Challenging Expectations

Do things always have to stay the same? As I finished arranging a load of my daughters' belongings into my car yesterday, as she packed her apartment to start a new chapter of her life, I was struck by the number of changes that we all go through. She and I headed to my nieces house to meet her new baby girl. I remember when my daughter was born, heart tattered and broken, with a spirit that carried her through open-heart surgery.... and life! She is strong. She struggled in public school and I wonder if she would have graduated as successfully if she went to a different college? UArts met her where she was - used her passion, art, to weave history, math, science, and philosophy into her required courses. As time marches on will students thrive in classrooms with rows of desks, worksheets and outdated videos? She is lucky to have had such a rich education!

As I have pondered our public education system I read. The book, The School Reform Landscape: Fraud, Myth and Lies, by Tienken & Orlich, describes the long standing gap in philosophy of what public schools should/could be. The book looks to “examine the tensions between the need to keep a vibrant democratic and unitary system of public education and the ongoing assault by corporate and elite interests in creating a dual system of privilege and potential repression (Tienken & Orlich, preface, 2013).” More reading yields an in depth analysis of questions on the minds of many citizens and educators - and answers by pundits that, to often, are used in classrooms that are untested, unfounded, or just plain untrue about what we need to do to ‘fix’ public education. Challenging expectations is uncomfortable. Tieken and Orlich take a courageous look at the literature surrounding the continual admonishment of public education in the media, at dinner tables and during soccer games. Conversations about learning are in the hearts and minds of people who really care about our kids and our culture. I wonder then - can we really just keep doing things the same way? 

We arrived at my nieces' house - car packed with my daughters belonging. The baby was fast asleep, as any two-week old baby would be, but her brother was full of energy. Three years old, he hardly slows down so Mom, Dad, and Baby can rest. I played hard with this three year old - his imaginary ‘Hook’ running from my grasp. His head filled with vibrant images - I let him get away only to capture him again as he envisioned himself a super hero, acting out a scene he had seen or heard on the television or in a story. He spelled his name, all seven letters, with only one reversal. He played on the old iPod that his parents no longer use. He is brilliant! Not just because he in my ‘great-nephew’ - he is brilliant because he is loved. Yes, he can spell his name already and speaks using words that some adults may never use - most importantly though he is cherish, talked to, respected, honored by his family. 

As I left their house yesterday afternoon to head home I couldn’t help but think how much I love to play, it helps to teach and then we learn. My rough housing with him was one way for us both to get to know each other - to see each others brilliance. I believe that all children are brilliant - like my ‘great-nephew.’ I wondered as I drove how do we keep this brilliance alive? As this bright eyed, shining young boy heads to school with his friends and neighbors in the years ahead who will nurture this bright light? Will he and other have the opportunity to be anything he believes or may he get lost in a system caught in the way things have always been? Will parents have the energy, as they both work full-time jobs, to test the waters and question if the child is being served or will they too be passive participants, unsure of how to change what has always been? Will the children in his neighborhood have the same opportunities to experience spirited discussions of classic literature and history like his private school counterparts? Or will he read text books that are outdated before they are even printed? Will educators and others who began teaching to make a difference have the time and energy to really question, really learn, and really be able to teach our children? Or, will we be divided in a dual system?

Come talk about another way to honor the brilliance of children as we discuss Starting a School at Kirkridge on June 5, 2013 at 6:30 pm at the Hermitage.

Tienken, Christopher H., Ed.D; Orlich, Donald C. (2013-02-22). The School Reform Landscape (Kindle Locations 86-87). R&L Education. Kindle Edition.