The “this I believe” edition.
1. I believe that we are spiritual beings having a physical experience. Everything that happens to us, “good” and “bad,” happens because we have chosen to experience it. I also believe that we will continue to draw experiences to ourselves until we learn the lesson it has to teach us, so the next time you stop to ask yourself, “why does this ALWAYS happen to me?!” consider that you may be missing a lesson in it.
2. I believe that people who abuse those weaker than they don’t deserve a second chance to do it again.
3. I believe that the “education” we in this country are providing for our children is entirely unethical. I believe it is wrong to hold all students to the same standards, and I believe that tracking isn’t necessarily the evil that it’s been made out to be.
4. I believe that we’ve not discovered our true capacity yet. For example, it doesn’t fit with how I understand the Universe that we can hurt ourselves in a moment, but that it takes much longer - if ever - for us to heal. I believe that, someday, we’ll understand how much control we really do have over our reality.
5. I believe that people allow money, power, and image to influence them to make really poor choices. I believe that we entirely undervalue most people, and that it’s wrong that CEOs and athletes make millions of dollars, but service people - police, trash collectors, waitresses, teachers - often can’t afford to live in the districts they serve.
6. I believe that manners matter and that no expression of kindness, however small and seemingly insignificant, is ever wasted. It’s all light contributed to the Universe.
7. I believe that it’s the people you can call at four in the morning who really matter, and that it’s just as important to have those kinds of friends as it is to be that kind of friend.
8. I believe that when we learn to stop seeing one another as different from ourselves - when we recognize ourselves in each other - war and violence will become obsolete.
9. I believe that, sometimes, abortion, euthanasia/assisted suicide, and capital punishment are right.
10. I believe that we never really die, and that our “death” here is a passage back to where we came from. I believe there will be a celebration marking our return home, and that much of what happened here will all make sense.
Three things.
a. What’s tracking?
b. I don’t know about where you are but where I am you really need to move “trash collectors” off that second list.
c. Julia Sweeney (dot com) is back to blogging again and I can’t recommend highly enough that you go read some of her work on the blog. It is the informal discussion about her journey from devout Catholicism to atheism and it’s both terrifying and fascinating and I learn a lot over there.
Yeah!
Kizz, Tracking is grouping students on a perceived ability level. For example, at the high school I interned at, we had 5 levels: AP (advanced placement; basically taking college-level courses in high school and getting college credits for passing them), Honors (for kids who were perenially on the honor roll), A (supposedly above average students), B (supposedly average students), and C (the bottom of he barrell).
…and the proponants of things like No Child Left Behind will tell you that it’s an unequal way to educate children; that the C level kids don’t get the same quality of education that the A levels get - never mind the honors and AP kids…
I don’t think, though, that it’s as bad as it’s been made out to be. There are certain minimum standards that ALL students should be able to demonstrate (they should all be able to balance a checkbook, or write a letter, or read at a particular level - the things that 12 years of compulsory education is SUPPOSED to teach), but beyond that, I don’t think that concentrated study should be mandatory, at least at the high school level.
Let’s say, for example, that I’ve got a kid whose only desire is to become an airplane mechanic. Her dad was an airplane mechanic, she has her sights set on a good airplane mechanic school, she LOVES fixing things and she’s good at it. Why is it okay that we demand of her that she succeed in, say, a class on Romantic poetry when we don’t demand of anyone else that they succeed in shop class? How is it that we’ve come to value some things (and, admittedly, often some pretty whispy and academic things) over some real-world skills? Why do we force all of our students through the same academic hoops, when my airplane mechanic could get by just fine with a broad overview of English (with some specific, demonstrable skills, mind you) and could have her time better served in math and voc. classes?
Good point, Mrs. C. Cookiemaker and I have said many times that we don’t really care what Little Man wants to do when he’s all grown up, so long as it’s legal and he enjoys doing it. We’re not going insist that he go to college and then get a “respectable” (read white-collar) job. If he wants to go to a trade school, fine. If he wants to go into the military, fine. If he wants to go to an arts or music school, fine.
We as a nation are way too image-conscious (Mrs. C. and I were talking about this at Bowyer’s house yesterday, though in a different context). We look down upon people who hold blue-collar jobs. Well, guess what, White-collar World? If it weren’t for blue-collar workers, your world wouldn’t exist. Who’d fix your car, your plumbing, take away your trash, build your house, or serve you your fancy meals?
