Bird Droppings January 21, 2025

Learning is a journey strewn with boulders

“In a word, learning is decontextualized. We break ideas down into tiny pieces that bear no relation to the whole. We give students a brick of information, followed by another brick, followed by another brick, until they have graduated, at which point we assume they have a house. What they have is a pile of bricks, and they don’t have it for long.” Alfie Kohn, Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’S, Praise and Other Bribes

For nearly two weeks, it has been raining and snowing in the mornings, at least every other day. It was interesting early in the morning, clear or semi-clear, and so far, no precipitation but frozen. Our grandchildren spent the last time they were here, and it was quite a long time. We played upstairs, downstairs, and in between. Today, we had a few wispy clouds hiding the remnants of the moon. I am sitting, sipping tea and honey, and enjoying some quiet before getting serious about reading and files. I might even do some serious writing after lunch.

It has been many years since I first brought up that we need context to complement the content in education. I have been a fan of Alfie Kohn’s work for nearly twenty-five years since I first read a book in a book club meeting held by our then-principal. As I read this earlier today and used it as a status for my Facebook page, the idea of decontextualizing interests me. Real learning involves context, and if we constantly are decontextualizing, essentially, we are unlearning what we are trying to teach.

“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. They decide on schools to build, a place to build them, and rules to govern schools. In Georgia, recently, several school systems have lost and or been put on probation due to school boards’ inappropriate behavior and the politics of those school boards that took away from education. The new kid on the board of charter schools is impacting public education, and private schools still thrive here in the Bible Belt. In any situation where elected officials are running the show, especially where there are few requirements for the job, and it pays little, if anything, what should we expect? So, I turn to my hero; what and how does Dewey, the great educator, answer his 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. The rulers’ interest in the welfare of their 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 society for society’s own perpetuation, and many top educators across the country believe this. There are times when I believe as well, watching new teachers come and teach in a manner that has been that way for a hundred years, as we develop curriculums that are what was and will always be and or design a program to sell books much like the integrated math program curriculum in Georgia that is after about three years being done away with because test scores were significantly dropping. Over eighty thousand students failed end-of-course tests. It is always about tests. 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 the routine keeps popping up.

Today, as I do every day, I went out to do some photography. It is funny that back in the day, we had Moose, our Yorkie, Lil Girl, and our Westie, and the two could not be in the same space together even though they had been raised for several years together. We moved along the way, and they could not decide who the boss was after the move. Then I go to my computer and write, trying to catch up on emails. What is of concern, I think, is that this is a trivial item to be concerned about. We want things to be smooth and run efficiently and effectively, and “OUR WAY” is 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, I call it, and it is easy to be canned and/or bottled. Borrowing from Sydney J, Harris says, “It’s easier to stuff a sausage than cultivate a pearl.” The student effectively gets lost in society’s mandated and regulated manipulations.

“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 believe can be successful. I find a paradox in our efforts to be so democratic in our own country, and yet we tend to bow to where the majority want, even at the expense of free thought. We say individualism, on the one hand, yet want the majority to rule and to dictate. As I was watching the election process in Iraq previously, I noticed that these concepts seemed to be exemplified. One faction won, and another literally did not vote in protest.

As I look at education and our own country, how often do we do this? When that which we did not elect nor even care about happens, we whine. We complain, and we are faced with a journey that has provisions we do not want or need. We can often be on that journey in the wrong direction for several years till another change or pathway appears. Far too often, we dictate direction in a top-down scenario.  On the path, the one on the journey is being told to go this way and go that and 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 should the direction be set, for example, in education? 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? First, that is a difficult proposition; many want at least a map, a guide, and a compass. The teacher can be facilitating in a guiding manner. However, for learning to happen, students have to be engaged and interactive during the journey each day.

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

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 the hard part of education. A journey starts at the beginning; where it is going is wherever and whenever, but it does start somewhere. As a teacher, I help students find a starting point and then provide tools to navigate the journey. 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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