Bird Droppings October 13, 2011
Whose job is it to find the door?

I have been in several meetings the past few weeks with teachers and parents. I recall one night my youngest son handed me a sheet of paper to sign up for a teacher parent conference in geometry seems he let a test or two slip by. At our school at progress report time any student with a grade less than seventy five percent is to have a conference, and that is a school rule. As I am thinking about comments from one of my meetings where a mother wanted the school to do what she was doing in keeping her children up with their work, she was tired. Ideally it would be great if each teacher spent time each day with each student. Then you do the calculations for this endeavor, ninety minute class with say twenty eight students that is about three minutes a piece if there is no start up or down time, less than ninety seconds for each student.

“The real difficulty, the difficulty which has baffled the sages of all times, is rather this: how can we make our teaching so potent in the motional life of man, that its influence should withstand the pressure of the elemental psychic forces in the individual?” Albert Einstein

This has been a favorite of mine for many years and maybe I over use it but it is such a powerful statement. As a parent and a teacher how do we make our parenting and or our teaching so potent as to impact our kids? How do we, or who should open the door for students and children?

“The man who can make hard things easy is the educator.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Could not this person be a parent, friend and or a teacher?

“John Dewey’s significance for informal educators lies in a number of areas. First, his belief that education must engage with and enlarge experience has continued to be a significant strand in informal education practice. Second and linked to this, Dewey’s exploration of thinking and reflection – and the associated role of educators – has continued to be an inspiration. We can see it at work, for example, in the models developed by writers such as David Boud and Donald Schön. Third, was his concern with interaction and environments for learning and to provide a continuing framework for practice? Last, his passion for democracy, for educating so that all may share in a common life, provides a strong rationale for practice in the associational settings in which informal educators work.” Mark K. Smith, 2001

As often as I sit and think about how we work with kids I recall ideas from John Dewey. This passage written by Mark Smith relates four thoughts from John Dewey’s philosophy.

1. Engage and enlarge experience by drawing on what the child knows and has seen and touched and then build on that, develop that and move forward.

“Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him.” Aldus Huxley

“Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced — even a proverb is no proverb to you till your life has illustrated it.” John Keats

“Common experience is the gold reserve which confers an exchange value on the currency which words are; without this reserve of shared experiences, all our pronouncements are checks drawn on insufficient funds.” Rene Daumel

2. Thinking and reflection is that aspect that Einstein refers to that has baffled the sages down through time. How do we get students or anyone for that matter to think and then as Dewey teaches reflect?

“A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.” Georges Bernanos

“We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.” Buddha

“Teachers and learners engage in conscious and thoughtful consideration of the work and the process. It is this reflective activity that evokes insight and gives rise to revisions and refinements.” The Foxfire Approach

3. Interaction and environments for learning are providing an atmosphere that students want to be in and this is a key to success. Be it at home or at school if a child does not want to be there it is difficult to learn let alone to function.

“Course content is connected to the community in which the learners live. Learners’ work will “bring home” larger issues by identifying attitudes about and illustrations and implications of those issues in their home communities.” The Foxfire Approach

“For industry to support education and training it must provide a relevant cost benefit to the employer. The content and design of the learning on offer must be capable of not only sustaining the candidate’s willingness and ability to learn but also respond to the ever changing environment within which industry operates.” Mike Goodwin, University of Wolverhampton addressing the concept of negotiated work based learning

Context for learning is about providing rationale and reason for what is being taught. Content is easy, it is in the text book but providing context is where doors are opened.

4. Democracy in the class room is a significant tool for teachers.

“My own belief….is that a teacher’s stated views – and, more important, the visible actions which that teacher takes during a year in public school – are infinitely more relentless in their impact on the students than a wealth of books of any possible variety.” Jonathan Kozol, On Being a Teacher, p. 25

Students and children actively involved in their class room changes often the direction and flow of learning.

“Students can be forced to sit through a class, but they cannot be forced to be interested in it, or to do well.” Alfie Kohn, 1993

“A visitor then to my democratic classroom in action would walk into a room in which students are working in groups or individually grappling with ideas that will later enrich the classroom. Deliberation and debate would be ongoing as students worked on issues and projects that mattered to them as both a class and as individuals. I as the teacher would not be the center point of the room but would instead be its facilitator and manager.” Ryan Niman

Parents, students, teachers and administrators each have involvement in a student’s learning. There is no specific script that is better than another I have found over the years. As I listened to a mother want we the school do take over all she did at home I wondered what are you going to do take a vacation as a parent. While she was tired and concerned those 16 hours away from school are as crucial as the eight or so that students spend in school. Children getting sleep, proper nutrition, care and love are all integral aspects of getting a child to learn to have an appreciation for learning. Who opens the door is not as important as that it is open and students and parents and teachers can each find their role and build. It is up to each of us to try and do just a little better each day in all that we do and please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts.
namaste
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