Education Experience Unlocked: Where's the Fun Gone?

In his book “The Schools Our Children Deserve”, published way back in the dark ages of 1999, Alfie Kohn suggested that our insistence on raising the standards in education were misguided. “…the current demand for tougher standards, particularly by politicians and businesspeople, carries with it a bundle of assumptions about the proper role of schools, the nature and causers of failure, and the way students learn.” (pg 14) From where I sit, nearly 25 years later, we are still here, answering the call of politicians and businesspeople. In the last blog, the concept of a system that has lost its focus was introduced, and it would be remiss to fail to articulate what SHOULD be happening for kids during their educational experience.

When I entered my internships over fifteen years ago, I was fortunate to begin in a charter school where we were free to design our instruction. The school offered a bank street philosophy of education. It was beautiful. Notice I didn’t say perfect, as things never are, however, in the infancy of my career, it allowed me to see that school should be FUN. The day began with morning meetings. The class sat together, read a daily message from me that tied to academics but was more so a call to social bonding. Student shared about their interests, their achievements, their failures and how they felt about their learning. When we read texts, kids engaged with the stories and we, of course, addressed standards, but they were hungry for it. All studies were integrated and related to authentic applications. You know, the things schools claim they are doing today, but we will discuss that in more detail in a moment. We mummified apples, created sculptures to represent Greek culture, designed displays honoring the cultures represented in the classroom. I say displays, but to be honest it was a complete room transformation led by the students based on their research. Students deeply investigated concepts and ideas through guided and independent research, hands on activities and the creation of products to truly show off their talents and their academic understanding. They frequently hosted events where they, the students, shared their learning with families, other students, and the staff. Kids were genuinely excited to come to school each day, and not just for recess and lunch!

What’s missing in today’s classrooms? Creativity, academic freedom, multidimensional approaches to learning are all non-existent, not just for students but for teachers. Often the “pendulum swing” of education is discussed and still we swing. What our kids truly need: choice, passion, and strategies. Imagine for a moment a classroom where kids can sit in ways that are comfortable for them. They need to experience learning. They need the why. They need appropriate time and place to investigate topics of interest to them. They need teachers who are genuinely interested in what they’re teaching, and not just from a subject matter standpoint. For me, I could teach every subject through Science or Social Studies without batting an eyelash. Present strategies and skills that truly help kids uncover meaning in the topic without the need for the endless worksheets and insanity that plague today’s classrooms. The starting point? What kids are interested in related to a relevant topic seems like a good spot. Provide them with a framework for learning. A way for them to strategically acquire the information they will need to find their own potential solution to problems or situations that impact them.

Seems radical, at least for what I see currently in classrooms. Feels to loosey goosey on the surface, but what we need in education is a renaissance. Renaissance is defined as a revival or a renewed interest in something. The something in this case is an interest in redefining how today’s kids learn best, what they’re interested in, and leveraging those to promote a real education. Not test taking skills, not how to sit in a chair for eight hours straight (BTW I, at 37 years old, can’t do this) and certainly not how to feel like a complete failure because the room I sit in everyday does nothing for my development as a human being. The wild child inside of me says that if the task were easy, everyone would do it. It’s not that it’s easy, it’s that it’s simple.

To truly shape education to fit the needs of students requires effort and work. It requires a willingness to communicate openly and honestly with all stakeholders. Currently, and I’ll just speak for myself, it seems education is most concerned with a test that measures student ability to take said test. We have lost sight of assessing actual student ability. Even constructs we are familiar with from our own education are due for a revival. SAT and ACT scores are more relevant today than they were for previous generations, but do people stop to think about what those tests are actually designed to do? They are purposefully designed to rank kids against one another. Questions that too many kids get right are thrown out. Questions missed by too many are also thrown out. So how do we provide kids with these opportunities to demonstrate their strengths? Where do these opportunities come from? Well crafted educational plans, if you ask me.

So, all that’s great, but what’s the point? If you weren’t thinking this already, you likely are now. The point is this, as Alfie pointed out in 1999, kids deserve better. In order to get them what they deserve, we must not set aside our differences, but rather utilize them. I do not know everything, not even close. I am no overly qualified expert. If you know me personally then you already know that I am about addressing common goals through collaboration and ingenuity. This is where you come in. What do you see? What’s your child’s experience been like? Is it okay or better than okay? If you aren’t happy, what would you desire for your child’s (and let’s face it, your) current experiences in education? How can we, the parents of today’s students, join together and get what we really want? The visual in my mind is the scene in Finding Nemo where Nemo saved Dory from the fish net. Those individual fish weren’t strong enough to change the direction of the net, but together they reached freedom. So, this is the call to action. Let’s join together and make changes happen. Our kids are worth it.