Welcome!
Today’s Blog is about Race To Nowhere (http://www.racetonowhere.com/.) If you haven’t seen the film – a quick synopsis: A one size fits all approach to education focused on testing and over achievement is a recipe for depression, stress and burnout. The student who best sums up his experience states he feels like he is in a “race to nowhere.” It is a powerful and very sad movie, yet the fact that it was made and is a springboard for so many conversations around the country is incredibly hopeful.
Rather than recapping the critique of testing/rote learning/over achieving/more, faster, better, I’ll stay focused on my small part of the solution. By doing my grappling, thinking and rethinking, alchemizing many related ideas about what I have come to believe is important in schooling, I am in a small way living out what is missing from the school factory- time to ponder.
How do classroom teachers make time for thinking? Is this homework? Or can it be an active ritualized, accepted part of every school week? How about THINKING THURSDAYS!
On Thursdays every student in every subject area across every grade level would be invited to take a deeper look at the material. This would be a “safe” day. There would be no wrong answers, no wrong ideas, and no censorship. The teacher would truly be the “guide on the side.”
Teachers need to be comfortable with NOT being the experts. They need to be comfortable with the imaginations and tangents of students. They need to be learners and listeners, not just correctors. What are the boundaries of the conversation? How much time is useful?
Teachers will use trial and error to figure this out. Is once a month enough? Or is every Thursday a THINKING THURSDAY.
Set the tone. Give permission. Leave the judge at the door. Let the students explore their own minds.
Thanks for reading (more soon) -L
I applaud TT!!! And to reinforce, I was just reading a passage in "Empires of the Mind," which described how successful ventures of today, that is, today's and tomorrow's mega-success companies and organizations require employees to include at least 15% of their work time to problem-solving, innovating, and creativity with no required output in the traditional sense. Time after time this has proven to be one the key ingredients to success--across the board--room, walk, skate, or "er"--KEEP this idea growing Bostwick ;-)
ReplyDeleteI love this title "Empires of the Mind" of course the Churchill quote came up when I searched, then the recent book. Such an endless treasure hunt- the WWW.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think that taking time to think, experiment and even fail is now in vogue. Another book talks about the need to push beyond our comfort zone, to work at the edge of what we know, to be original..and to balance mastery with the drive toward innovation. http://www.artistryunleashed.com/
I'll keep BLOGGING! Thx for the thumbs up.
Why stop at Thursdays? Create a space daily for students to explore their own reasoning abilities and to recognize the gentle nudges of inspiration. Journaling, or daily papers as Julia Cameron wrote about in The Artist's Way, is one means that adults can reconnect with their inner, creative, voice. Reminds me of pre-school, where the young play, express and explore without judgment, only guidance.
ReplyDeleteSounds great! A nice thought- bring a pre-schoolers mind to the topic. Even if that topic is calculus, it can be explored with curiosity & without judgment. Start with the big questions. For example: What is Calculus? What is it used for? Play with the uses...
ReplyDeleteA recent book chronicles one authors thoughts: The Calculus Diares: abouthttp://www.amazon.com/Calculus-Diaries-Weight-Survive-Apocalypse/dp/0143117378