When it isn’t about the end result ...
I recently embarked on a journey into the field of education. This blog is about that journey, past experiences, present experiences and valuable tools that I hope I’ll learn in the process. Since, I am not an educator my experiences are centered around my children and as a result they will be the central theme of this blog. Sometimes I contemplate and sometimes I rant, I hope more of the former then the latter.
I have three children that learn differently, act differently, and have different skills and strengths and yet one of the things they all have in common is their distaste for school and especially homework. I never considered this to be unique to my family and yet it was still somewhat perplexing. We have a family that values education, we discuss topics to try and engage their critical thinking, watch educational programming, read educational books, talk about the value of education and yet they don’t like the process of being educated. Why? What could I have done differently to change their perception of education?
I have a friend who has three straight “A” students that came home from school and did their homework on their own without debate. They were accepted into good colleges and continued to do well on their own without parental supervision. I, on the other hand, have tried punishment, rewards, reinforcement, active engagement, in school participation and yet it would have been easier to pull a tooth from a mountain lion than to get my kids to willingly sit down to do their homework. My most effective technique was to tell them that if they really didn’t have any homework they could write me an essay, the topic of my choice, to fill up their “homework” time. It is amazing how quickly they suddenly remembered the homework they had. To get them to come home and do their homework on their own was something I didn’t even think was possible and yet here my friend was with her three perfect children that absorbed knowledge like a sponge ... willingly! Where had I gone wrong? I had to ask her what incredible parenting technique she’d utilized that I’d somehow missed. She said that she didn’t know what she’d done other than to reinforce the value of learning over the end result. In other words, her children were not expected to get good grades, they were expected to go to school and learn, and the outcome of that philosophy was that her children got good grades. My children did too, for the most part, but the willingness to learn simply wasn’t there. This made me realize that despite the fact that I love to learn and believe I effectively model that to my children, that somehow I’d completely missed the boat on the purpose of their education. My youngest son was in kindergarten when I had this conversation with my friend and I have heavily relied on this idea. It is literally in the forefront of my mind in any conversation that I have with my him regarding education. He is now in seventh grade. This idea was a complete paradigm shift in my thinking and although I have modeled this technique with my youngest son in ways I never did with my two older children I still find it difficult to remain calm when a bad grade pops up on powerschool, which I check daily. Why, when I love to learn and place great value in knowledge, is my only assessment of my student’s progress centered around an A-F scale determined, for the most part, not by knowledge, but by his ability to memorize and recite facts?
This question leads me to wonder if other parents, unwittingly, are also basing their child’s entire learning experience on the grades they bring home. If so, what effect is that having on our children and how do we change this “end result” theory of learning? Will the introduction of technology in the classroom be a solution? Not as the end result but as a shift in the way in which we learn. In a digital environment where memorization is no longer valued or needed but the ability to acquire new knowledge is, how will that change the assessments and our value system towards education and the process of learning?
I don’t know the answers and maybe I’m an anomaly and the answers to those questions are going to be entirely self-serving. Whatever the case, I do hope to gain some knowledge, insight and understanding through this journey, and to learn to enjoy the journey, regardless of the end result.
I look forward to seeing your thoughts and processes through the journey. Great to have you on board for all this. I echo your concerns about the A-F thing... very frustrating. No mention of creativity in most places either!
ReplyDeleteAmy, I'm glad we're all in this together! I have one kid that willingingly does homework and one that doesn't see the value in learning to read (yet). We haven't even gotten to "real" homework, so this greatly concerns me. I remind myself that the end result is not the grades, but the absorption and practical use of the knowledge our children gain in school. Yes, the grades are nice. But why couldn't that cashier I encountered 2 weeks ago make change from $40 without checking with the supervisor - across the parking lot?
ReplyDeleteI'll have to remember that essay trick for the future!
Hey Amy,
ReplyDeleteI think that a really good parallel to this thought is that it is pretty easy to get an 'A' and learn nothing. But that A is hollow and doesn't last, and it will catch up to us as learners in the long run when we aren't able to recall prerequisite knowledge for further classes. With the focus on learning instead of grades, gaining the A would simply be achieved by completing the tasks, and if the learning is there it allows us to succeed in thef uture as well.
Awesome post.
The elementary school I went to in Valencia, didn't use an A-F scale, in an attempt to move away from the focus on grades. Instead they awarded an H for High Quality, S for satisfactory, and N for Needs Improvement. So it was still a scale of sorts, but wasn't the same as most schools. I was too young to really appreciate what they were trying to do, and I really can't say how successful it was. What I do know, is that it was a very good school. I was constantly challenged by the curriculum there, whereas when I moved to Fresno and went to Starr, I was bored in school a good amount of the time. The other thing that school did, that I didn't see at Starr, was group kids together based on ability. So we would actually go to different teachers throughout the day, just like older grades generally do. One teacher would have the advanced math class, while another would have the normal math class. Of course this was all transparent to the students; we didn't know that one class was advanced and one class wasn't. The only way I found out was when I was moved mid term from the normal class to the advanced class, and all of the sudden the work was much more challenging.
ReplyDelete