We have productized everything! Products are of great value to Americans. Things. Stuff. More. Jones'. We like our stuff. I'm not excluding myself here either. But, when I sit back and evaluate what is going on in public schools and education reform to create solutions, I keep coming back to products. Products are a problem.
We have made a priority of productizing in our nation and in the process we have productized our children.
If you have read my blog in the past, you may have read about my questioning of standards applied to students. Standards are minimal expectations, established by grade level. The Orange County Public School's Vision is "To be the Top Producer of Successful Students in the Nation." Producer = Product= Students=My Children
Standards are for blueberries.
If the root cause of problems in our education system is found in the factory model of management as Steve Denning suggests, this means our students are products and standards determine their quality. The problem is, we're not quite sure what to do or who to blame if the student isn't "up to par." Surely, we wouldn't just send them back like Jamie Vollmer suggested in his blueberry story that he would do with his blueberries that were not up to his standards. But, that is happening. Every day. In public schools. In charter schools. In private schools. Games are being played. Students are being shuffled. Blame is being pointed at the parent, at the teacher at the school at the world at the nation at the student.
Enough of the blame.
It's time for some answers.
What do kids need?
They need care.
They need food.
They need shelter.
They need books.
They need other kids.
They need other kids.
They need resources.
Oh, I could go on and on, but I do know....
When their bellies are full and their worries are few, learning happens.
Unfortunately, though, learning happens even when their bellies are empty. But the learning that turns the heart cold and the mind to desperate action is not the kind of ingenuity that I seek as an educator.
Curiosity sparks
Interest ignites
Passion drives
These are the learning motives that I envision for my children.
Even in the healthiest of bodies, in the safest of homes, something is not quite right. Tyler Gayheart makes an interesting point. "So, with a combination of a shift in object oriented play (modern day toys) and school’s overall lack of teaching executive function skills, has resulted in children developing slower than 50 years ago."
I wonder, though, if it's the object or misinformed intent of the object that is leading us backwards. I see so much imagination coming out when my girls play with their many objects: dolls, kitchen, Legos, etc.. But, there are so many early learning toys designed to teach. The problem is, they're teaching our children the wrong way!
I just searched Amazon for early learning toys. An electronic learning toy came up. It has capital letters with buttons a child pushes and it says the letter name. I would have thought this was fine toy, and would have thought it would make a perfectly acceptable gift. That was until I learned Souns...
Open a book. What do you see? Is it filled with capital letters? No. It is mostly filled with lower case letters with a few capital letters starting sentences or identifying proper nouns. Now, read the book. Does knowing those letter names help you read that book? No. It actually does the reverse. It confuses the process. Kids need to learn the sounds, not the letter names first. Yet every aisle of educational toys teaches in an inefficient way. Most television shows for children confuse the process and few educational applications offer much insight.
Now, marketing folk, please, step aside, slow the production lines and allow educators schooled in learning theory to sort this out.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.