Monday, August 26, 2013
GREAT TED Talk on Education by Sir Ken Robinson
Friday, August 23, 2013
First Day of School
Yesterday the schoolers went back to school. That means a parade of bikes, cars, and walkers past our house at about 8:45. I love this parade. We go out and wave and say hi to friends. Sometimes we are still in our pajamas at this point. Yesterday, thanks to rare ambition on my part, we were all dressed. My kids called to their friends, "Are you excited?" Some were and that surprised them.
That back and forth the kids engage in concerning public school and homeschooling is almost always entertaining to hear. Most recently, my kids reported that some of their friends were excited for school for the prizes they got when they had done well at something. My kids reported this in a sort of, "What do you have to say about that?" fashion.
Well, what I said pertained to OUR first day of NOT Back to School yesterday. So after the parade (my 3 year old being very disappointed no one threw candy, and not loving the suggestion that WE should throw candy at THEM next time) we loaded into the van to head to a celebratory breakfast at a local fast food joint with a large play area. We had invited any homeschoolers who wanted to join us to come, and we mobbed the place. The kids munched and played with old friends and new for an hour and a half.
After that we headed home for a bit of yard work and to try and get something healthy in them before another celebration at a local splash pad. That party was hosted by my daughter's public online school. So they ran through the water in their swimming suits and played on the playground, snacked on popsicles the teacher brought, and my daughter received a school shirt and laptop for the year. They made new friends here and moms exchanged info on getting together to do fun things.
After that, we came home, fired up the new laptop, and took in 3 lessons about Vikings while we lay on the guest bed in our cool basement. The excitement about this new "learning device" had not faded, so my son used it to work on the "book" he is writing about being a Viking god.
And that was pretty much it. As I relaxed and played with my kids, I couldn't help contrast the experience we were having to the experience the families who live around us were having. I'm not saying Back to School is all bad. In my memory, there was something very exciting about a new locker, new clothes, new teachers. And there was stress too, which itself isn't even all bad. But I couldn't help but wonder, if we could somehow break down old myths about socialization, or standardization, or what it means to prepare for the "real world" (as if traditional public school is anything like it), that more families might find a way to inject all they loved about school (field trips, new clothes and supplies, or whatever) into a meaningful, joyous, enriching, and educational experience with their own kids every day.
So I write to you, my imagined audience who has been tempted by the vision of homeschooling, and tortured by fears not born of your heart but injected by the norms of our society. And I ask, what have you got to lose? And perhaps more importantly, what have you got to gain?
That back and forth the kids engage in concerning public school and homeschooling is almost always entertaining to hear. Most recently, my kids reported that some of their friends were excited for school for the prizes they got when they had done well at something. My kids reported this in a sort of, "What do you have to say about that?" fashion.
Well, what I said pertained to OUR first day of NOT Back to School yesterday. So after the parade (my 3 year old being very disappointed no one threw candy, and not loving the suggestion that WE should throw candy at THEM next time) we loaded into the van to head to a celebratory breakfast at a local fast food joint with a large play area. We had invited any homeschoolers who wanted to join us to come, and we mobbed the place. The kids munched and played with old friends and new for an hour and a half.
After that we headed home for a bit of yard work and to try and get something healthy in them before another celebration at a local splash pad. That party was hosted by my daughter's public online school. So they ran through the water in their swimming suits and played on the playground, snacked on popsicles the teacher brought, and my daughter received a school shirt and laptop for the year. They made new friends here and moms exchanged info on getting together to do fun things.
After that, we came home, fired up the new laptop, and took in 3 lessons about Vikings while we lay on the guest bed in our cool basement. The excitement about this new "learning device" had not faded, so my son used it to work on the "book" he is writing about being a Viking god.
And that was pretty much it. As I relaxed and played with my kids, I couldn't help contrast the experience we were having to the experience the families who live around us were having. I'm not saying Back to School is all bad. In my memory, there was something very exciting about a new locker, new clothes, new teachers. And there was stress too, which itself isn't even all bad. But I couldn't help but wonder, if we could somehow break down old myths about socialization, or standardization, or what it means to prepare for the "real world" (as if traditional public school is anything like it), that more families might find a way to inject all they loved about school (field trips, new clothes and supplies, or whatever) into a meaningful, joyous, enriching, and educational experience with their own kids every day.
So I write to you, my imagined audience who has been tempted by the vision of homeschooling, and tortured by fears not born of your heart but injected by the norms of our society. And I ask, what have you got to lose? And perhaps more importantly, what have you got to gain?
