Why Do I Usually Disagree With Will?

I followed a Twitter link to Will Richardson's new blog post

A Vision for Who Our Students Need to *Be*

I found that I was disagreeing with much of the start of the post.  It is about wanting to have students be better thinkers and questioners.  I agree with that part, but how do you teach these skills without teaching some content to think about?

It seems that one side of the reform only wants to test and gather data and another side want to be devoid of content that can be tested.  I want a middle ground.  You need content because at some point a student will finish school and need to get a job which will require skills and some content knowledge.  Tests are shown to help thinking because they require you to use your brain for retrieval of information which I would think is needed for creative thinking.  If the only questions are lower level thinking questions - simple fact questions, then nothing is gained.  But to think you need something as the basis of your thinking.  If I ask my students Why is air quality important?  and they know nothing about air quality how do they answer the question?  Sure they can give a general answer like good air quality is important to life.  But what did that say?  To put some thought into the answer they need content.

Will's daughter is taking physics, according to the post, would he expect her not to study physics content in the class?  How will she be able to grapple with Newton and his laws if she has no idea about what they say?

I keep coming back to this as I read blog post about ed Reform.  It is possible that because of the students I teach, I teach at Shenandoah Valley Governor's School, and I teach on the STEM side.  My students are motivated to do well, not necessarily to learn, but to do well.  Many do want to learn, but they are overloaded with activities.  I teach a dual enrollment class and thus a certain amount of content is expected.  I do want to go beyond the standard content and have the students think about what they are studying.

My thoughts for the day on this topic.

Learning vs Schooling

I started thinking about this post when I read Will Richardson's post -

August 11th, 2011

And What Do YOU Mean By Learning (Part 2)

In this post and one other Will wrote some of his thoughts on learning and how many of us do not know exactly what learning is. My knee jerk response was - of course I do. Then I thought about it for a while and realized I had vague ideas but no solid ideas. So I pondered that concept and read a bit and thought a bit. I expect that is what Will was hoping folks would do after reading what he wrote.

I am now of the opinion that there is a great deal of difference between learning and schooling. Will did imply that as well. When we had Orientation for our new students this week at SVGS I discussed this a very briefly with some of the students. I asked how many had memorized information for the Virginia SOL testing. I got smiles and hands raised. I told the students that we hoped that they would learn material they studied. By that I meant that I hoped that they would internalize some of he information and understand what they we studying.

The more I pondered this idea the less I "knew". I started to think about what I felt learning was and then fell back to the verb - to learn. I realized that I feel that to learn implies more than just acquiring fact or information about something. To learn implies to me that you can do something with the information you have acquired. So if you have memorized PV = nRT that is nice, you now have memorized the formula for working gas law problems. But what do you know? What can you do with this equation? If you are learning chemistry you should be able to work some problems and you should be able to tell someone about he behavior of gases and how this law can be applied, what are the limitations of the equations.

For schooling you will have memorized the equation, you will know what the symbols stand for and be able to work simple problems. You will be able to answer the Chemistry SOL question.

LiveScribe trial

This is a link to my first LiveScribe page

Chemistry Wordle

The above is a Wordle using the first two paragraphs from Wikipedia when I searched for Chemistry. I am planning to use Wordle in my class next year both for wall decorations but also for writing prompts. I can provide the students with a Wordle and then ask them to write a paragraph about what the Wordle is about. I hope it will provide them with a way to stretch their thinking.

Schools in General

I have been reading Will Richardsons' blog and watching some of his video talks. He is one of many who bash public schools. He did put forward Big Picture Schools as an alternative. Well if you read their information they are doing a great job and I commend them for what they do. However, yes there is always a but however, if you read what a student has to do to be a student in their program ( school) you would realize that if that were the criteria for students in any school then life would be good for the schools.

Parents must agree to be involved, students have a list of items they must agree to that most students who are dropping out would not agree to. So where is the gain? It is as if these schools have taken many of the students who would have succeeded in "regular" school and given them a helping hand. This is wonderful, do not get me wrong I think they are doing something wonderful for these students, but they are not the real problem students. They are not the ones in the gangs, the ones with drug addict parents who do not care. I want to know who is working with this group of students and making a difference?

New topic -----

One of the BPS methods of helping students find their passion is to have a mentorship program. Well many schools do that, Augusta County has a program like this, but there are not enough mentorships to go around to all students. At New Horizons Governor's School, when I was there there was a mentorship program and it was very good. It pointed students to what they wanted to do and it helped some find out what they did not want to do, an equally valid outcome. So this is not unique, but it is wonderful when you can find the mentors.

Reflect

As I grow older I always hope I will learn lessons by association. Usually not. I judged a group of videos for a video contest because some of my students had entered the contest and they needed judges. This goes under no good deed goes unpunished. Well in the process I watched the group of videos I was given and then I left them on my desk and came back a week later and watched again and did the evaluation. A good process. I had calmed down about some of the videos and I found things I had not seen before and liked. Experience #1.

Experience #2
A friend send me a chapter of a book he is working on. I read it and responded right away and not as pleasantly as I should have. I did not learn the lesson from Experience #1. I did not learn by association. I need to learn the lesson of reflection. The brain is a sometimes wonderful thing. Give it some time to mull over an event and the brain will smooth out some of the rough spots, it will help you see what is important and remind you of some lessons you need to look at.

Without time to reflect I stuck my foot in my mouth and I can do better.

Maybe I will learn to reflect more often. After all it is what I would like my students to do every once in a while.

The Early Chapters

I was disappointed in the early chapters of the book. He took the easy root and said what was wrong with education and did not have anything constructive to say. For example to use Picasso say that all children are born artists is the same as finding that Linus Pauling might say all children are born scientists. It does not take the conversation forward. It might be more to the point to say that all children are born with many talents and it is a function of schools to bring out those talents. The question becomes how.

Also it is easy to criticize schooling, it is always done because schools are always reacting to what they were told to do 10 years ago. When society needs a talent developed that schools are not developing at the moment it is schools fault. Unfortunately schools do not know what society needs tomorrow only what society thinks it needs today.

Back in the day we needed aerospace engineers, 10 years later those folks were pumping gas because we had too many. Was that the fault of the education system? I do not think so, I think we try to prepare students for a wide variety of paths and then let them loose on the world.

Also when KR says he has talked to many leaders of industry I wonder which ones and what positions were they looking at. For example - at one point the point is that we need fast acting, quick thinking, multicultural leaders. That does not sound like a software engineer to me, but what do I know. And how many do we need of each type?

Preparing students to follow their dreams is a wonderful aspiration, but as my wife and I know what you dream for is not always what will put bread on the table.