Tuesday, July 26, 2016

Great Minds Think Differently

All minds think.  Unfortunately, our current educational system is encouraging convergent thinking. This type of thinking in and of itself is not a bad thing. But neither is it something to celebrate just because it makes us comfortable.
Listen to questions teachers ask. Some teacher responses are fairly blatant.   "No that is not what I was thinking" says the teacher who doesn't just want convergent thinking but mind reading as well.  Or the teacher who asks what a character in a book might be thinking and then "guides" the students until they come up with the "right " answer. Unless the author has told the reader what a character is thinking the answer to the question should be wide open as long as it fits with the story. But unfortunately many teachers do not see the situation that way. It is not at all unusual for teachers to ask what appears to be an open ended essay question but the teacher has already "taught" the answer and expects the student to repeat in narrative format. So there still has not been any divergent thinking.
How often have you heard a teacher ask a social studies class "how do you think this war could have been averted?"  And then accept all answers that are on point. Or ask a math class if a student can come up with another way to solve the problem other than the traditional one.
Many people think differently. This situation is particularly true of some people with disabilities particularly those on the autism spectrum.  These individuals often have a unique perspective on the world to which we should listen. All great advancements have been made by people who see the world differently. These are people who know if we expect different results we need to behave differently.
We expect today's students to create a better world. It is the expectation we have always had for all students. They cannot be expected to fulfill that expectation unless we not only encourage but reward thinking differently.
The impossible becomes possible only when we think differently and expect the possible.  

Monday, July 25, 2016

Is there a cure for hate?

Is there a cure for hate?
Surely these are not the best of times but neither are these the worst of times. Half of the people during the Middle Ages did not live to adulthood. During WW II, the last good war, 60 million people were killed .  All things being relative, we need to find a cure for hate. 
When I was younger I was sure hate and bigotry were a disease of the under educated. Once every one had at least a high school education all would be well .
Turns out it is not that easy.  
My mother-in-law held very ignorant views about African Americans. She worked with several African Americans and even regularly had dinner with one woman in particular. This experience along with several other positive experiences did nothing to loosen her grip on bigotry.  
So based on my experience it appears neither education nor personal experience helps. 
Recently I was in Liverpool England. It happened to be graduation day for the University of Liverpool. They run three trimesters and this event was the graduation for the third trimester.  The young people were walking all through town in their academic robes.  I stopped to chat with one young woman whose blue trimmed hood told me she had studied to be a teacher.  I asked her about her future and expectations.  She was well aware of the terror in the world.  She had studied science.  Her plan was to continue schooling.  She wanted to do research. She carefully explained to me that research is very difficult endeavor and if you are going to do great things you cannot allow yourself to be held back by not including everyone who can help you.  She felt it was hugely helpful that the University of Liverpool had such a diverse student body and staff.  So maybe the answer is not just more education but education with people who are different from ourselves.
I think working together to solve a problem that matters is significant as well. 
Certainly the intense dislike of someone just because the skin tone and/or religious beliefs are different from ours is clearly a problem we all need to work together to solve. Particularly when there are so many substantive reasons to dislike people why do we pick on those. 
So maybe we can find a cure for hate, we found a cure for other crippling diseases such as polio. 

Saturday, July 9, 2016

Celebrating Stupidity

Celebrating Stupidity

Reality TV simply celebrates stupidity.  As an educator why do I care?  It is bad enough when celebrities whether sports figures, music makers or acting types make poor choices repeatedly with their lives.  We can try to explain those bad choices away to our kids by telling them these people just have more money than they know what to do with so they commit bad acts to be able to spend that money on bail, lawyers and PR staff who can re-frame the happening for the rest of us.
But what do we tell our kids about reality TV?  These are supposed to be ordinary people who are opening their lives to millions displaying ignorant behaviors and ridiculously poor language skills.  Yet they are getting lots of notoriety. Adolescents who equate notoriety with something good see all that. They can easily think these are positive behaviors- hey they get you on TV!  And to make matters worse, there is a preponderance of African-Americans on these shows who seem to know a very limited number of words that exceed four letters.  Advocacy groups need to get on that and demand that demonstrations of stupidity on reality shows be spread across all groups in proportion to their presence in our society.  After all, we argue that good stuff should be equitably distributed according to demographics, why not displays of stupidity.  Really have you ever watched these shows?  It is amazing these people can function in society given their poor choice of behaviors.
One solution to the problem would be to institute a ratings system for TV.  Shows that celebrate ignorance and poor choice of behaviors need to be aired after midnight so they can entertain the insomniacs.  It is not appropriate for them to be shown on prime time.  At a minimum they should be shown during school hours when the kids are trying to learn to avoid these kinds of behaviors and are otherwise occupied. 
It is summer and most schools are closed.  We all know that kids lose learning during those long months of no schooling.  Hopefully they are enjoying opportunities to be creative, explore the outdoors, and have new experiences.  I am sure if research were done, excessive exposure to these shows would be shown to damage our cognitive abilities.  The surfeit of bad behavior, terrible choices and worse language on these shows is enough to make a video game be a positive choice for a nice summer afternoon.