Thursday, August 22, 2013
The Courage to Be
Time for another Emerson quote, this time from his address on Friendship:
"Treat your friend as a spectacle. Of course, if he be a man he has merits that are not yours, and that you cannot honor if you must needs hold him close to your person. Stand aside. Give those merits room. Let them mount and expand. Be not so much his friend that you can never know his peculiar energies."
Now try this on for size: 'Treat your child as a spectacle. She has merits that have nothing to do with you, which you cannot discover or appreciate if her life is driven by your agenda. Stand aside. Give those merits room. Let them mount and expand. Be not so much her mother/teacher that you can never know her peculiar energies.'
****************************
I got to go to the park yesterday. Just me and my littlest guy. Oh, what a darling baby! He and I wandered about. First, we went barefoot down a rocky slope to shake a fence. Next we found the entrance to the tennis courts and tried to throw rocks through the chain-link. Then we found the playground where he impressed me with climbing the slide multiple times. Each time he had a moment of slipping or falling back, but each time he made it to the top and looked proudly at me. He experimented with his favorite hanging spots and found a good one to drop to the wood chips from. Then he threw some wood chips at me while I pretended to shriek and run away. We found a trickling water spigot which he sucked on, experimenting until he found an angle that would keep him the most dry while delivering the water to his mouth. This took a few attempts, so he did wind up quite wet. And he delighted in hitting the water around with his hands, trying to hit it with his feet, finding out if there was a critical mass on the ground for a good splash.
What a happy time we had! It was so relaxing and blissful. I learned so much watching him. I learned more about what he finds interesting. I learned about his determination. I observed his daring. It seemed he was glad to have an audience for it. I was present for a bit of his learning. What exactly that learning was, I might not be able to say. And he is certainly too young to tell me. But I am not so arrogant as to believe he wasn't learning all the same.
I might have led him right to the tennis court entrance when he found the fence, or demonstrated slipping the rock through the chain link rather than throwing it at it and watching it bounce off. Seeing his desire to be at the top of the slide, I could have just put him there. It was within my own arm's reach. I could have panicked when he chose a dangerous hanging spot. (Instead I stayed close spotting.) I might have stopped him from finding a place to jump from to see if he could make the landing. But make it he did, to surprise us both. I could have told him not to throw wood chips, or made a puddle big enough for him to splash in as he played with the water.
Each of my actions would have been "teaching" him something. Important lessons, right? Helping him to be safe, or maneuver life more easily. That is to say nothing of all the activities I could have initiated myself to make these moments count, to enrich his life with my wisdom or life mastery.
But what a loss would have occurred! I would have lost a moment to know something about his wisdom and life mastery, and about his "peculiar energies" which drove this time at the park, and will drive his whole life of adventure and discovery.
Furthermore, who is to say that anything I was going to teach would be more important to him than the very real lessons he was learning in the moment? It seems whatever lesson is of greatest importance is the lesson which serves us in the moment we are in. How can we say, "What you are learning now is okay, but what you REALLY need to know - THAT knowledge I posses and dole out on MY schedule"?
But we do say this. All the time. And if our children are unfortunate enough to believe us and let us teach them, not only do they miss all they might have discovered being given room to let their own talents and curiosities mount and expand, but we additionally teach their own curiosities and talents are of little worth or value when compared with our own greater wisdom and agenda.
I think we need to do more of what Emerson suggests: "Stand aside." Surprisingly, this takes great courage. Sometimes it takes great courage at the park when your 17 month old is hanging from a height above your head. But that is a small practice for the greater courage it takes to stand aside when your 7 year old hasn't shown an interest in reading. Or your 10 year old is way off the beaten curriculum track when it comes to interest in science. YOU know that this sort of patience will mean low scores on upcoming standardized tests, or just the grandparent initiated pop-quiz to make sure your homeschooled kids aren't "falling behind."
But it's time we reverence the learning process and the individual doing the learning MORE than we reverence these arbitrary measures of arbitrary learning. Which is not to say learning to read, or coming to understand certain scientific facts has no merit, OR that we cannot teach them. It IS to say, "This moment is perfect. Have the courage to first, let it BE. Discover what the moment has to teach. Discover what your child has to teach. AFTER you have done this, you may find your very important lesson isn't so important, or that your child has already learned it, or you will see clearly that it might be learned at a different time. Trust that there will be teaching moments, and they might look different than you expected, or come at times unplanned or inconvenient. But being led by the curiosity and necessity of the moment, your child will come to learn every needful thing. That is the way God designed life."
As parents, we hope in all the learning our kids do that they learn too to be courageous. It's time we master some of that courage ourselves. It's time to stand aside and know our children. It's time to be, and let our children know being too.
