Education is like fast food, or so says Sir Ken Robinson in his TED Talk. It was this image that stayed with me after watching him speak. America has begun processing fast food education. We push our students into the easy, pre-made forms that are safe and cheap to teach. We cannot expect all of our students to become doctors, lawyers, or business people. What happens, as Ken asks, when a student's dream is to become a firefighter? It is not up to the educational system to change his/her dream, it is their job to help him/her reach that dream. It may mean more work, but life is not about taking the easy road. Let's give students a voice in the classroom and safe environments to make mistakes as they find their footing on the rough path to adulthood. We cannot afford to keep cutting programs like art, language, music, etc. in order to fit our kids into their fancy, little, boxed meals that are safe and comfortable for parents and teachers alike.
In my classroom I want to start my year asking students how Spanish relates to their lives, their dreams, their goals. Day one they will write a list of all the professions they are interested in, from the mundane to the exotic. "Profe Bisbee, I want to be a spelunker." Perfect! How might you use Spanish while you are exploring the unknown worlds of caves? I want them to dream big and then we can adapt the content to their interests. Grades, like the monetary reward in Dan Pink's video on Drive, will not push them, but rather a larger goal of mastering a skill they will need one day in their future.
So let your students be passionately creative when they dream and creatively passionate as they pursue those dreams.
Sir Ken Robinson's School Kills Creativity on TED Talks
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
Daniel Pink's video on Drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc&feature=player_embedded
It's so scary that when money is tight schools go right to the arts and languages. Why do we hold so much importance in the big 4 classes? I agree on letting students make mistakes, they need to do that so they can learn how to correct it. Those are life lessons that we can only grow from and become better people.
ResponderEliminarGreat post Dana! I really enjoyed the Sir Ken Robinson video in class today! I thought his points were so interesting and made such perfect sense. I think this is why some kids go through such a transformation when they enter college because they no longer have the constraints placed on them in high school and they meet people who have the same likes and interests as them. It makes me sad to think of how many future poets, artists, firefighters, and great minds have been permanently 'shut down' just because a teacher found their dreams silly or thought they were too 'hyper'.
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