BECOME

Impossible Cynicism at Work

This whole public education thing is impossible.  Our perception of students "making it" through to graduation is just the law of averages at work, coupled with lowered expectations.  Teachers are either seen going through the motions or innovating over the heads of students, because there is no comfortable middle ground, no valid path to classroom success.  How could there be, when class sizes are swollen and testing schedules determine curriculum and pacing from day one?  And that's at so-called "performing" schools.  By the time students get to high school, they are lazy, bored and unprepared.  I just don't see the point of it all...


The diatribe above consists of true emotion, from  yours truly.  They may be unfair generalizations but they start from real facts and reasoned opinions.  They expose a painful cynicism, but not one unfamiliar to our national conversation about schools.  I will go out on a limb and say that I'm not the only education professional that has thoughts like these (though I'd love to be proven wrong).  Yet, I am not so grizzled as all that either, nor do I expect that other teachers persist in these thoughts.  Indeed, I've left out some crucial day to day and long-term experiences that help balance out the cynicism.  Perhaps a re-write is in order.  *Ahem*:


I enjoy being an educator, and I have hope for public education.  I only see students for about 10% of their K-12 experience.  As much as I'd like to, I can't control their previous schools and teachers, and I can't "make" students memorize content and modify their behavior  Yet, even in a single school year--even a single semester--I can observe growth.  They grow because throughout their public schooling, they are developing.  They grow because their other teachers are stimulating their interests, and the outside world is becoming more and more navigable to them.  But they also grow because of me--they even grow FOR me...or at least, towards me.  I display to them my own passion for learning.  I share with them my own expectations for learners.  I model for them a community centered around learning.  And I show up!  I still  believe that even the hardest head will buckle under this influence.  I am near the last line of defense before children become independent adults.  It's great when I can observe positive change occurring within a school year, and it's important that I recognize it--as ephemeral as that recognition can be.   It's also essential that, when I see students "making it" through this time of their lives, and encounter them after, I have faith in my fractional but real part I've played in the person they have and continue to become.



A couple things had to give inside me before I could write this more positive statement.  For instance, I needed to take out the high-stakes testing implant that was embedded in me since my initial teacher training.  When this is a teacher's professional focus, many of the avenues for finding and feeling success become blocked.  I understand it is not as easy as just forgetting about the tests, and there are still repercussions to them.  I am also a big fan of teaching content from standards.  However, breadth and depth of content coverage is not the point of K-12 education.  On a related note--and a more personally sacred one--the devotion to my content's facts and basic understandings also has to be loosened, and even sent towards the back of the line.  You know, I bet even the worst student will glean some iota of biology from my class; the best students will soak up everything I tell them, and seek out more.  There are definitely factors that determine this diversity that are well out of my control.  But I should also consider that for many reasons learning life science is not necessarily the priority for these students right now.  There's an old saying about square pegs in round holes; the pegs are the students, and all I can do is whittle away at their edges in the time I have them.  As much as I'd like to think otherwise, the intrinsic beauty of biological study will not alone shape most of these students.  I'm not teaching science; I'm teaching students to be learners--to be human--through the very human activity of science.  The engagement needs to start at a level more fundamental than even the fundamentals of the content.


I have recently been reoriented to my school system's "Lifelong Learner Standards" (listed below).  It's very easy to see this lovely set of statements as just that--nice thoughts that, at best, will somehow be arrived at from the rigors and experiences of coursework.  However, these ARE the standards that need to be assessed.  Hopefully they will one day soon.  I intend on doing my best to align my instruction to these starting right now.  One reason to my new found fidelity to them is a closer look at the expectations we can have of students based on their very biological development.  All teachers should be made more aware of just what students should be capable of psychologically, and how lifelong skills relate directly to the various brain functions that are coming online through their K-12 careers.  There has never been a one size fits all solution to education, and this science still does not provide, per se.  However, there are some truths about engagement, practice and reflection that link powerfully to the skills that students need to be successful self-learners (and adults).


That all said, there's another truth about teaching that educators need to admit:  it's HARD.  The things that teachers are asked to do require the same things that we are trying to instill in students...just magnitudes more.  Accordingly, I'd suggest to every teacher who knows they are working hard (you know who you are):  don't just work harder.  Instead, take a gamble and focus on engagement, practice and reflection--pieces of your curriculum which are already there, but suffer under the weight of content and pacing constraints.  Pick one thing out to do differently.  Pick one lifelong learner standard and plan around that.  Do that project you've always wanted to do, even if it bleeds into the next unit.  Take kids outside; go on a field trip; take the onus off yourself and let experiential content do more work for you. 


And one more thing--don't be a martyr.  Go do something else for a while.  Learn something more.  Public education will always be there, and it will keep getting better.  It's not the law of averages at work.  If you leave it better than when you found it, and keep believing in it, the "average" K-12 experience will be a tranformative one for all involved.



Albemarle County Public Schools Lifelong Learner Standards

• Plan and conduct research.
• Gather, organize, and analyze data, evaluate processes and products; and draw conclusions.
• Think analytically, critically, and creatively to pursue new ideas, acquire new knowledge, and make decisions.
• Understand and apply principles of logic and reasoning; develop, evaluate, and defend arguments.
• Seek, recognize and understand systems, patterns, themes, and interactions.
• Apply and adapt a variety of appropriate strategies to solve new and increasingly complex problems.
• Acquire and use precise language to clearly communicate ideas, knowledge, and processes.
• Explore and express ideas and opinions using multiple media, the arts, and technology.
• Demonstrate ethical behavior and respect for diversity through daily actions and decision making.
• Participate fully in civic life, and act on democratic ideals within the context of community and global interdependence.
• Understand and follow a physically active lifestyle that promotes good health and wellness.
• Apply habits of mind and metacognitive strategies to plan, monitor, and evaluate one's own work.

 Also, see Daniel Willingham's Science and Education Blog for a more studied look at what's inspired me.