. . .Your brain!
. . .Your self-esteem!
. . .Your family!
. . .Your body!
. . .Your future!
The other night I was lying in bed, wide awake and my mind was going a mile a minute. So, I got up, for the first time in my life and started to make notes -- I did so for several hours. The notes I wrote down were all about the things I've been talking about for years in my graduate courses and in-services as it pertains to school. So for the next several (many?) entries, I think I'll embellish those ideas on this page.
As I was thinking about how education hurts, I thought of five categories - I'm sure there are more - in which education does hurt.
It hurts one's brain. Kids are forced to prep for tests at alarming rates. In fact for many educators, schools and student - it's all about the tests. When I think back on my education, I don't remember it being all about the tests. It was all about the learning! What new, cool, interesting, crazy, amazing thing did I learn today? I looked forward to school (now I'm sure there were many who did not) and wanted to be there. Please note that it was not a perfect world for me, because I was -- overweight! I those days that meant that phys. ed., lunch time, etc. was painful!
I guess that logically brings me to: It hurts one's self-esteem. School should be a place where we get energized and recharged (or charged). So often, it's the place where kids get deflated and beaten down. In a course I teach, Cooperative Discipline, we talk about helping kids feel capable, connected and contributing. Gangs certainly do that for kids, but I'm not so sure that school does that all the time. Teachers who understand these 3 C's can make an amazing difference in the lives of the students they interact with each day.
It sometimes hurts one's family: It 's often said, "If Mama ain't happy: ain't nobody happy." Well if kids are not happy at school, there are repercussions at home. I've sen parents at their wits end trying to figure our how to make their child succeed. An unhappy kid can be the product of an unhappy home or the cause of it.
I can hurt one's body. Think about the last time you sat in a school desk. The word ergonomic probably does not come to mind! Schools are uncomfortable places. We buy "Postur-pedic beds" for our kids and send them to school to sit all day in chairs and desks little changed since the pioneer days. We're proud of our seven foot tall basketball stars, but make them sit in the same desks as the petite cheerleaders. We also think that it's a good thing to SIT for 5 or six hours a day with few breaks, bad food and little water. Then, just for good measure , we shorten recess (or take it away). The research on nutrition, movement and hydration as it relates to learning is strong and getting stronger. If we want our kids to learn, we need to get them up and moving (more on this another time) and for goodness sake, let them have some water!
Finally, It can hurt one's future. Even the kids who are getting high grades on the standardized tests are not necessarily ready for the outside world. Which job, exactly, requires their employees to take practice tests all day? Obviously, there need to be standards, but as Susan Ohanian states in her little orange book, One Size Fits Few, so many kids in this standards-crazed education system in America are "falling through the cracks."
So I have a list of courses I wish I had taken:
- How to make/save money
- How be a good father/husband
- How to be healthy - and live to be 100
- How to make a difference in the world
- How to be a nice person
- How to stay out of gangs
- How to care for the environment
- How to help create a peaceful world
I'll bet you can add your own.
I guess that's enough for today, but I love the motto in Rafe (Teach Like Your Hair's On Fire) Esquith's classes, "Be nice - Work hard!" If that could be accomplished in America's classrooms, what a wonderful place they would be.
