A Curious Life

Today on the radio, Bill T. Jones, renowned modern dance choreographer, was asked about what it was like to create dance for a Broadway show, instead of his usual venue for his dance company.  He replied that the difference for him was creating something for people who tended to look to popular entertainment for their cultural input, rather than a smaller group of people who would regularly attend a performance by his dance company.  He mentioned that there is a portion of the theatergoing public who only want to see what they know, as in a revival of an older show, or even a recreation of a movie.

Curiosity.  This is part of what Mr. Jones is talking about.  I believe it is our job to impart and encourage curiosity, and make students aware of the wonder of discovering something they didn't already know about.  This instinctive curiosity is rampant in the younger grades, but fades as students get older, have more opportunities for self-distraction, and stare the stress monster of college applications in the face.  If curiosity survives college, how long does it last after someone has entered the workforce full time?  Have a family?  Many things take a back seat or go on hiatus when someone's life requirements exceed the energy and time that someone has to give to them.  What I hope for my students is that their curiosity doesn't completely disappear as they get older (and, often, it seems, more cynical).  Rather, helping to instill a lifelong curiosity in my students is what I see as a key part of my teaching goals, and one that will help them on the road to lifelong learning and optimism.

The Importance of Quality Teachers

In a recent NYT article on character development in education ("What If The Secret To Success Is Failure?"), the recent work of Angela Duckworth, a psychology professor, figured prominently.  Duckworth has identified seven character traits that are remarkably predictive of high life satisfaction and outstanding achievement.  These traits are zest, grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, optimism, and curiosity.  Even though the US Military Academy at West Point developed its own evaluation to judge incoming candidates, Duckworth’s 12-item questionnaire turned out to be a more accurate predictor of success at West Point.

            While new and valuable research on improving student learning and lifelong success is always of interest to me, after a few days of thinking about this I realized that these teachable and cultivatable traits indicate more than a fresh way of thinking about education.  They also point out the importance of quality teachers.  While everyone is born with varying degrees of these skills, thoughtful and sensitive adults can help develop grit, self-control, social intelligence, gratitude, and optimism (especially at younger ages).  The remaining two, zest and curiosity, can be encouraged or piqued by caring adults who get to know children well and help them bridge the gap that can exist between their ability or potential and possible venues where they can achieve success.

            While we all know students or people who would be just fine if they were left to their own devices in a room full of books and an internet connection, most of us need some guidance at some point in our early lives in order to help us realize that we have greater potential than we originally thought.  This is something that can’t come from books…every child needs and deserves caring and insightful teachers!

Dynamic Education

When I started teaching, I had a smaller view of my role in the school.  I taught my subject and was so busy getting my pedagogical house in order that I didn't have a lot of space in my brain to hear about the other things that my students were doing.

Near the end of my first year, my perspective on what I could offer students was beginning to broaden.  For example, one time I expressed frustration about how some of my younger students were doing.  Someone suggested to me that I think about how the students felt about their own difficulties.  My friend was right.  If I, who was used to operating at a higher level, was frustrated with their initial difficulties, the students, who were thrilled at the opportunity to play music were probably just as frustrated (if not more!) that the sound they were producing weren't as musical as they would like.  We were both equally frustrated, but for very different reasons!

A few years later, Dorothy DeLay, a renowned violin teacher  at Juilliard, passed away.  In articles about her career and success as a teacher, it was mention that she would remind people who said "I teach music." that no, they taught people how to play music.  Keeping the student in mind as a person, rather than "teaching Beethoven" or "teaching Stravinsky," changed how I saw my process and overall success.  Truly, a math teacher doesn't teach "long division" or "integration," but s/he teaches students how the process works and how they can replicate it on their own.  A history teacher doesn't teach "The Civil War," s/he teaches students the causes, impact, and long term effects of fundamental conflicts within U.S. society in the 19th century.

