23 Feb The ABCs of How Schools Are Stupid
I’ve been writing a new chapter on education—how our obsession with knowing makes schools stupid. The chapter begins with what I’m calling “the ABCs of the ABCs”—like A is for Age Groups, B is for Behavior, C is for Control. (I have a paragraph on each but I don’t want to give that away just yet.)
WANT TO PLAY A LITTLE? Let’s fill in the rest of the alphabet. Use the comment space below and write, “[Your letter] is for [your word or phrase].” Don’t worry if someone already “took your letter.” The list is endless!
Dennis Blair
Posted at 15:15h, 17 JuneM is for Mystery – Embrace it, there is no understanding.
Erin Comollo
Posted at 19:13h, 20 MarchOne thing that truly resonated with me was the lack of free time and free play in many children’s lives despite the strong importance of the relationship between play and learning. Even at my school, where we value play so much, I see a disconnect between children and play – their play lacks organization or direction — often times it is frenetic, disjointed, or parallel. I am a first grade teacher and see this on a daily basis on the playground. Their games of tag quickly dissolve into arguments or injuries. The large, life-sized Imagination Playground blocks aren’t used to build, but to throw at each other. Inevitably, we have the handful of students who only want to spend their time by talking to adults, or showing the adults “what they can do.” It is as if they “know” how to play, but don’t actually do it.
My co-teachers and I have recently been discussing the idea of being “too available” — too available to solve their problems, watch them jump rope, organize their games — is this knowing how to play or learning how to play? Rather than creating play, they are still relying on an adult to predetermine their performances and roles. To circle back to Holzman’s original issue: not enough free play — I think part of the contributing factor to what we see on the playground is the children’s lack of free play at home. I work with a upper middle class population whose lives are scheduled up from the moment they wake up until the moment they go to bed: swimming, OT, tutoring, cultural schooling, dance, drama, art class, tae kwon do, therapy appointments, etc. These children are rarely bored — in fact, they are more likely to be overscheduled. There are little opportunities for children to exercise boredom, creativity, or decision making for themselves, because the boundaries (as you referred to them in Chapter 5), are already decided for them. Then, when they do have the opportunity for free play, they do not have the developmental skills to support it. So, as I said, my colleagues and I are attempting to find a balance between nurturing these little ones’ social and emotional needs, while still pushing the within their ZPD to help “re-create them, reshape them, transform them” (Chapter 5).
On a different but related note, has anyone been following the “Bored and Brilliant” project? (http://www.wnyc.org/series/bored-and-brilliant/) It focuses more on adults, but how we need to disconnect from technology to give ourselves the same opportunities we want for our kids – free time to be bored and creative. After all, the project points out – there is a reason why we get our best ideas in the shower, on our commute, or in bed!
Elyce M. Benham, MS
Posted at 11:59h, 08 MarchWhat great fun! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
Helen Grimmett
Posted at 02:53h, 07 MarchI agree wholeheartedly with most of the ABC contributions about the dismal state of schools, but I also take Moira’s point about the dangers of wallowing in negative language. So my contribution is an ABC in the Vygotskian sense of the role of the ‘ideal’ in development … The hope we are working at ‘becoming’…
My hope is that schools can become places that are…
Affirming, Artistic, Active,
Beautiful,
Challenging, Creative, Caring,
Developmental (in a Vygotskian sense), Diverse,
Emotionally charged, Ethical,
Family friendly,
Generous,
Humane,
Inspiring, Inclusive, Innovative,
Joyful,
Kid friendly,
Laughter filled,
Musical,
Nurturing,
Optimistic,
Playful,
Quirky,
Relational,
Stimulating, Sustainable,
Talk filled,
Unique,
Valued by the community,
Wonder-full, Wise
X-citing,
Young at heart,
ZPDs!
Cheers,
Helen
Dr Moira Dougherty
Posted at 22:05h, 06 MarchOuch! Call me a spoilsport, but is this really going to help solve any of the problems we have with schools? How we name things influences how we think of them and what we expect of them. Words matter. I would never call a kid stupid, so why is it okay to call schools stupid? Ineffective practices, uninvolved, disengaged stakeholders, intractable policies, etc, etc, etc, all plague our schools. Calling them stupid does not call anyone to action. It might make people feel better, but it doesn’t do anything to make things better.
Richard Patik
Posted at 21:13h, 05 MarchAttention Deficit Diagnostic instead of Cultural Craziness Disorder
Black and white thinking/feeling/doing
Comparison and conformity
Don’t be different (than others or than your Assumptions about who we are or can be
Black and white thinking/feeling
Comparison and conformity
Don’t be different (than others or than your supposed essential “self”)
Evaluation apprehension
Facts, Find yourself (not create yourself)
Grades that label and limit
Habits formed that degrade self and others
Invisible students
Just be quiet
Killing curiosity
Labeling
Mistakes = bad (something to avoid and hide)
No
One size fits all
Please the teacher
Questions ignored or discouraged
Rankings and red pencils
Sameness from all, sit still
Training for a cog-in-the-wheel life
Uninvited to participate, perform or play
Voices undeveloped and stifled
Wrong answer
X marks the schools where creativity and curiosity died and performance anxiety started
Yes, BUT…
Zzzz’s brought on by non-engaging teaching methods “self”)
loisholzman
Posted at 01:05h, 04 MarchTamra, LaTasha, Melissa, Paul, and others—
These are soooo great!
For sure they will make their way into the book.
