We as a country, state, district, school, classroom have hundreds of decisions to make each day about the education. I find two of these ideas very much at odds. The Achievement Gap focus on getting minority students to the levels of their white or asian counter parts. But here's the problem according to our schools the bar that the white and asian students are hitting is still not adequate to complete in the global market. It's like a person being trapped in the middle of a ladder 3/4 of the way up a building. Then you have this group sitting at the bottom... So you push that bottom group, and push them and hoist them up with all your might. And by golly they make it. They reach out and grab on to that group 3/4's the way up the ladder. Now you have this whole group of students stuck 3/4s of the way up the ladder. Ok, perhaps not my best analogy but I think it kind of gets my point across for my frustration of these two ideas at odds. We spend so much time and energy getting these students caught up to where they should be that the ones who start off in good shape never get any further to keep progressing the group forward.
In the world of education we are limited by time, by resources, but quality educators, parent support, ya-da, ya-da ya-da... but as we spend so much time, energy and money getting everyone 3/4s of the way up the ladder, couldn't we be using some of those resources to get the kids 3/4s of the way up all the way to the top. Can't we have some of the most amazing minds making it to the top of the ladder, can't we invest some resources and energy into pulling those kids up towards the top? As a result the kids that move quickly from the bottom aren't stuck 3/4's of the way up too. I think my brother put it as if our goal as a nation is to get every student at or above grade level haven't we created a large group of mediocrity?
When we focus on getting every student achieving a minimum bar, the only students that are having opportunities to learn how to be innovative are the ones who's parents acknowledge this creative gap in formal education and pay for other opportunities to develop this skills. Real, true, concrete learning, takes place through experience. That experience can be calling out flash cards over and over again, it can being memorizing the problem solving technique CUBB (Circle the key words, Underline the question...oh wait I don't know what the last two letters mean) And yes there are students that need the flash cards, and students that need the problem solving technique but the more authentic, simple, interactive the experience is the more memorable.
2 quick stories: First in 7th grade I worked in a group to create and ending project for our mythology unit. Now I know the name of the game was Journey Through Tartarus. I think there were 4 of us in this group and if I remember correctly I was the only girl. I remember Kevin and Jon were in my group, and one person that was absent all the time. I can't really tell you much of anything about Greek Mythology that I haven't seen in Disney's Hercules (was that even greek). The point is that I remember Tartarus, I remember trying to make the board look more dark, more hellish like. I remember being surprised that we got such a good grade on it. And I remember what different perspectives we had when we sat down to start the project. I remember the project but most of all I remember having to get along with these guys with completely different ideas about the direction we should take. I wouldn't be surprised if Jon could still rattle off some random facts, and Kevin remembered his awesome design on the game board... and they probably don't remember my name. But my social intelligence is a strength and I had opportunities to develop it and feel successful, and so did they.
Story 2: Kids at play is one of the most wonderful, fascinating things to watch as both an educator and a math teacher. I was visiting my friend Lauren who has a son Alex who's not quite 2. He had letter blocks that he was stacking. He used the blocks in the area built a small tower. Clapped for himself when it stayed up and toppled as he tried to add one more. He collected all the blocks he had and started to build again. This tower was much straighter. He had to stand-up to add the last couple blocks. He used every block and built a tower with a similar level of ability that any adult would build. He used every block available and when he finished he clapped for himself. But he noticed the top block was not straight he moved to make it straighter and the tower toppled but some may say... isn't that showing some understanding of priniples in physics and the idea that the wider the surface area of the base the more structurally sound (that is so wrong, someone that knows something about physics feel free to help) but at the same time he is reasoning, he is finding patterns and putting them into practice...
Every person's mind can be opened in a different way, the question is are we going to just make sure everyone can read and write, that be our only goal and focus, or are we going to find ways for students to discover for his or herself their way to a great life in the academic world.
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