There's a saying that students won't care what you know until they think that you care.  There's truth in this, but the deeper truth is more along the lines that they won't care what you know (and are trying to share with them) until they know that you care about them and their future.

Thinking about these ideas helped me to verbalize what had been brewing in my brain for a few years: that teachers work with students to help them develop their skills to navigate the world.  Very few teachers at levels other than college work with students who will begin a vocation in their subject.  While having a student decide they share your passion and pursue a career in that field is rewarding, it is more important to remember that we also need to connect with students who aren't going to major in our field.  If we aren't going to create a classroom full of scientists, historians, mathematicians, musicians, artists, etc., then why are we teaching?  I'm not suggesting at all that we should be teaching down to people, or "dumbing down" what we know in order to reach students, rather we should meet students where they are and help them improve their understanding of the material and their own world in a number of ways, including in a linear, broad, aesthetic, and/or conceptual fashion.

The interactions that teachers have with each other and students are not unidirectional, and they shouldn't be in this country.  Other countries have a more direct delivery model, and they envy the dynamism and creative potential that the educational system in the United States offers.  We should remember, whether we are in a classroom or not, that we are all people, interdependent, and are at our best when we work together (even in the smallest of interactions!) to accomplish things (from basic to complex) in our daily lives.  This philosophy of daily living can put us on the path to great success!

Outsourcing, education, lifelong learning, and...farmers markets?

These first three ideas are extremely relevant in today's world.  The idea of outsourcing jobs from the United States to other countries, where work could be done more cheaply, has been a contentious issue for some time now.  It is interesting to see things continue to shift...for example, factories moving from coastal China to the western, inner regions of China and some US companies moving their factories back to the United States for reasons of quality control process in conjunction with the narrowing cost benefit of outsourcing.  Whatever your opinion on the subject, it is clear that in today's workforce one needs to be flexible (mentally, horologically, and sometimes, unfortunately, fiscally) and current on the latest developments in one's field.  Even in technology!  Combine that with the concept that today's students will be working in fields that don't exist yet, and you have a major shift in the importance and focus in education today.

While these facts and ideas aren't brand new and probably not shocking to you, I thought about this recently because of something I heard on the radio.  A proponent of locavorism and whole foods was talking about the average US citizen as having "outsourced" significant portions of their lives.  He meant that we drive cars most of us don't know how to fix, many of us live in houses though we don't know how to do major maintenance or renovation projects, we consume information that some of us either can't or don't know how to verify, and many of us eat food that we don't know how to grow.  He saw this "outsourcing" of daily life as a key to the growing popularity and civic significance of the growth of farmers markets, locavorism, and ultimately, people starting their own gardens to grow food.

Is the local and whole foods movement an example of people's (perhaps subconscious) desire to un-outsource parts of their lives?

What do these things mean for education?  For one, teaching people (in most cases, children) how to learn and maintain their enthusiasm for learning is paramount.  Also, encouraging and developing problem solving, applying concepts and processes to new places or problems, whether at the elementary, high school, or college level.  Helping students understand how they learn, and how to compensate for and develop their learning style weaknesses.  At any age, developing their executive function, their ability to organize, prioritize, manage their time, stay flexible so as to avoid getting "locked up" or "paralyzed" by the anticipation of difficulty.

This means a lot for educators...are they teaching in ways that can be outsourced?  Are some teachers mostly providing information that can be looked up on line, while spending less time inspiring students and helping them grow as learners and people?  While this model of providing basic information and teaching students how to develop their memorization skills, understanding of common processes (mathematical, scientific, historical, etc.), and practical skills, vocational and everyday may have worked a number of years ago, it is crucial that today's teachers anticipate the change that students will see in their lifetimes.  They must teach students how to continue to educate themselves, see connections between the past, present, and future, and wok with the entire faculties of schools to produce well-rounded people who have a greater cognitive and emotional understanding of themselves as they move on into college and beyond.

