Today I wandered upon a video from TED Talks titled Toxic Culture of Education by a high school math teacher named Joshua Katz. If you are unfamiliar with TED Talks it is a nonprofit organization with the mission of spreading ideas across countries, cultures, languages, and topics. I have seen a variety of videos regarding education. Among a few of the topics I viewed were talks in favor of the common core, talks in adamant disapproval, and videos regarding different methods of teaching.
Katz opens his talk with the statement "Everyone is a genius, but if you judge a fish by the ability to climb a tree it will live its whole life believing it's stupid." I have seen this quote before and loved it in regard to public education. I think part of my love of this quote stems from my profession and role as a special education teacher. Students have a variety of different strengths and weaknesses, but regardless of what those strengths and weaknesses are all students are required to take the same test and perform with the same standard of achievement. It doesn't make any sense to me! As adults we are required to choose a job, but not everyone has the same job with the same requirements so why are students required to study the exact same topics and take the exact same classes. Katz was proposing to reintroduce classes such as home economics back into schools because some students need the topics taught in those classes. Some students do not need to learn how to solve huge algorithms, but need to know how to complete their taxes and budget.
He goes on to talk briefly about the Common Core and the so called "buzz" words that come with it. Words like rigor, critical thinking, and meaningful discussion. He states that what he sees in his daughter's kindergarten classroom is not rigorous, but "developmentally inappropriate rote." I could not agree more! Kindergarten students are required to perform on a level much higher than their bodies and brains are ready. I believe it is wildly inappropriate. To require a five year old to sit for long periods of time on the carpet and listen to a lesson in reading and then be expected to read books that appear much to high for a five year old seems crazy to me! I believe if more structured play was incorporated into the kindergarten classroom and maybe two recesses, yes two, there would be a lot less behavior problems and more life skills kindergarten students would learn. Katz states that when ideas such as structured play or home economics are brought to school districts as options, teacher are told they are not rigorous enough and do not align with the common core. Who said play was not rigorous for a five year old?! Much research has been done saying that a child's play is their work. More structured play would better prepare them for the life ahead of them!
Before I get any further here's the link to Katz's video. Take a little less than 18 minutes and let me know what you think! Toxic Culture of Education
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It is interesting how the blog posts I have been reading from our class relate to the topics that students explored in my last course, educational research. A kindergarten teacher explored the topic of bringing back play into the classroom. She also developed a research proposal to look at the benefits of play for kindergarteners. She teaches these young children and has concerns about a focus on some of the things you mention in your post regarding common core standards and standardized tests.
ReplyDelete