Sorry to go off-topic a bit, but I felt it needed to be said.
It DOES need to be said, Falcon, and it needs to be said - loudly and often - by people, like us, who work in education. We really need to get serious about looking critically at the way we run our educational systems, and we need to be brave enough to make some drastic and much-needed changes.
Do I give a damn if my mechanic can quote Shakespeare? Does it matter a single bit to me that the person cooking my dinner at a restaurant understands what a social contract is? Honestly? No, it does not; it matters to me that they are skilled at their work. Do I believe that a certain minimum standard of education is necessary and ethical? Yes - but I think that we, as a collective, have our priorities all wrong when we say that my airplane mechanic is a “failure” because she bombed English Lit. without looking at the fact that her very real skills could well be all that stand between us and engine failure at 45,000 feet. Think about THAT for a few minutes, then tell me why it’s important for ALL our kids to know the SAME stuff at the SAME level…
Why is it important for ALL our kids to know the SAME stuff at the SAME level?
Because analysts like to be able to analyze neatly packaged numbers. Remember that in business “what gets measured gets done.” (To use a oan over used business cliche).
Before they can produce meaningful analysis, they have to make sure everyone is adhering to the same “measureable” standard.
Of course that kind of removes the need for “critical analysis,” now doesn’t it?
Is it possible that this discussion is overlooking the fact that, back in the day when all kids weren’t expected to know all things that they tended to be shuttled into fields based on their economic status rather than their desires or their abilities? In general you became a professor/airline mechanic/salesperson not because you wanted to do those things or were particularly good at them but because that was what your parents had done or what the school you went to was equipped to train you for.
Good point, Kizz. In addition to that, I do not think it is reasonable to expect an 18 (or 22 for that matter) year old to get a career. A job, sure, but not a career.
“Of course that kind of removes the need for “critical analysis,” now doesn’t it?”
DUDLEY! YES! That’s EXACTLY what I’m saying! We’re fast eliminating all instances that require our critical thinking, and education was one of the first to see it go right out the window.
Kizz - and Snob - the reasons you rightly point out are the reasons that have been given by some folks as examples of why tracking is evil. My admittedly optimistic belief is that, even at a fairly young age, students have an instinct for what “works” for them. I knew, as early as maybe fifth grade, that I was never going to be good at mathematics, but that langauge and reading came relatively easy and were fun. I bet, if you think about it, you’ll find that you were drawn to certain things and repelled by others, too. All I’m saying is that, to a greater degree than we do now, we should allow students to honor those instincts.
I think you’d be surprised, Snob, by how many of my students, at 19-to-25-or-so, have a really GOOD idea of what they want for a career. Could that change? Of course it could - there’s nothing that says that, in 15 years, I won’t go off and get a degree in history, work for a museum and never teach again in my life. Just because we don’t know for SURE what we want to be when we grow up (how many of us actually figure that out before we die, anyway?), is no reason to force EVERYONE to learn the same stuff at the same level of mastry. That, to me, seems like the easy way out and, for as enlightened as we claim to be about education, and for all the noise we make about helping each student reach his or her potential, you would think that we’d have figured out how to do tracking in ways that doesn’t follow the lazy (or compensatory) methods of our past.
“Why is it important for ALL our kids to know the SAME stuff at the SAME level?”
One word - communication. We go through twelve or thirteen years of essentially the same schooling so we can communicate with each other. No, I don’t mean just being able to speak, read, and write the language. I mean having a common pool of knowledge to communicate about.
A cartoon that I showed to all of my students during my internship showed a bunch of people in line to see the film “Titanic.” A husband says to his wife, “I hear the scenes of the ship sinking are spectacular.” To which a teenager at the end of the line says, “The ship sinks?! Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us!”
An extreme example to make a point? Yes, but how does one avoid being that teenager? By going to school. If we all have the same common pool of knowledge, we all have the capability to communicate with each other on at least some level. Mrs. C., you said in another post you can hold your own in a conversation about science with Bowyer because of your education (though, to be fair, you were talking about your GenEd courses in college).
…and I sound an awful lot like I’m contradicting myself here, but I don’t think that I am - I may just be doing a lousy job at getting my point across.
I am 100% behind the idea of a good, solid, general education in high school. I am also 100% behind general education requirements in college. What I’m SAYING, though, is that I think we can do a better job than we’re doing - that we can do MORE - that NCLB, standardized tests and force-fed courses aren’t the answer.
