I read this article a few years ago. It pretty much sums up what I believe elementary education should be about. While my own elementary education was far from traditional, I opted to begin my teaching career in public school. Silly me, I totally took for granted the fact that education was to prepare students to be thinking, feeling human beings. Quickly I realized that I was so, so wrong! My first clue? The chant at school assembly the first day, sung to the tune of "Y.M.C.A.":
It's fun to ta-ake the I-T-B-S
It's fun to take the I-T-B eh-eS
Sharpen the pencil
Take a seat
Fill in the bubble
it's so so neat...
The ITBS being the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, just one of the many standardized tests we were forced to give the students. So out of the window went my thinking, feeling little sweeties, in the classroom we were teaching to the test automatons. "But wait, some of my students are non-verbal/non-readers/highly anxious/over-reactive/under-reactive to sensory stimuli/not fully potty trained/unable to self regulate/can't hold a pencil...etc..." I said to anyone who would listen, "Do they really need to memorize a bunch of facts in order to take this test? Oh, yes, I was told. They did.
I stuck around public school for much longer than I should have, thinking maybe I could change the system (silly, silly me!). The longer I work here at Hirsch and within the DIR community at large, the strong my beliefs become about what school should and should not be. And not just for our population, but for all children.
Wish ALL schools would read this. THIS is why I believe students at Hirsch are being prepared for "higher learning"... more than many students in "traditional" schools today.
This sums it up for me:
Simply put, what children need to do in elementary school is not to cram for high school or college, but to develop ways of thinking and behaving that will lead to valuable knowledge and skills later on.
You can teach anyone to take a test. You can teach anyone to fill in bubbles with a number 2 pencil. You can teach anyone to memorize the multiplication tables, increase their reading words per minute, spell every spelling pattern known to man, diagram a sentence, and write in the most beautiful darn cursive you ever did see. Not that some of these skills aren't important (well, except for diagramming sentences. Some please explain that one to me), but not one of them is as crucial for an elementary school aged child as the ability to think and the ability to get along with other people. Those other skills? They'll come. Or maybe they won't, but that's what calculators and computers are for. But without friends, a child can't truly be a child. Without really being able to think, regurgitating your multiplication tables amounts to nothing but a bunch of meaningless numbers.
Here are some choice nuggets from the article:
In this classroom, children would spend two hours each day hearing stories read aloud, reading aloud themselves, telling stories to one another and reading on their own. After all, the first step to literacy is simply being immersed, through conversation and storytelling, in a reading environment; the second is to read a lot and often. A school day where every child is given ample opportunities to read and discuss books would give teachers more time to help those students who need more instruction in order to become good readers.
Yes! Fairy Tale/Myth Curriculum! We are a community of readers. We share a common bond, a common understanding.
Children would also spend an hour a day writing things that have actual meaning to them — stories, newspaper articles, captions for cartoons, letters to one another. People write best when they use writing to think and to communicate, rather than to get a good grade.
Yes! Check out the notes out downstairs neighbors have left us! Read our journals! Read our daily reflections!
In our theoretical classroom, children would also spend a short period of time each day practicing computation — adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Once children are proficient in those basics they would be free to turn to other activities that are equally essential for math and science: devising original experiments, observing the natural world and counting things, whether they be words, events or people. These are all activities children naturally love, if given a chance to do them in a genuine way.
Yes! Does your child know that 7X7=49? Great. But given a bag of 49 candies and 7 hungry, sugar- loving friends, what would they do?
Along the way, teachers should spend time each day having sustained conversations with small groups of children. Such conversations give children a chance to support their views with evidence, change their minds and use questions as a way to learn more.
Snack time, lunch time, show and tell, recess. These are moments of deep, learning opportunities. We milk them for all they are worth. "Why do you feel this way?" " Do you agree?" " Look! you have this in common!"" You disagree, what is a polite way to let him know?""He disagrees with you. Does that mean he's not your friend?" "That makes your friends have uncomfortable thoughts. Why? What can you do to change this?"
During the school day, there should be extended time for play. Research has shown unequivocally that children learn best when they are interested in the material or activity they are learning. Play — from building contraptions to enacting stories to inventing games — can allow children to satisfy their curiosity about the things that interest them in their own way. It can also help them acquire higher-order thinking skills, like generating testable hypotheses, imagining situations from someone else’s perspective and thinking of alternate solutions.
Yes, yes, yes! By now you've probably heard a little bit about this thing called Floortime...
A classroom like this would provide lots of time for children to learn to collaborate with one another, a skill easily as important as math or reading. It takes time and guidance to learn how to get along, to listen to one another and to cooperate. These skills cannot be picked up casually at the corners of the day.
Think about what you, as adults, do every day. Collaborate, negotiate, cooperate, listen. And these are not easy skills, not for anyone. They take practice, guidance, a loving, patient, judgement free environment.
I know, right? This article is preaching to the choir. You wouldn't be here if you didn't know that these skills are more important than any other academic or non academic skill.
Just wanted to remind all of us, including myself, that we are on the right track. We are working on some really, really good things at Hirsch.
And here's the proof, right here in these beautiful little souls! Behold some pictures from this week:
No, I didn't make that candy division problem up. With leftover Valentine's Day goodies, I challenged the students to figure out how to divide it evenly between them. They also predicted which color would show up the most, and which the least. After dividing and sorting by color, they graphed their findings and compared.
After reading the book "How Much is a Million?" these students were inspired to write some REALLY BIG numbers:
Scenes from yoga on Thursday:
Making "worms" in science:
Weight investigation: Which one weighs more? How much do you think the bag weighs?
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| Bag of gravel or... |
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| 5 pound medicine ball? |
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| Testing the ball |
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| Testing the bag |
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| Weight predictions |
Long term art/math projects: Making our own wall calendars based on our interests.
We're going to begin making personal time lines in the next few weeks. Please send in some info about your child's life as soon as possible.
Suggestions:
Date, time, length, weight at birth
Major life events (ie: baby brother is born, moved to new house)
Firsts: . (ie..first step, fist word, first school, first plane ride...)
Pictures! Baby/toddler/through today. You can send them in and I will copy and return them, or you can email them to me.
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