journey with provisions we do not want nor need. Often we go on that journey in a wrong direction for several years till another changes paths.
Far too often we dictate direction in a top down scenario. On the path the one on the journey is being told go this way and go that and it should be the one directing the effort. It is so easy to raise an issue following through with ideas is the more difficult aspect. Where in should the direction be set? I approach students in a manner that may be contradictory to some and way wrong to others. I offer here is where we need to go and ok class how do we get there. At first that is a difficult proposition many want a map a guide a compass at least and the teacher can be that facilitating in a guiding manner. But for learning to happen students have to be engaged and interactive in the journey each day.

“To get where they’re going, navigators first need to know where in the world they are.” Miami University, Dragonfly project

If we substitute educators and or students for navigators an interesting situation occurs. Any journey needs a starting point and how we find where that is often is the hard part in education. A journey starts at the beginning and where it is going is wherever and when ever but it does start somewhere. As a teacher, help students find a starting point then provide tools to navigate the journey. Please keep all in harms way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
bird