"Treat your friend as a spectacle. Of course, if he be a man he has merits that are not yours, and that you cannot honor if you must needs hold him close to your person. Stand aside. Give those merits room. Let them mount and expand. Be not so much his friend that you can never know his peculiar energies."
Now try this on for size: 'Treat your child as a spectacle. She has merits that have nothing to do with you, which you cannot discover or appreciate if her life is driven by your agenda. Stand aside. Give those merits room. Let them mount and expand. Be not so much her mother/teacher that you can never know her peculiar energies.'
****************************
I got to go to the park yesterday. Just me and my littlest guy. Oh, what a darling baby! He and I wandered about. First, we went barefoot down a rocky slope to shake a fence. Next we found the entrance to the tennis courts and tried to throw rocks through the chain-link. Then we found the playground where he impressed me with climbing the slide multiple times. Each time he had a moment of slipping or falling back, but each time he made it to the top and looked proudly at me. He experimented with his favorite hanging spots and found a good one to drop to the wood chips from. Then he threw some wood chips at me while I pretended to shriek and run away. We found a trickling water spigot which he sucked on, experimenting until he found an angle that would keep him the most dry while delivering the water to his mouth. This took a few attempts, so he did wind up quite wet. And he delighted in hitting the water around with his hands, trying to hit it with his feet, finding out if there was a critical mass on the ground for a good splash.
What a happy time we had! It was so relaxing and blissful. I learned so much watching him. I learned more about what he finds interesting. I learned about his determination. I observed his daring. It seemed he was glad to have an audience for it. I was present for a bit of his learning. What exactly that learning was, I might not be able to say. And he is certainly too young to tell me. But I am not so arrogant as to believe he wasn't learning all the same.
I might have led him right to the tennis court entrance when he found the fence, or demonstrated slipping the rock through the chain link rather than throwing it at it and watching it bounce off. Seeing his desire to be at the top of the slide, I could have just put him there. It was within my own arm's reach. I could have panicked when he chose a dangerous hanging spot. (Instead I stayed close spotting.) I might have stopped him from finding a place to jump from to see if he could make the landing. But make it he did, to surprise us both. I could have told him not to throw wood chips, or made a puddle big enough for him to splash in as he played with the water.
Each of my actions would have been "teaching" him something. Important lessons, right? Helping him to be safe, or maneuver life more easily. That is to say nothing of all the activities I could have initiated myself to make these moments count, to enrich his life with my wisdom or life mastery.
But what a loss would have occurred! I would have lost a moment to know something about his wisdom and life mastery, and about his "peculiar energies" which drove this time at the park, and will drive his whole life of adventure and discovery.
Furthermore, who is to say that anything I was going to teach would be more important to him than the very real lessons he was learning in the moment? It seems whatever lesson is of greatest importance is the lesson which serves us in the moment we are in. How can we say, "What you are learning now is okay, but what you REALLY need to know - THAT knowledge I posses and dole out on MY schedule"?
But we do say this. All the time. And if our children are unfortunate enough to believe us and let us teach them, not only do they miss all they might have discovered being given room to let their own talents and curiosities mount and expand, but we additionally teach their own curiosities and talents are of little worth or value when compared with our own greater wisdom and agenda.
I think we need to do more of what Emerson suggests: "Stand aside." Surprisingly, this takes great courage. Sometimes it takes great courage at the park when your 17 month old is hanging from a height above your head. But that is a small practice for the greater courage it takes to stand aside when your 7 year old hasn't shown an interest in reading. Or your 10 year old is way off the beaten curriculum track when it comes to interest in science. YOU know that this sort of patience will mean low scores on upcoming standardized tests, or just the grandparent initiated pop-quiz to make sure your homeschooled kids aren't "falling behind."
But it's time we reverence the learning process and the individual doing the learning MORE than we reverence these arbitrary measures of arbitrary learning. Which is not to say learning to read, or coming to understand certain scientific facts has no merit, OR that we cannot teach them. It IS to say, "This moment is perfect. Have the courage to first, let it BE. Discover what the moment has to teach. Discover what your child has to teach. AFTER you have done this, you may find your very important lesson isn't so important, or that your child has already learned it, or you will see clearly that it might be learned at a different time. Trust that there will be teaching moments, and they might look different than you expected, or come at times unplanned or inconvenient. But being led by the curiosity and necessity of the moment, your child will come to learn every needful thing. That is the way God designed life."
As parents, we hope in all the learning our kids do that they learn too to be courageous. It's time we master some of that courage ourselves. It's time to stand aside and know our children. It's time to be, and let our children know being too.