Much thanks,
Lois
LaTasha Price AKA RICH
Posted at 00:54h, 04 MarchA is for arbitrary information
B is for BS belittling of dreams
C is for choking out creativity
D is for Desperate need of reform
E is for Ending productive relationships with parents
F is for Foreign Ideas Unwelcom
G is for growing despite….
H is for haughty
I is for Issues at all levels
J is for Jacked up
K is for Keeping with tradtition
L is for life, law, love, and lull
M is for Matriculation into College, Career, or Convictions
N is for Nuisance
O is for out of control
P is for Pissed OFF!
Q is for Quiet Priviledge
R is for Race
S is for Safe haven
T is for Transitional
U is for Unnerving
V is for Vexed
W is for Waning Curriculum
X is for Xing Children
Y is for Youth
Z is for Zest that is misinterpreted
Tamara
Posted at 11:00h, 25 FebruaryG generating generations of “the-same-thinkers who don’t disturb the systems”
H historically important
I irrelevant when it comes to teaching life skills and values
J promoting jealousy and jeopardising individual talents and stories
K teaching knowledge that is useless
L limiting world views
M making you afraid of mistakes
N neglecting your potentials and not nurturing your talents (except in language and sciences)
O only-one-world-view-is-true
P promoting more and more schooling as a way of living
Q quit with this system and invent something new!
Melissa Meyer
Posted at 19:22h, 24 FebruaryLois – I took your ABC….. 😉
A is the grade that defines who we are, or are not.
B is boring classrooms that use a small percentage of our intellectual resources
C is for cutting our creativity short
D is for deliciously escaping to play in other environments that are not so rigid
E is for emotions that are ignored and suppressed while learning
F is for the grade that you get when you can’t pay attention because you are worried about your life.
G is for geography class that is ahistorical
H is for homogeneous
I is for ice cream (we need a break after all)
J is for jail, where many of us go after we graduate.
K is for kindergarten, where there was less structure, and nap time
L is for low expectations
M is for mean
N is for neglect
O is for Oregano which we don’t know how to spell or use because cooking is not a school subject
P is for potential that everyone is told they have, and is trying to find inside themselves
Q is for quit, when we can no longer tolerate our boredom
R is for report card
S, T, U, V, X YZ…..
paul murray
Posted at 08:34h, 24 FebruaryAnybody want to learn something?
Bear in mind that it can happen anywhere
Can’t imagine that?
Do you think schools have the monopoly on learning?
Eh?
Fast-forward to s time with no schools
Go back to a time when schools had not been invented
Halfway between these point, can we
Imagine ourselves t/here?
Joined together by our understanding that schools are not the best places to acquire
Knowledge
Like the idea of being part of this group of imagineers?
Many do.
Now what?
Over to you/us
Perhaps we can begin building an alternative to a society with schools?
Quickly, slowly it doesn’t matter
Rome wasn’t built in a day! Keep it…
Simple
Take some action
Use your imagination
Very likely you will become part of the education revolution
Without even breaking a sweat
Xeroxing and pasting universal models of learning never work
You know why? Time to me to
Zip it and find out.
Tony Perone
Posted at 00:59h, 24 FebruaryC is for competition
D is for desks
E is for exams and Eurocentric
H is for Hidden curriculum and homogeneity
Q is for quizzes
R is for Rows and rankings
S is for standardization
T is for Tests
V is for Valedictorians
X is the mark that means you’re “wrong”
Pei
Posted at 23:04h, 23 FebruaryI is for ignoring our joy of growth.
F is for faking all students are happily learning.
Jan
Posted at 22:08h, 23 FebruaryM is for medieval approach
P is for Pop-Quiz
Z is for Zipping Your Mouth
loisholzman
Posted at 20:33h, 23 FebruaryJill, maybe written quickly but with such heart!
Jill
Posted at 20:12h, 23 FebruaryA is for arrid
B is for burdensome
C is for corralling cattle
D is for deadening the spirit with the drive to assess assess and assess
E is for external rather than intrinsic goals
F is for making all fit into one way
G is for my grandson who lost his beautiful bright outlook and his natural intelligence as school failed him whilst convincing him it was all his fault
H is for the heroes who still inspire despite all the bureaucratic crap they have to deal with
I is for individualism valued above cooperation
J is for jumping through hoops
K is for killing teachers through ridiculous workload, stress and unnecessary
admin.
K is also for Ken Robinson and his inspiring views on creativity and education.
L is for lack of trust in teachers and pupils
M is for missing the point
N is for nurture over nature
O is for Oh God please help us see how wrong we are getting it!
P is for people. Education is about people and relationships, not targets and
league tables
Q is for questions – do we want a questioning (and therefore possibly unruly and
difficult to ‘manage’) population?
R is for respect. We need to give a lot more of it to young children
S is for stress – the least conducive state for learning
W is for wrong priorities
X is for (e)xcess
Y is for young, look at the joy, curiosity ability to play and learn that we squash
out of our very young when they start school
Z is for zzzzzz – boredom, suppressed energy, lack of control
Hmmm – written quickly, so may not bear scrutiny, but enjoyable to do!
loisholzman
Posted at 17:42h, 23 FebruaryFabulous list, Line! Thanks a bunch!
Line Søberg Bjerre
Posted at 17:35h, 23 FebruaryHi Lois, here’s a few more:
D is for discipline and D is also diagnostic.
E is elitist and E is also for extreme.
F is for framed.
G is for grown-up logic and G is also for grades.
I is for individualism.
M is for medicated.
N is for naive.
O is for onedimensional.
S is for serious
T is for tests
L is for Lack of recess, lack of breaks and lack of playtime and because of that N could also be for not fit for children…
Best Line