We're still reading the book One Size Does Not Fit All. We just finished chapters 3-4 and of course we need to blog about it.
At the end of one of the chapters the book asked: "what if school wasn't school anymore?" It is an interesting question isn't it? But what if that was the case? Well in my opinion I think if school wasn't school anymore it would make the childhood of children more enjoyable. I think it would help release stress and from children. Think about how much stress and pressure is put on children to go to college get straight A's, and get a good job. But the book has brought out many times how acing tests doesn't guarantee success. With that being said even if children take care of business in school that doesn't mean they'll be successful in life, which means they could've taken it easier during school. If school wasn't school anymore, and there wasn't such emphasis put on it children all over the world would take a big sigh of relief.
I think we can tailor education to every child by taking in consideration their interest. Maybe we make a curriculum for each interest, that way children's curiosity isn't extinguished; after all "the future belongs to the curious." I think we could tailor learning to individual children by finding out what kind of intelligence they're best at and doing things that have to do with that field. Besides there are only eight intelligences, spatial intelligence, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence, musical intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, intra-personal intelligence, naturalistic intelligence, linguistic intelligence, and logical mathematical intelligence. If we could asses which child is good at what it would be easier to tailor some sort of curriculum that would fit that specific child. Once we get the right fit for each student they would want to learn more. Hence leading to better results.
With there being high emphasis on education it leads to high emphasis on testing. This regime is dangerous and inappropriate. The reason why is because too much focus is on just getting good grades on the test and not enough focus on learning. "Never let a school that flaunts test scores trick you. If a a school boasts about its test scores parents ought to immediately respond by asking what had to be sacrificed from their kids' education in order to make that happen." Instead of schools focusing on helping kids learn its more about helping kids memorize facts that will help them ace the test. All the schools with good test scores become is memorization camps. Plus a lot of different schools succumb to cheating to make sure that the government doesn't shut them down. "Testing scandals have rocked New York State." New York isn't the only place either, there have been cases in Atlanta and others where teachers' jobs have been put on the line over test scores. This is why high stakes testing is inappropriate.
Creativity can be taught by first off getting rid of grades. Encouraging kids to explore and question things. Stop having kids just memorize pointless facts and being robotic. Stop "spoon feeding kids answers." Make them work for what they want to know, let them use the technology that we have for learning. Why should they want to learn facts that they can look up quickly on Google? Why make them learn things that won't help them in life? Businesses want people who can come up with things not rewrite things they memorize. We can teach creativity through critical thinking. Putting kids in situations where they have to come up with different answers to solve problems. In addition to that make the problems relevant, and realistic.
I think we can reinvent the teaching profession by doing something similar to what Finland does. They give specific requirements of what the children need to learn and the teachers make a curriculum that's engaging but still covers those topics. If we could change teaching to more of a guiding role than just strictly teaching as in lecturing it could revolutionize learning. Another thing that could help is stop making everything about tests, when we do that in schools we tie teachers' arms behind their back in the sense that no matter what kind of teacher they are, it won't matter if their students have bad test scores. If we give teachers more flexibility to cater curriculum to their students it would be more efficient. After all who knows the students better, the state or the teacher of the class?
If students' voices were seen and heard as human beings it would make them feel more appreciated. It doesn't feel good when people see you just as a number and all they care about is how well you can memorize. Also it would help teachers do a better job because the student knows what he or she is interested in, or how they focus best. Also if students were given the opportunity to speak their opinion they would be more open to listen to teachers and principals. They wouldn't feel as if they are getting beat down all the time. Instead they would feel like people care about what they have to say, so they have no problem listening to others. It could also help with stress; when you hold something in for a long time and don't let it out it can hurt you. If students have things on their mind and they can't voice it to the teachers they'll hold it in and there will be bad results. These are all things that could happen if students were students and not numbers.
No comments:
Post a Comment