tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779735093359182402.post7821240910217358358..comments2023-10-28T01:44:19.115-05:00Comments on PRINCIPALLY SPEAKING: One and a Half Years (1.5)Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15509461960011694740noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779735093359182402.post-81071554887583451902010-04-26T12:40:56.618-05:002010-04-26T12:40:56.618-05:00I have the easier role here. I'm the agent pro...I have the easier role here. I'm the agent provocateur. You have to figure out how to please a wide range of constituencies with conflicting goals. And let's face it, what kids often need is at odds with what "the community" wants to give them, even what their parents expect them to get.<br /><br />So somehow, we need to come up with an understanding of student learning which we can express, but I don't think we can get there until we start to see "rolling evaluations" - where is the student compared to last week, last month, last year, four years ago? - what does he/she need? how will we begin to try to meet those needs?irasocolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01412837280249622430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779735093359182402.post-31704891869570047362010-04-26T12:02:37.264-05:002010-04-26T12:02:37.264-05:00Thanks for the push. My thinking continues. I love...Thanks for the push. My thinking continues. I love the idea about opening the window.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15509461960011694740noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3779735093359182402.post-64525320957657175152010-04-26T11:56:20.468-05:002010-04-26T11:56:20.468-05:00Let me challenge your thinking a bit. What does &q...Let me challenge your thinking a bit. What does "one year of learning" mean? In my life there have been moments of huge leaps, and moments of relative "calm." In some periods new information and skills pour in, in other periods those gains are consolidated, personalized, applied. In some years I learn more watching HGTV and The Food Network. In others I learn reading philosophy or by drifting more or less aimlessly through historical documents. Just last night I advised a high school student - stuck in the 21st century while trying to write historical fiction located in Roman-era Gaul, to go to sleep with his window wide open for a week or two and to try to dream his knowledge into an emotional experience. Will he learn at 1.5x the annual rate these two weeks?<br /><br />One of the things I think schools do wrong is their consistent attempt to quantify the individual human experience. We constantly - our Anglo brains calculating - seek to reduce all to the countable. I understand this is not your goal, but when we make it our method, it becomes our goal whether we want that or not.<br /><br />So to me the best teachers, the best schools give kids the opportunities and the tools to grow at the rate they need to grow at. They do not block learning by imposing time constraints, or by insisting that "this" is the time to stop learning "A" and start learning "B." They do not block learning by insisting on method over knowledge. They do not block learning by preventing kids from interacting with the world.<br /><br />I believe - absolutely - in kids' ability to learn. The problem is, that, at worst, schools stop learning. At best they only slow it down a lot. The question is, how to do we do the least damage to the learning process?irasocolhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01412837280249622430noreply@blogger.com