I enjoyed the reading this week. This book is written in a very accessible way. It's like a breathmint. Leaves you feeling refreshed.
I would like to talk for a moment about Jackie's story. This is found on page 119. This is a brief story about Jackie Du Pre, who grew up to be a great cellist. She started playing at an early age and apparently completely loved it. There have been many studies over the years that say when a child is young, their brains are at their most adaptable and pick up new things easily. I have noticed myself that many gifted adults developed their gifts at a young age. The author tells the story about how excited she was at age 6 to give her first performance. She had passion and enthusiasm. I think all children have that early on, but as Ken Robinson says we send them to school which does it's best to stamp that out.
Reading between the lines, I think the reason Jackie was so happy to play that day was she didn't have any fear of failure. She was going to express herself and that was the only standard she was being held to. With so many standards we place on children these days is it no wonder they lack passion? Unless they fit into the "schoolchild" shape we make for them, they fail. This is no way to run a railroad.
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Your connection between Julie's story and Ken Robinson's talk about schools breeding creativity out of children is so true. Young children are so open and receptive. For the most part, they live without judgements and fear of failure. I think this is one of the most important skills that teachers need to help students maintain. I am still intrigued by how we decide what standards to teach at what grade levels and why certain ideas and topics are deemed more important. I look forward to transformations in the education world that accept other ways of acknowledging student accomplishment and ability rather than just standardized multiple choice tests. Thanks for reminding me to not breed creativity or passion out of any student I am fortunate enough to work with.
ReplyDeleteAndrew I agree the book is very accessible. One of the things I got out of the readings was how do we teach kids how to fail. Very often I feel many gifted students struggle with learning how to fail. I agree with you that in many ways students don’t have an opportunity to forge their own path, but do we teach students how to knock down the walls that are in front of them, or do we teach them how to complain about them? I am reminded of the recent bill that many FL teachers where upset about. They protested and even threatened to stop working, what message does this send to our students about how to deal with problems? I did not agree with the bill either, but I feel there are better ways to handle the situation. I think as teachers its our job to knock down the cookie cutter student model by shows the “powers that be” how amazing our students can be!
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