If we’re forcing my airplane mechanic to learn the nuances of Romantic poetry or Shakespeare, why aren’t we forcing our English geeks to understand flow rates or electrical resistance? Who decided that the things that we teach our students in high school are so important that we should teach JUST these things - to the exclusion of all others - and that failure to meet some sort of arbitrary standard equals academic failure?
…and why aren’t we having this conversation in the other blog?
I’m 100% behind you on ripping NCLB and standardized testing.
Bowyer would be better able to answer the question about flow rates and electrical resistance - NEEYOW!
Seriously, though, I think what you’re complaining about does happen, at least at some level. You don’t think the kids who like science in high school bitch just as much about having to take English and History as the English kids bitch about Science and Math?
The courses that are so specialized like the ones you’re hypothetically talking about are called electives. If the school happens to offer them, then you can take them if you want.
Oh, I KNOW the kids bitch about having to take the classes that they don’t feel suit them (I know *I* did - what the hell am *I* going to do with a chemistry class?!) My hope is that such things DO happen, Falcon, but I didn’t see it in the high school where I interned - there were the high school kids and the voc. tech. kids, and never the two shall meet. (let’s not even TALK about the charter school kids!).
I try assiduously to avoid “belief,” perhaps I should say “Belief” with a capital “B.” I tend to think that Believing something is sort of an exercise in futility. For example: no matter what anyone “Believes” about such things as gods and afterlife, the truth is what it is (and nobody knows what it is). The notion put forward by certain religionists/superstitionists that unless you “Believe” their pronounced doctrine you are doomed is, of course, crap. [Note: this is just an example, I'm not suggesting "Belief" deals only with superstition].
I feel I’m not expressing myself, just make the kind-hearted assumption that I’m not being argumentative, and a lot of the things you listed sould like pretty good ideas.
I am without opinion on how an ideal education system would be run. I’ll probably get hounded off the web for even suggesting that maybe compulsory education is a bad idea, so I won’t.
Gerry, I ALWAYS assume kind-heartedness where you are concerned (even when you suggest banning marriage outright!).
You’ll notice that I said that *I* believe - not that YOU should believe. It’s my beliefs - my instincts about what is right and true - that keep me actively engaged and participatory in this life. I could very easily slip into apathetic ennui if I didn’t hold fast to some sort of faith.
You know, one of the things that bugs me about my job is how people who are supposed to know better limit the kids in their care. I have had many dicussions with social workers, sped teachers, ed advocates, and dss workers about what job Sally might be good at. They tend to believe that these kids are going to flip burgers or paint houses. CRAP! They can do pretty much whatever they want. They look at the kids only in the context of their current situation, which is beyond anything I could have gone through in my teenage years! PLEASE people; do not place limitations on these kids! I have delt with kids who have a full scale IQ of 48. They are bright in their own way; they are very empathetic, creative, and social. Will their limited IQ keep them from passing the bar exam? Sure, but that doesn’t mean that they need to work in fast food all their life.
And what about the little girl whose dad worked on airplanes? Well, she got to travel all over the world with her family. Then, when she grew up and went to college, she decided she wanted to work on airplanes, too. She did, for 7 years, and traveled all over the world. Then she went back to school and is now teaching Social Studies and Economics to high school kids who listen to her because she has been to many of the countries she teaches about! The girl who worked on airplanes is changing lives every day. Imagine that.
That’s what I’m getting at, Auntie! We’re forcing kids into the molds someone in academia has said are the most valuable without giving consideration to the people who do the ‘other’ jobs. What makes them less valuable, and who gets to decide that?
What if my airplane mechanic never does anything BUT airplane maintenance? If she spent her entire life fixing and maintaining airplanes in Dulles - not traveling the world and not retiring to teach Social Studies and Economics? Would her contribution to our society be any less valuable? I don’t think so - and I KNOW you don’t either, Auntie - and it’s THAT that I’m getting at. Until we can start valuing people - ALL of ‘em - and offering an education that is ethically sound to that value, we’re going to keep spinning our wheels and turning out under-educated students.
i agree with #2 through #9. And i don’t disagree with the other two, i just don’t know.
Interesting post.
I’m more confused now than ever.
When did Gerry advocate banning marriage? How did I miss that? I have a LOT of opinions on how that might be the best idea ever!
I’m really enjoying this conversation. After thinking about it for a minute, I was always drawn to language based education and far far away from math. Funny how I didn’t really associate that with career path, but I can see it now.