The Optimistic Child

I recently started reading "The Optimistic Child" by Martin Seligman after hearing a recommendation at an institute I attended last summer.  I was interested for a few reasons.  One, I am definitely an optimist.  Two, not every single one of the people I have worked with were all optimists (shocking!).  Three, as a parent, I want to help my child develop a positive view of the world and the opportunities available to everyone in good times and bad.  Here's what I didn't expect:

How closely related the ideas in this book were to working successfully with students.  For example, focusing on the behavior, not the person.  I.e., instead of saying (and thinking!) "You are selfish," saying "You need to share more."  Instead of "This is a mess!  You are a total slob!", focusing on "This room is a mess!" BUT "You need to start picking up after yourself."  In the classroom this is present in not encouraging the idea of "I got a C in Math, I'm just not a Math person," but "I didn't do as well on that test, maybe I need to ask for more help/I need to identify what it is that I need to focus on in order to do better next time."

It is important to note that the author is not saying that being optimistic is a cure for depression, which can be related to body chemistry, debilitating, and part of a lifelong struggle to live a healthy, rewarding life.  What the author seeks to clarify is that we can give our children experiences that help them face difficulty, persevere, and solve problems.  We can give them skills that can help a person avoid triggers and spirals that can lead to depression.

The author suggest that instead of denying reality (what you are experiencing isn't real, it doesn't hurt your feelings, it isn't difficult), validate the child's disappointment and allow them to have those feelings - as much as you might want to simply make them vanish!  Help a child understand that effort and practice often compensate for a lack of natural ability or physicality.  Don't simply do something for a child without giving them a chance to try it again and let them achieve success, even if it's a small one.

And this is just the first chapter...I am looking forward to delving deeper into this book!

What is the role of technology in education?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/technology/technology-in-schools-faces-questions-on-value.html?_r=1&ref=education&pagewanted=all

This recent article from the New York Times continues the conversation about the role that technology should play in education.  As a teacher in a school that is beginning to use iPads in the classroom, I have been a part of much give and take about what the "best practice" of using technology in the classroom.

A couple of thoughts that have stayed with me:

1. The "pencil test."  Does the technology simply replicate what you could do with a pencil and a piece of paper?  If so, then perhaps money and time could be better spent on different tools.

2. Focus on learning, not on technology.  This may seem obvious, but can get quickly lost in two ways.  One would be when a teacher uses technology that is exciting or flashy, but doesn't improve student understanding of the material.  The second one, which is perhaps even more powerful, is a teacher's resistance to using technology in the classroom.  While no one likes change to be forced on them, if a (possibly reluctant) teacher looks to the opportunities that technology can provide, rather than focusing on the concern about learning something new (sometimes a little, sometimes a lot!), technology can be experimented with and implemented in a thoughtful way that augments learning in the classroom, rather than replacing a different or parallel system.

The article also points out the (wise) concern of many in education: can technology do the job of a teacher?  If the teacher's job is to state facts and explain processes, then yes.  And that teacher should be concerned.  If the teacher's job is to connect with students, help make the material meaningful to them and their lives, discover how to help the student build on strengths and remediate weaknesses, and instill a lifelong love of learning, then sleep well, for there is no way that technology can do all of that.

I heard a great quote today: "In times of change, learners inherit the earth...while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists" (Eric Hoffer).  OK, it's a little zingy, and the kind of quote that could be used in a meanspirited way, but there's a large kernel of truth inside these words.  There are many, many facets to being an educator, and one hopefully takes an active role in deciding what aspects of one's own teaching to develop.  One of those aspects is recognizing the opportunities that social and scientific progress offer, and how to take advantage of those opportunities to become a more effective and efficient teacher.  Technology offers opportunity, and we shouldn't be afraid of the chance to improve our teaching, make the lives of our students richer and more rewarding, and therefore make our successes in the classroom more personally rewarding throughout our careers.

More thoughts, anyone?