They can be found in every middle and high school classroom throughout the land. They slump into your classroom, fall into their chairs, and proceed to do nothing at all. They are the Lazy Students. The better examples of the breed are quiet and refuse to interact with everything and everyone save their iPhones. They are tolerable because their inertia allows you to teach. The annoying subspecies of Lazy Student craves attention, and will act like a circus monkey to get it. They prevent everyone from getting down to work. But all Lazy Students share the same mantra (which they chant endlessly), "You can't make me do it."
Ever wonder where these twerps learn how to become Lazy Students? They start in first grade, during music class. (Probably kindergarten, but my tale takes place in a first grade classroom.) The little six-year old African-American boy decided three weeks ago that he does not like music class. Two weeks ago, I sent him to his desk for talking to his neighbors instead of singing the song. Last week, I entered the room to find him sitting under a table while the rest of the class was sitting in a circle ready to sing. The teacher walked him over to the circle, with the threat of calling grandma. He refused to sit down. Fine, I told him, you are welcome to stand. Then he got bored and started messing around with an easel. The teacher took him away and had him help her. No reprimand, no nothing. This week, the boy spent all of music time reading at his desk. The teacher did not require him to join our circle or participate in class.
In other words, this six-year old has learned that if he does not like what his class is doing in school, he does not have to do it. No one will force him to anything that he doesn't like. Not his teachers, not his grandma, no one. He is entitled to do whatever he likes, whenever he chooses without fear of punishment or reprisal.
I am confident in my prediction this young boy will shortly become a behavioral nightmare. By the time he reaches junior high, he will be the terror of his school. By high school, he will have a probation officer and drop out at the first opportunity.
All because no one had the nerve to teach him the most important lesson of all. Life is full of things you don't want to do, but must do anyway, otherwise there will be many painful consequences in the future.
Friday, February 28, 2014
Friday, February 21, 2014
Extra Credit Bonus: Fortune cookie foolishness
I love pithy quotes -- a lot. So much so that I've resurrected the Enlightenment custom of collecting quotes and proverbs. Up until now, I've only collected items of exceptional wit that I want to use again. But after yesterday's blog reading, I'm putting a new section in my notebook: Educational Lunacy.
Grant Wiggins (of Understanding by Design fame) has been tussling with some erudite education bloggers about the immortal constructivist/instructivist debate. In the midst of a response to The Educational Realist, he let slip this gem:
Most teachers focus on getting kids to learn stuff, as if learning = acquisition of content. That’s how textbooks and almost all curricula are written, and that is how most teachers teach.
Um, excuse me. Yeah, way back here. It's okay if you can't see me, I'm really short. I'm the one holding the dictionary. You want to know the reason most teachers focus on the "acquisition of content?" It's because THAT'S THE DEFINITION OF LEARNING! Don't believe me? Go look it up in Webster's yourself.
Meanwhile, I'm going back to redesigning my curriculum. And making damn sure none of your intellectually soggy, edu-babble is anywhere near it.
Grant Wiggins (of Understanding by Design fame) has been tussling with some erudite education bloggers about the immortal constructivist/instructivist debate. In the midst of a response to The Educational Realist, he let slip this gem:
Most teachers focus on getting kids to learn stuff, as if learning = acquisition of content. That’s how textbooks and almost all curricula are written, and that is how most teachers teach.
Um, excuse me. Yeah, way back here. It's okay if you can't see me, I'm really short. I'm the one holding the dictionary. You want to know the reason most teachers focus on the "acquisition of content?" It's because THAT'S THE DEFINITION OF LEARNING! Don't believe me? Go look it up in Webster's yourself.
Meanwhile, I'm going back to redesigning my curriculum. And making damn sure none of your intellectually soggy, edu-babble is anywhere near it.
Bog Standard, Part 1
The light at the end of the tunnel is an oncoming train...
I knew it was coming. From the moment the Common Core standards came out, I knew it would happen: National Music Education Standards.
Standards, why does it have to be standards?
Standards are awful. They are demeaning. They are a waste of paper and electrons. They are tedious and soul-sucking. They take a beautiful vibrant subject such as music (and history, literature, mathematics, science, drama, and all the others), and transforms it into a soggy, dry, depressing, boring, dull, fatuous pile of steaming bureaucratic bullshit.
