Obsessing Over Education

Today, Monday November 22 (in under the wire) "has been declared a national Day of Blogging for Real Education Reform. It is a grassroots effort to bring together educators (including parents) to offer their ideas on how to improve America’s public schools" so I wanted to add my voice.  The full list is here.

I'm not sure if it's because I'm pondering taking up a new career in teaching, I'm spurred on by my son's cries of hating school, or it's simply my dad's (he's there to the right) influence, but lately I've become extremely interested in education. My dad keeps handing me excellent books about the state of education in America and ideas for improvement, not to mention making proclamations such as "I'm boycotting Waiting For Superman."

I've been pretty lax about my kids' education.   I stood in a line at 6am to get them into a public Spanish Immersion school, volunteer in class and somehow winded up as a PTA co-Secretary, and figure that's pretty good. I'm lucky, we have the makings for children who will likely do pretty well (whatever that means) - with parents and grandparents with advanced degrees and highly involved in their lives and education. My boys are smart, but seemingly not so "gifted" they act out, they just become bored.

So what's a parent to do? There's been a big hubbub over a certain documentary, but thanks to my father, I've joined the opposite camp, "NOT Waiting for Superman" and in fact recently saw another (non-Hollywood) documentary, "Race to Nowhere," which addressed the high pressure kids are put under to achieve, to get into a top school, get a top job and make a lot of money.  I highly recommend seeing this movie, although I was disappointed by the panel that followed, where one woman said programs that work in wealthy areas like Palo Alto, won't work in poor areas like East Palo Alto.  Ugh!

There was a recent blog post from one of my favorite bloggers about how she wants her children to be more than "just happy" - she wants them to live up to their potential. I'm at the point where I really do want my babies to simply be happy, and while I suspect success and achievement is what will make them happy, it may not be "success" by current standards. Struggling artists, the athletes who barely make a living wage, writers facing their umpteenth rejection letter, I'm betting they may be happier than a cubicle dweller making a decent wage with good benefits. I want my children to take risks, to try new things and fail a lot. They can always go to law school at 40 if they decide money is really what they want (disclaimer, I know not all lawyers make a lot of money.)

Speaking of failure, this is what Neil Postman (currently reading The End of Education) believed is one of the areas missing from today's eduction. Not so much failure itself that is missing, but being rewarded for failure. In an editorial today Tom Friedman spoke about what kids needed in their education "the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving; the ability to communicate effectively; and the ability to collaborate." Neil Postman believes kids also need to learn to argue, to be skeptical and to to be "error detectors" (boy did I get in trouble for that). 

Speaking as the kid always picked last for the debate team (2nd to last for sports, hallelujah), I could not agree more.  I have a hard time arguing my points at work and usually give up, but at least I try, something I would never have done after high school, when the way to a good grade was to agree with the teacher.  In 5th grade I was pissed off when I got a question wrong that began "What do you think...?"  In High School we groaned when our teacher sent a friend who dared argue against the accepted symbolism of Lord of the Rings to the dean.  Who were the "smart" kids?  The one's who knew how to get a good grade or the ones who really understood the book and refused to cave.  I ended up with better grades and at MIT and my friend became a teacher of all things, with the goal of making learning fun, something we rarely experienced.  I hope she hasn't been crushed by the "system."

Tonight I asked the kids if a teacher ever said anything they didn't believe. The answer was no, but I asked what they would do. "Get past it" was their answer, and when I spurred them on to an argument (by proclaiming that Landon Donovan is a better player than Pele ever was) I got an excellent argument and told them so. The boys then laughed and called themselves bullies. Turns out being mean and arguing are lumped together as bullying behavior and that certainly has to stop.  I know for a fact my sons' current teachers would completely accept a challenge to something they said, and be open to a lively discussion.  I just hope that continues.  I've found high school teachers can have much bigger egos than elementary school ones.

