{"id":1111,"date":"2018-04-05T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2018-04-05T04:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1111"},"modified":"2018-04-21T21:41:48","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T01:41:48","slug":"educate-or-regurgitate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/?p=1111","title":{"rendered":"E – Educate or Regurgitate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Educate or Regurgitate<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been an educator for the past 45 years. I\u2019ve experienced everything from the Open Classroom concept of the 70s, to the Cognitive Level Matching concepts of the 80s, to the Writing project in the 90s, to the Project Based Learning of the 2000s, to the Common Common Core Standards of today. There have been a lot of changes, some for the good and others not so good. As it would happen,\u00a0my good friends, Herman and Otto were just talking about those changes the other day. I\u2019ll let you listen in on their conversation:<\/span><\/p>\n

———————————–<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I was in school, school was stiff, structured, everyone on the same page,\u201d commented Herman, \u201cI was tracked, so that everyone in my class was at the same academic level. Kids today have so much more freedom and excitement to learn. They\u2019re so lucky.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Otto was quick to refute. \u201cI started school the same way you did. I was with my buddies throughout most of school. We learned whatever we felt like learning. Now that was freedom. Hey, if I didn\u2019t want to read a book, I read the Cliff Notes. We didn\u2019t worry about plagiarizing things, there was no \u2018Turn Me In\u2019 to check up on us. Nowadays kids don\u2019t even get to sit an listen to a book being read to them without being interrupted with questions like, \u201cCan anyone make a connection?\u201d or \u201cWhat do you predict this character is going to do?\u201d This whole education process is focussed on everyone has to think deeply all the time. There\u2019s no time to sit back and enjoy.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut look at the writing that is coming out of these children,\u201d Herman said. \u201cIt is much more detailed and expanded than anything we wrote at that age.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThat\u2019s if you like reading the same styles, written in the same voice, by everyone on the same grade level.\u201d Otto was adamant, \u201cJust listen to their pieces. They all sound the same! Where\u2019s the creativity? Where\u2019s the breaking of the rules? Where\u2019s the uniqueness in what they do?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman had to think for a while. \u201cMaybe as they get older and have learned all these fundamentals they will be able to branch out and try different things to expand their abilities and create new styles of writing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Otto just smirked. \u201cAnd maybe the moon is made of cheese. Who knows, we haven\u2019t been there since the 70s; things might have changed. \u00a0Even in the 70s through 90s we were allowed to explore and experiment. Technology gave us new ways to present our thoughts. Today it\u2019s just here are benchmarks we all have to reach before the State tests.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

There does seem to be a lot more testing today, at least in English and Math. But isn\u2019t having a good foundation of skills important. Shouldn\u2019t all students have the opportunity to have the same education and at least experience the same concepts?\u201d Herman seemed less sure of himself. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no reason students shouldn\u2019t receive the same education and experiences,\u201d Otto agreed, \u201cHowever they should receive it when they\u2019re ready, not just because they reached a certain age or grade. Give me the type of learning that I got in the 70s and 80s when there weren\u2019t as many standards and teachers had more freedom to teach to their strengths and explore new ways to make learning exciting. \u00a0That\u2019s the freedom I liked and what got me to do lots of things I wouldn\u2019t have thought of doing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Herman\u2019s head was spinning. In thinking back on his days of learning, he kind of missed the special projects that he did and still remembered, the pieces of writing he shared, and all of the things he learned. \u201cIt sounds like you\u2019ve changed your mind about how school has changed from when you went to school. For once I think we agree. Back when we went to school and schools today have a lot in common. Structured learning, tracking of curriculum, and less and less opportunity to be creative. \u00a0Education seems to run in cycles, maybe that style of education will come back\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Otto ended the conversation, \u201cI wouldn\u2019t bet on it happening too soon.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

——————————-<\/span><\/p>\n

Being a retired full-time teacher and now substitute teaching, I\u2019ve seen most of the things that Otto and Herman were talking about. Sad to say it is frustrating at times to see where education is going, knowing where it has been and what it once was. Hopefully, the cycle will come back sooner than later. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

If you are interested in watching a TED Talk on the need for Creativity in Education today, I would highly recommend any one given by Sir Ken Robinson <\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/2GW5NnE<\/span><\/a>\u00a0 and <\/span>https:\/\/bit.ly\/1BFbl7N<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Educate or Regurgitate I\u2019ve been an educator for the past 45 years. I\u2019ve experienced everything from the Open Classroom concept of the 70s, to the Cognitive Level Matching concepts of the 80s, to the Writing project in the 90s, to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,10,7],"tags":[70,55,67],"class_list":["post-1111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-to-z-blog-challenge-2018","category-education","category-story-writing","tag-a-to-z-blog-challenge","tag-education-2","tag-harvey-heilbrun"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1111"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1111\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hdhstory.net\/Storyblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}