There, I said it, standards are shit. Seriously, they are. They are a make work project for administrators and education groups. They try to codify what every student should learn, but at the same time claim that no topic or creation or person or idea is more important than any other. In essence, standards take hundreds of thousands of words to say absolutely nothing. Since they say nothing, standards are useless in the classroom. You can't teach standards, no one can. Standards have to be translated into curriculum: The actual topics, creations, people and ideas that are shaped into lessons and then taught and tested.
Why can't we just skip the standards and go right to curriculum? Would it be that difficult to come together and say: Every child should learn to read melodies in treble clef, sing rounds on pitch, play a musical instrument, sing the national anthem and America the Beautiful, identify the instruments of the orchestra, and a few of the major works of Mozart, Beethoven, and J.S. Bach? Really is it that hard?
None of those things are in the new music standards. So I guess the answer to my question is: "Yes, yes it is."
I knew it was coming. From the moment the Common Core standards came out, I knew it would happen: National Music Education Standards.
Standards, why does it have to be standards?
Standards are awful. They are demeaning. They are a waste of paper and electrons. They are tedious and soul-sucking. They take a beautiful vibrant subject such as music (and history, literature, mathematics, science, drama, and all the others), and transforms it into a soggy, dry, depressing, boring, dull, fatuous pile of steaming bureaucratic bullshit.
There, I said it, standards are shit. Seriously, they are. They are a make work project for administrators and education groups. They try to codify what every student should learn, but at the same time claim that no topic or creation or person or idea is more important than any other. In essence, standards take hundreds of thousands of words to say absolutely nothing. Since they say nothing, standards are useless in the classroom. You can't teach standards, no one can. Standards have to be translated into curriculum: The actual topics, creations, people and ideas that are shaped into lessons and then taught and tested.
Why can't we just skip the standards and go right to curriculum? Would it be that difficult to come together and say: Every child should learn to read melodies in treble clef, sing rounds on pitch, play a musical instrument, sing the national anthem and America the Beautiful, identify the instruments of the orchestra, and a few of the major works of Mozart, Beethoven, and J.S. Bach? Really is it that hard?
None of those things are in the new music standards. So I guess the answer to my question is: "Yes, yes it is."
Friday, February 14, 2014
The Other Half of the Equation
There are two sides of education. Sitting stage left is Team Instruction consisting of teachers and administrators. I've done many pieces on this team, and will do many, many more. But what about those sitting stage right? That would be Team Learning: parents and children. It's high time we discuss Team Learning, for they are just as responsible for our current mess as Team Instruction.
Team Learning may, in fact, be more responsible for the current mess, because in the end we are talking about their failures. When students don't learn, teachers get fired and schools are put under new management. The students themselves (and their parents, during the ages when students are too young to understand their actions) face no consequences, and yet they are the ones who are not getting their jobs done.
You might say, "Wait a minute, what about grades? Grades reflect a student's success or lack thereof. Too many F's mean repeating a grade." I would respond, "That may have been true in 1944, but not any more. Teachers are under tremendous pressure to not give F's. In many schools failing grades have been outlawed altogether. But that's another post."
You might say, "What about being held back a grade? In my day students who failed 1st grade had to repeat it." I would respond, "Again, maybe that happened in 1944, but it's now 2014. Social promotion rules the roost. Psychologists tell us that repeating a grade is devastating to self-esteem, and so it too has been outlawed by nearly every school."
You might say, "What about all these standardized test I keep hearing about? Surely they don't count for something?" I would respond, "Despite being the ones having to actually sit there and take the damn things, students are in no way effected by standardized tests. They have no incentive to do well on them. Absolutely none."
You might say, "What about their parents? Surely a student's parents can demand they do well in school and dole out genuine consequences for failure." I would respond, "Aye, there's the rub!"
To be continued...
Team Learning may, in fact, be more responsible for the current mess, because in the end we are talking about their failures. When students don't learn, teachers get fired and schools are put under new management. The students themselves (and their parents, during the ages when students are too young to understand their actions) face no consequences, and yet they are the ones who are not getting their jobs done.
You might say, "Wait a minute, what about grades? Grades reflect a student's success or lack thereof. Too many F's mean repeating a grade." I would respond, "That may have been true in 1944, but not any more. Teachers are under tremendous pressure to not give F's. In many schools failing grades have been outlawed altogether. But that's another post."