Back to the changes...we need to stop concentrating solely on engineering changes, as both Postman and John Taylor Gotto have said.  Smaller class sizes, better technology, Singapore vs Chicago math, longer school years and more money are not going to work without more massive reforms.  If I had a magic wand I'd get rid of testing and boring textbooks and instead help kids find and pursue their passions, or, as Postman writes, "instill our children with a sense of global citizenship, healthy intellectual skepticism, respect of America's traditions, and appreciation of its diversity."  I'd also change the goal of education from getting all kids into college or beating the Chinese to creating "good people, good citizens, and good lives" as Gotto writes. 

Boys will be...Restless

I just learned that my 11 year old nephew has been diagnosed with ADD after getting 4 As and an F on his latest report card. Seems he didn't turn in any of his homework, which counted for about 40% of the grade. My mom's response was disbelief, after all this was a kid who at 3 could sit for three hours just playing with buttons in a car, the same age he learned to read. "Sure" responded a friend, "they can focus on stuff they are interested in." Why does there have to be something wrong with a kid who doesn't work hard on things that don't capture his attention? This kid can play golf or chess for hours, video games too, although that's not quite the same. I'm sure it doesn't help that my parents and I are are currently engrossed in the book "Weapons of Mass Instruction" but that's for a later post. At the same time I was learning my bright nephew is failing due to lack of homework (he did fine on the tests), I have come face-to-face with the 2nd grade language arts standardized tests and it makes me sick.

On a recent Thursday I find myself sitting on a pint-sized chair with two 2nd graders. I'm helping them prepare for their first standardized test given in English. They are both native Spanish speakers who've been in a dual immersion program since kindergarten and I've volunteered to give them some extra help. The enthusiastic and eager little girl, N, sits so close to me you can't even fit one page of the test booklet between us. She loves to read, do word searches and is thrilled when she gets an answer right. The sweet-faced and active little boy, who I'll call S, has not stayed still for more than about 30 seconds since we started the session, and as I turn to answer N's inquiry, he darts across the room, ostensibly to sharpen his pencil, but his legs move a lot more quickly than his brain as he looks confused as to how and why he's standing there. I call him back and manage to hold his attention for about 3 minutes before "coach" (my husband) wanders in to get his iced coffee and our son. "S___________" he barks out, followed by the patented hand slap fist bash, and I can see the longing on S's face as my two guys head out to play pick-up soccer.

He was so full of energy he literally could not sit still in his chair, half falling out and popping up every once in while. He'd already been in school for four hours (this was a short day, other days it would have been 6) and he made it very clear reading was not his favorite subject. Why do we make kids sit down all day to learn? This boy had already been separated from his buddy, who had a tutor all to himself since he "was worse" I was told. S made it very clear reading was not his favorite subject. He even asked if we could do math instead.

I worry about both kids. The little girl absolutely loves to read, but the moronic questions she has to answer will likely burn that love right out. Would not her time be better spent pouring over books with princesses and witches and silly chickens, rather than answering "which of these is not used to make bubbles?" (the answer is glass balls, in case you were wondering, not scissors as any normal person would have surmised). I remember my mom telling me there was no need for SAT prep classes. I should simply read as much as possible, looking up any words I didn't know.

I guess I should feel lucky, in as much as my son can't sit still at home and complains about having to sit still all day at school, he is a rule follower. He would rather get on the rocket ship of good behavior in class even if it means sitting and being quiet when he's supposed to. He's actually in the most active 1st grade classroom at the school, one where the teacher routinely gets told he needs to get better control of the classroom. That class fits us well, although drives the parents who are former teachers a bit crazy. Even in this lively room full of 1st graders the need for conformity threatens to crush his active mind and adventurous spirit.

My husband encourages all his kinesthetic learners to juggle a ball while he's talking to them out on the field, as long as they aren't talking to each other. A roomful of moms were given "permission" by a professor of childhood education to let our little boys (and girls) play during reading time, that our toddlers and preschoolers would still get the benefits of reading. Can you imagine how that would be received in a public school? Actually, it's been done here, so maybe there is still hope.

In the meantime, I'm also following the rules to the best of my ability. The boys now have different tutors, ones who can get them to sit for the full hour. I'm working through the tests with two sweet girls and letting them read as much as they want, but no more.

Photo courtesy of creative commons