Monday, August 12, 2013
Discussion of Common Core: Forgotten American Values
"The cultural assumptions and values surrounding an education system do more to support or undermine it than the system can do on its own. Using the positive elements of this culture and, where necessary, seeking to change the negative ones, are important to promoting successful outcomes."
This quote was one conclusion (of 5) from a study done on why US education ranks low among developed nations, and how it can be improved. (See the article here.) In my last blog post I asked how you felt Common Core was doing to implement the study's suggestions. Now it's time for my opinion. :)
The point has been made by the media, by parents, and by educators that Americans just don't value math like the Asians. Where, in their cultures, math proficiency is revered, our students can be heard to call those good at math nerds, or use phrases about themselves like "I don't like math." Or, "I'm not good at math." If you were to ask me about my school experience, I'd say something like, "I liked English because I was good at it. I struggled with math. It wasn't my thing."
I'm not suggesting this can't be changed. I'm not suggesting we give up on teaching kids math. However, advocates of Common Core love to suggest we will score higher in Math because we "raised our standards to be globally competitive." Now, because we've tweaked how kids learn math, and ensured that everyone learns MORE, America will be cranking out Math geniuses. At least that is the story.
It is an interesting work of fiction.
America DOES and WILL have math geniuses. My guess is they will STILL value what OUR culture DOES already value: creativity, ingenuity, individuality, and self-expression. These values run deep. They permeate the American experience for our entire history. These are the values that make America the world's foremost innovator in business AND science AND technology AND social media... and the list could go on.
My husband and I both served LDS mission in Asian countries. We have lived in a culture that largely does NOT value creativity, individuality, and self expression. Which is not to say all of Asia lacks these qualities. Obviously that is not true. But for everything we love about the culture there (and the list is lengthy, and you can experience much of it in a visit to our home) we feel our country's constant comparison to educational models in Asia is unwise. Asians are doing what works for them in their culture. And they might be outscoring American students in math. Let's get over it. If we'd like American students to value math or score better, let's begin with reforms that VALUE creativity, ingenuity, individuality, and self-expression. If such an approach was ever given a shot, not only might it meet with less resistance, it might actually have a prayer of working. Exhibit A: Homeschooling! Sadly, Common Core is not that reform.
This quote was one conclusion (of 5) from a study done on why US education ranks low among developed nations, and how it can be improved. (See the article here.) In my last blog post I asked how you felt Common Core was doing to implement the study's suggestions. Now it's time for my opinion. :)
The point has been made by the media, by parents, and by educators that Americans just don't value math like the Asians. Where, in their cultures, math proficiency is revered, our students can be heard to call those good at math nerds, or use phrases about themselves like "I don't like math." Or, "I'm not good at math." If you were to ask me about my school experience, I'd say something like, "I liked English because I was good at it. I struggled with math. It wasn't my thing."
I'm not suggesting this can't be changed. I'm not suggesting we give up on teaching kids math. However, advocates of Common Core love to suggest we will score higher in Math because we "raised our standards to be globally competitive." Now, because we've tweaked how kids learn math, and ensured that everyone learns MORE, America will be cranking out Math geniuses. At least that is the story.
It is an interesting work of fiction.
America DOES and WILL have math geniuses. My guess is they will STILL value what OUR culture DOES already value: creativity, ingenuity, individuality, and self-expression. These values run deep. They permeate the American experience for our entire history. These are the values that make America the world's foremost innovator in business AND science AND technology AND social media... and the list could go on.
My husband and I both served LDS mission in Asian countries. We have lived in a culture that largely does NOT value creativity, individuality, and self expression. Which is not to say all of Asia lacks these qualities. Obviously that is not true. But for everything we love about the culture there (and the list is lengthy, and you can experience much of it in a visit to our home) we feel our country's constant comparison to educational models in Asia is unwise. Asians are doing what works for them in their culture. And they might be outscoring American students in math. Let's get over it. If we'd like American students to value math or score better, let's begin with reforms that VALUE creativity, ingenuity, individuality, and self-expression. If such an approach was ever given a shot, not only might it meet with less resistance, it might actually have a prayer of working. Exhibit A: Homeschooling! Sadly, Common Core is not that reform.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Discussion of Common Core: Nonsensical Logic
A problem for the experts:
I have a frozen hamburger patty. At 8am it is 25 degrees. I am serving the hamburger at 6pm. Cooked hamburger needs to reach 160 degrees. How do I go about cooking the hamburger?
