A few months ago I highly recommended the audio book Becoming Brilliant by Dr. Roberta Michnick Golinkoff. I still think it is well worth the time, however, during my last listening session I had to disagree with some for her ideas. While conversation, interaction, communication, and collaboration are absolute necessities to produce excellent results, children and adolescents also need content and foundation. I cannot learn to drive a bus just because I rode in one once, just like I can’t complete complex mathematical equations with automaticity if I do not have a strong foundation of math functions and algorithms. Perhaps I could figure out an answer but it would be labor intensive plus timely and not necessarily an efficient use of my energy.
The second item that upset my being surrounded the idea that teachers (a wide, sweeping all-encompassing sort of “all teachers”) are not engaging students in reflective thinking, problem solving, and becoming independent. She failed to consider that while she works with 5-8 students in unique, academic settings, the average teacher has 25-30 students who come from a wide array of backgrounds, learning environments, and desire to tackle arduous academics. Students who read well, have rich conversations at home, limit video games and television hours, study, listen, participate, and have a world view have a far better opportunity to achieve than students who do not read, are frequently home alone glued to technology, avoid homework, wear earphones instead of keying in on conversation, and vehemently eschew educational possibilities and world happenings. It’s pretty difficult to guide that last group to a love of learning.
I do believe that all students truly wish to succeed. I never met a child who appeared to have awoken that morning with sheer determination to fail or to look foolish. Naughtiness may have replaced readiness to learn, but this was most often a cover-up for an inability to read or a lack of academic background. Kids want to be wise and capable – even though they may disguise these attributes to the chagrin of parents and teachers.
A second event also galled my soul. This was at a health professional conference that I attended to learn more about elder care and how to best help those with cognitive problems. The guest speaker encouraged us to think differently, to approach the system we are working in from a new angle, to insert and utilize novel techniques and strategies. I absolutely agree that creativity is the road to achievement and growth. But then he hit my “agitation” button by accusing teachers of only teaching to the test where there is only one right answer. Agreed, we do teach about tests, how to find answers to questions on tests, how to be calm during a test, and that on the test most often there is only one right answer. Try arguing your point on a multiple-choice test taken on a computer. You will not win. You cannot debate a point with an inanimate object.
Teachers teach the curriculum that they have been assigned, designed to ensure that students know and can solve problems and complex questions that will bring success in a course or at a grade level. Teaching is not pulling rabbits out of hats but rather providing tools and tactics for learning, doing, and finding life security and happiness. However, along with this comes tests, these one right answer exams. Teachers, by preference, would most often avoid these as they are tedious and do not offer the one-on-one insight that individual assessment does, but then there are mandatory local, state, and national requirements. One right answer is the most inexpensive method of testing. A machine scores and regurgitates results in a flash compared to an exam of 50 essay responses thoughtfully written by 7,000,000 students. Not only is this massively time consuming but it is also extremely difficult (no impossible) to be absolutely fair. Each scorer thinks to a different tune just as each writer is humming along to an individual melody. We can learn what is known, perhaps, but we miss the nuances and flavor of individually selected thoughts. For me, as my students will attest, I loved reading their essays. I planned my weekends around hours of grading their words.
Teachers work hard. Yep, there is an occasional “I didn’t know what else to do and this looked easy” person in a classroom, but these (fortunately) are rare. The majority are dedicated, determined, devoted, and enthusiastic. They care.
