Adventures in Learning

girlwithalessonplan:

creative-education:

adventuresinlearning:

“Instead of trying to bully young people to remain in classrooms isolated from the community and structured to prepare them to become cogs in the existing economic system, we need to recognize that the reason why so many young people drop out from inner-city schools is because they are voting with their feet against an educational system that sorts, tracks, tests, and rejects or certifies them like products of a factory because it was created for the age of industrialization. They are crying out for another kind of education that gives them opportunities to exercise their creative energies because it values them as whole human beings. ”- Grace Lee Boggs

Will policy makers ever listen to what educators since Dewey have been saying?

GWALP objects:  They’re not voting with their feet or crying out for another kind of education if they refuse any type of learning at all.

Our school offers half-days to kids who financially or medically need it, community-based programs for kids with cognitive delays, on the job training for kids of all levels that can lead to certification, four different degree programs, college credit, vast electives and a variety of clubs.  We have over 50 educators in our building who care about childrens’ success.

When I look a child in the face and ask the following:  ”What’s your dream job?  What would you like to do in this class?  What’s your goal?”  and the answer I get is “I dunno.  Nothin,’” then that child has failed himself by not being able to work with anyone.

I get really tired of educator reformers who cry out for this free, creative, unrestricted educational process that flies in the face of how our culture actually works.  Yes, we need creativity and art (hello, I’m a theater teacher), but the economic world is not driven by vast, open, creative process that lacks books or exams.  Toyota just added 400 new jobs to my area.  You think they want 400 free spirits who don’t know how to work a line (literally and figuratively)?  There are deadlines, forms, and aptitude exams in the real world.  How else are we to prepare them for these and let them see, in data form, what they’re capable of?

You can’t teach the unwilling.  And it’s not the EDUCATION system entirely that’s making them unwilling.  It’s their support system at home, it’s the poverty, it’s the hunger, it’s the drugs, it’s the health, it’s the debt.  

And another thing:  I’m really tired of seeing education reform propaganda on tumblr that depicts public schools as a factory stripping kids of their souls. 

HOW DARE YOU REFER TO ME AND MY PROFESSION AS BULLIES.

You know nothing about the job, or you wouldn’t dare callously throw that word around.

I hope people look into Grace Lee Boggs work. I also do not see this comment by Grace Lee Boggs as talking about teachers, but instead the schools system. I am also sorry if you dislike the critique of the education system as a factory system, yet it is well documented that the education system was designed after the factory system, and it has not changed much for inner-city children, nor honestly for many schools that still are built for listening, for teacher-direct lessons, for testing, for management, and for control.

To pretend that this is not true disregards what both quantitative and qualitative data has shown over the last 30 years.  The recent rethinking school issues is all about the school to prison pipeline….. or you could just look to places like Detroit (where Grace Lee Boggs, has been working for 50+ years). 

This is not an attack on teachers or teaching, it is a call to arms to teachers, community members, students, and parents to reclaim ownership in the education of their community, of their families, of their children. 

Also I would challenge you to reread your statement,

“You can’t teach the unwilling.  And it’s not the EDUCATION system entirely that’s making them unwilling.  It’s their support system at home, it’s the poverty, it’s the hunger, it’s the drugs, it’s the health, it’s the debt.  “

To me this is sad, do you not think it is our roles as teachers, as community members, as active citizens to find solutions to statements like this. I don’t think there is an student who does not want to learn.

I think there are students who have been failed by the system, and who have dropped out (either in school or out) because they have been beating down by life and by schools.

There is more to teaching for wholeness than just asking students what they want to do or learn…. expecting a student who has never been given choice or a chance to self-direct his/her learning to know what they want to learn is asking for failure. We must cultivate habits of mind and create environment of trust and guidance.

I am more than willing to give you a number of examples of schools that have had great success with this type of learning, and schools where students who have be seen “Unwilling to learning” have found great success, both traditionally and in a more holistic way. 

I also disagree with your assessment of the real world, and real jobs. I am would recommend reading any assessment by business leaders today, who believe the jobs of today and tomorrow are the creative, free spirit jobs. See Seth Godin, See Apple, Google, See Toyota… (even factory jobs today require a high level of creative ability).

I also hope you think teaching is a creative profession, and I hope some of the students in your state become teachers who are creative, flexible and open to different roles other than traditional roles.

Also I hope we can continue to disagree about education without you calling quotes like this “propaganda” or telling me I have no right to call out teachers, or schools to be something better. We have different ideas about education, but I would never say that there should be only one way to learn or one way to teach.

Also I would never call myself an education “reformer”…. like it or not, I think we need a education revolution and education transformation.

I know I am not alone, and think we need everyone to make public education work for EACH child and EACH community. I applaud your spirit, even if we disagree. It is not black and white, and I hope tumblr is a place where we can continue to active inquiry about the purpose of education and the ways in which we can create a more just, democratic and sustainable world.