An answer from the experts:
There are 10 hours during which time the hamburger needs to heat a total of 135 degrees. You should therefore raise the temperature of the hamburger 13.5 degrees each hour.
BRILLIANT! Only the answer assumes that each time increment holds equal value to the hamburger, which everyone realizes it does not.
So why have so few with so much experience in education not made the same realization about Common Core? Tami Pyfer described the development of the Core standards how I just described cooking the hamburger: they took the information that needed to be covered by high school graduates and broke it down over the time kids spend in school. If only our experience with children led us to believe that each year we can take the same stride to reach the end goal.... if only our experience led us to believe all children take the same size stride at the same time... if only averaging everything (kids, information, test scores) gave us numbers that were ideal for the progress individuals, THEN perhaps Common Core would be all it claims to be (when it's not "just standards"): the next evolution in improving public education in America.
I am currently reading the book Boys Adrift. LOVING IT! In the second chapter the author, Leonard Sax covers challenges unique to boys in public education. He cites a study on the brain where it was found that, developmentally, a 5 year old girls brain compares to a 3.5 year old boys brain. One of his conclusions (there were a few on public education) was that beginning school at 5 for many boys is setting them up for failure. I'm not going to comment on that point.
MY point is that many parents have found it is easiest to teach crucial life skills like walking and going the bathroom when a child shows he or she is ready. I'm guessing there are evidences of readiness for those skills in children when their brains (who might develop along the lines of the averages in the study Dr. Sax mentioned, OR may follow their own unique schedule) have developed a readiness for the skill.
Why do we not wait to teach reading and math when the child shows he or she is ready? Do we believe they won't show signs of readiness? Do we believe these skills aren't as crucial as walking or going the bathroom? Do we believe their crucial nature is not readily evident to children?
Another interesting point: One of the lamentations of those pushing Common Core is that we need to do better on standardized tests when compared with other countries. And everyone nods, wishing our kids were the math wizzes Asian kids seem to be. Right? Yes, those Asian kids go to school practically all year, 10 hours a day, starting at 3 or 4. (And that is true. My husband and I have both lived in Asia and can confirm it.) So perhaps our students need more school - more info drilled into their heads for longer periods of time. (I will argue in another post the faultiness of the logic that doing so will raise our test scores.)
For now I want to reveal what I, myself, didn't know. Finland (NOT an Asian country) is number one in rankings (or consistently in the top) year after year. And Finish kids don't begin compulsory education 'til 7 years of age! GASP! Perhaps Finland knows something about brain development we do not? So much for the fear mongering that if a child isn't doing this or that by the end of kindergarten, it spells ignorance and doom for the rest of his or her education. And why aren't we proposing reforms to education to look more like Finland's anyway?
I'll leave that hypothetical question, to share other points from an article I read which discussed a study on the rankings. The study shared conclusions on how we might reform our education to make it better. The "bottom line findings" included: A- "teachers need to be treated as the valuable professionals they are, not as technicians in a huge, educational machine"; B- "The cultural assumptions and values surrounding an education system do more to support or undermine it than the system can do on its own. Using the positive elements of this culture and, where necessary, seeking to change the negative ones, are important to promoting successful outcomes"; C- "pressure from [parents] for change should not be seen as a sign of hostility but as an indication of something possibly amiss in provision... Education systems should strive to keep parents informed and work with them"; and D- "Many of today's job titles, and the skills needed to fill them, simply did not exist 20 years ago. Education systems need to consider what skills today's students will need in future and teach accordingly."
I'll close with one final question: Judging by this study's findings, how do YOU think Common Core measures up? More on MY take to come! ;)
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Kids in Costumes
I thought my blog was sorely lacking pictures. Especially for a blog mentioning dressing up as much as I have! So here is a sample of the fun we've had practicing "Performance Based Homeschooling." Enjoy!
The whole family at the Renaissance Fair this past May.
My oldest two mastering all things Egyptian.
Son studied cowboys.
November has been Native American study for years at our home.
We volunteered at a historical re-enactment park in Salt Lake just to get a chance to authentically pretend!
Our first Native American learning 5 years ago this fall.
My oldest and I performed in our local Nutcracker production.
My oldest putting on his best "Les Miserables" face.
The girls got to climb into Cinderella's carriage, tutus, tiaras and all!
An unhappy aristocrat.
Tell me about Ireland!
A baby in disguise
Son at Mountain Man Rendezvous
Twin heroes! (Yes, we even studied "Hero Culture." Kid chosen, naturally.)
Looking for a venue to enjoy a little dress-up? Check out my post on socialization here. And share your favorite places for dress-ups with me in the comments below!
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