Beyond Ego and Into Education
One of the biggest issues that educators face (myself included) is their own ego; we tend to think that we know what our children should become. As well, we make judgement calls about what students will be like simply by observing how they are now. However, as every parent knows, the way a child is during their schooling years does not often equate to how they become as adults; I myself am a perfect example of this phenomenon. We can therefore ask ourselves this question: why can we not easily predict how a person will mature based on their schooling experiences?
As I mentioned myself as being an example of this, I should clarify. My schooling years (elementary and high school) were very embarrassing for me to look back on; I was not engaged, was only there to make people laugh (because I was very insecure about myself), was not "smart", "athletic", "rebellious", "nice", nor anything else that would have put me in an "in" crowd of any sort, and thus I feel I was not successful. The only thing I had going for me was that I was musical; but even then I would not listen to other people's opinions or views about musical styles or trends. I was the class clown who had no self esteem and could not care at all about what I would be after graduation.
In fact, when one of my previous elementary teachers found out that I had graduated from University with a teaching certificate, she was quite aghast and seemed a bit fearful that I would be influencing the next generation of children. Though I still like to make people laugh, I do believe I have changed, and I would attribute my change to one main thing: I got to know myself and began to want to become something that I felt I could become. My journey to learning about myself began with my faith and the acceptance of peers (in youth group mostly). From there, I simply began to realize that I had potential to become something more than what I was.
I also realized that what I was being told by my schools, though true, was only truthful because of the educational system's filtered viewpoint and assessment benchmarks. To the educational system of the day (1980's), smart meant "listen, memorize, repeat". Though I was quite creative, creativity on its own was not assessed (for the most part). I was always very logical, but I did not find numbers interesting, so math was a chore (and I consequently did not do so well). Because I was asked to compete with others in sports (and I was not very athletic), I would joke around and not do well during PE class (which was all about teams, games, and competition). Thus, in either academic, athletic, or classes where creativity should be allowed, I failed in all of them.
So are we doomed to carry on this way? I do not believe so. In fact, I believe that the curricular changes and assessment pushes of the new BC Curriculum will make a world of difference. As educators, we can now stop trying to place kids where "we" want them to be in their educational standings, and instead allow them to show us what gifts, talents, and abilities "they" have been given. As teachers, we will need to follow a pattern of education that is less traditional and more adaptable. Granted, this is very scary for some teachers ("How can we begin to teach every kid differently?"), but I believe the issue is in the definition of teaching itself. For many, teaching has meant standing in front of a class of 20-30 kids who are all born in the same year and sharing our knowledge of broken up subjects in the same order and at the same time in as creative or non-creative way as we can imagine. For assessment, then, we simply ask them to reiterate what we have "taught" them. I do need to be clear here, though, as this will sound like I am beating down my own profession: what has been is not the teacher's fault. Instead, it is the by-product of being forced to "teach" students hundreds of facts per grade (for proof, add up the CO's of any old IRP, like grade 4 Social Studies, for example: there are 64 distinct points that students should know, and some of them are so specific that they can be defined as being simply trivia knowledge).
If we can instead have more of a growth mindset to our educational system and style, I believe we can begin to find out what our students are really like; we can begin to empower them, which in turn will allow them to find their talents and gifts, which will in turn begin to show us (educators and parents even) who they really are.
This will not only radically change our educational system, but will also impact a student's own self-worth, in a positive way. A growth mindset in education will effectively close the gap between students who see themselves and "smart" and those who see themselves as not. In fact, I have personally begun to question the concepts of "smart" and "dumb" - these only exist if we create benchmarks based on preconceived ideas of what it means to be smart (and so far, we have thought smart meant memorization - not so smart actually). If students can discover what they are good at and succeed at those things, they will realize that they are smart - those talents and gifts are the way they were created and we as teachers should in no way be presumptuous enough to label some gifts as good or bad. Students should go to school to "learn" about themselves and what they can contribute to the world. If this happens, then it will lower the ability to compare students against each other because they will be working on concepts and ideas for themselves.
So what do teachers do? Does this mean we throw away all the benchmarks of learning or testing? Should we just put students in a room and let them do whatever they want, with no direction or purpose other than to make themselves happy? No, that is not what I am suggesting. There are certain things that students need to know and be able to do. But it will become the teacher's job to "help" students to get there in their own way and in their own abilities. Benchmarks have become more adaptable and competency based, and students will need to know these benchmarks and hit them in their own way. This, I believe, is smart.
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