You might say, "What about being held back a grade? In my day students who failed 1st grade had to repeat it." I would respond, "Again, maybe that happened in 1944, but it's now 2014. Social promotion rules the roost. Psychologists tell us that repeating a grade is devastating to self-esteem, and so it too has been outlawed by nearly every school."
You might say, "What about all these standardized test I keep hearing about? Surely they don't count for something?" I would respond, "Despite being the ones having to actually sit there and take the damn things, students are in no way effected by standardized tests. They have no incentive to do well on them. Absolutely none."
You might say, "What about their parents? Surely a student's parents can demand they do well in school and dole out genuine consequences for failure." I would respond, "Aye, there's the rub!"
To be continued...
Friday, February 7, 2014
Life Long Learner My Ass
Progressive educators are easy to spot. They are the ones constantly shouting, "The aim of schooling is to create life long learners!"
Oh, for fuck's sake, why not just say the aim of schooling is turning children into unicorns and leprechauns?! You'll have just as much success.
What is a life long learner? Someone who is interested in the world around him (either generally as in a Renaissance Man or specifically as in an amateur/hobbyist) and who has the mental faculties to pursue his interest. In short, a life long learner is an intellectual.
Now look around you. How many intellectuals do you see? Can you count them on the fingers of one hand? Thought so. Look at the front page of your newspaper of choice. What are the stories of the day? Are they the serious hard news of the nation and globe or are they feel-good fuzz features and celebrity/sports gossip? Thought so.
American culture is staunchly and proudly anti-intellectual. Three of the four major racial groups of Americans openly sneer at intellectuals and ostracize members of their race who show the slightest interest in intellectual pursuits. (Can you guess the one that doesn't? I'll give you a hint, they did not sail over on the Mayflower or write the Declaration of Independence.) Our youth culture demeans and bullies those students who are smart or who desire academic success. Our educational culture insults intellectual teachers by insisting they all teach the same dull, moronic curriculum in the same stultifying, idiotic fashion. Then insult is added to injury by valuing teachers who "care about children" above those who are passionate about their subject.
There is no way in hell that anyone, no matter how well intentioned or well financed, can create an intellectual American culture. It is foolish and fatuous to even try. Even if America valued education and knowledge, not everyone is cut out to be an intellectual, and those who are capable may not want to be one anyway. There are plenty of smart, successful American adults who are not interested in being life-long learners. They don't read books or go to museums or any of that. But they still make positive contributions to their families, communities, and the economy. I know loads of them; they are great people.
The truth of the matter is "life-long learner" is just another vacuous progressive slogan, created in order to hide the truth that progressives either do not understand, or are in denial about, the true purpose of schooling.
Oh, for fuck's sake, why not just say the aim of schooling is turning children into unicorns and leprechauns?! You'll have just as much success.
What is a life long learner? Someone who is interested in the world around him (either generally as in a Renaissance Man or specifically as in an amateur/hobbyist) and who has the mental faculties to pursue his interest. In short, a life long learner is an intellectual.
Now look around you. How many intellectuals do you see? Can you count them on the fingers of one hand? Thought so. Look at the front page of your newspaper of choice. What are the stories of the day? Are they the serious hard news of the nation and globe or are they feel-good fuzz features and celebrity/sports gossip? Thought so.
American culture is staunchly and proudly anti-intellectual. Three of the four major racial groups of Americans openly sneer at intellectuals and ostracize members of their race who show the slightest interest in intellectual pursuits. (Can you guess the one that doesn't? I'll give you a hint, they did not sail over on the Mayflower or write the Declaration of Independence.) Our youth culture demeans and bullies those students who are smart or who desire academic success. Our educational culture insults intellectual teachers by insisting they all teach the same dull, moronic curriculum in the same stultifying, idiotic fashion. Then insult is added to injury by valuing teachers who "care about children" above those who are passionate about their subject.
There is no way in hell that anyone, no matter how well intentioned or well financed, can create an intellectual American culture. It is foolish and fatuous to even try. Even if America valued education and knowledge, not everyone is cut out to be an intellectual, and those who are capable may not want to be one anyway. There are plenty of smart, successful American adults who are not interested in being life-long learners. They don't read books or go to museums or any of that. But they still make positive contributions to their families, communities, and the economy. I know loads of them; they are great people.
The truth of the matter is "life-long learner" is just another vacuous progressive slogan, created in order to hide the truth that progressives either do not understand, or are in denial about, the true purpose of schooling.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)