Bird Droppings June 2, 2024
Do we, as teachers, build doors or walls?

I enjoy arriving at school while the stars are still shining overhead; something about the darkness is peaceful for me. I can remember when my youngest rode to school with me; he was not quite as big a fan of mornings and pre-sunrises as I was. He misses that few extra moments of sleep each day. I remember several years back, while my granddaughter visited, we started telling stories, and she, too, got caught up and was adding to the story. I would start a story about whoever she wanted, and we would make up things as we went. Grandmommie was first, and then Charlie wanted to go to the Disney Store with Grandmommie, so the story unfolded. I was in Barnes and Noble’s bookstore a few weeks ago and picked up a copy of James Bradley’s book Flags of Our Fathers. The opening quote is very powerful: what if.

“Mothers should negotiate between nations. The mothers of fighting countries would agree: Stop this killing now. Stop it now.” Yoshikuni Taki

I have been in several meetings over the past few years with teachers and parents. It has been a few years since my youngest son handed me a sheet of paper to sign up for a teacher-parent conference in geometry. It appeared that he let a test or two slip by. Any student with a grade of less than 75% is to have a conference, according to school rules. Interesting is that so many students only want seventy percent. As I was thinking about comments from one of my meetings, I noticed that there was a mother who wanted the school to keep her children up with their work because she was tired. Ideally, it would be great for each teacher to spend time each day with each student; however, if you do the calculations at one hundred and ten minutes or so per class and thirty-plus students, that is less than four minutes apiece if there is no start up or down time. That would amount to Less than four minutes for each student.

This has been a favorite quote of mine for many years, hanging on the back of my classroom door where I can see it most of the day. As parents and teachers, how do we make our parenting and teaching so potent? How do we or should we provide a doorway or open the door for students and children?

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

My thought is, 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, his concern with interaction and environments for learning provides a continuing framework for practice. Last, his passion for democracy, for educating so that all may share in     common life, provides a strong rationale for practice in the associational settings in            which informal educators work.” Mark K. Smith 2001

As I sit and think about how do we work with kids, I recall ideas from John Dewey. This passage written by Mark Smith relates four thoughts from John Dewey’s philosophy: engage and enlarge experience, thinking and reflection, interactions and environments for learning, and democracy in the classroom. Engage and enlarge experience: If we as teachers draw on what the child knows and has seen and touched, we can then build on that and develop so that we can move forward and sideways or up and down. Thinking and reflection: This is that aspect that Einstein refers to that has baffled the sages down through time. How do we get students anyone 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

Interaction and environments for learning: Providing an atmosphere that students want to be in is a key to success. Be it at home or school, if a child does not want to be there, it isn’t easy to learn and 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  Wolver Hampton, addressing the concept of negotiated work-based learning

Having a context for learning by providing rationale and reason for what is being taught. Content is much easier to work with if it is in the textbook, but providing context is where doors are created and opened.

Democracy in the classroom: Students and children being actively involved in their classroom often change the direction and flow of learning.

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

“A visitor than 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 differing and often specific involvement in that student’s learning. There is no specific script that is better than another. As I listened to a mother, she wanted the school to take over all she did at home. I wondered, what are you going to take a vacation? While she was tired and concerned, those 16 hours away (sixteen-hour syndrome and still no cure) from school are as crucial as the eight or so that students spend in school. It is about getting sleep, proper nutrition, care, and love, which are all integral aspects of getting a child to learn and have an appreciation for learning. Who opens the door and who creates the door sort of blend in and are not as important as that it is open, and students, 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. Please keep all in harm’s way on your mind and in your hearts, and always give thanks, namaste.

My family and friends, I do not say this lightly,

Mitakuye Oyasin

(We are all related)

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