What Are We Doing To Our Children?
Let’s think about how we as adults set and reach a goal. If adults are trying to reach a goal, and there was a devastating or impactful event in their lives, the recommendation would be to pause, take a step back and re-calibrate. For example, if I were striving to run for 5 miles, and during my training, I twisted my ankle, I would not expect to maintain the same trajectory towards that goal. Once my ankle healed, I would need to recalibrate and start from there.
What’s happening to our teachers and children in the public school system is quite different. They’ve lived through and continue to navigate a global pandemic and yet we are continually trying to push them to reach the goals that were set prior to the pandemic. We know that what happened during the time our children spent at home varied greatly. In many households children were left to fend for themselves while parents tried to juggle work and home life.
Our teachers are having to deal with wider ranges of development than ever before and we are trying to do the same thing we’ve always done. Why are we doing this? Why are we doing this to our children and to our teachers? Teacher burnout is real. If we continue pushing unrealistic expectations and prevent teachers from utilizing their expertise to meet children where they are and teach them, the vacancies in schools will continue to grow. Statistics show that the mental health needs of our children are higher than they ever have been in the past. According to the CDC, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 14.
What do we know about pushing someone towards goals that are unrealistic? What do we know about teaching and learning? We know there is a progression and that if we teach to far above or below that zone of proximal development learning will not occur. Teaching way above a child’s development level will lead to feelings of inadequacy and disengagement for a child. Teaching to far below a level of a child leads to apathy and disengagement. Why then do we continue with this standardized approach to learning. There is nothing standard about how anyone learns.
What are the goals that we set for ourselves? We know about SMART targets. The “a” in SMART is attainable. Expecting ALL children to reach grade level standards at the same time is nothing less than absurd.
Why are we setting our teachers and students up for ongoing stress that is not going to support learning? Grade level standards need to be flexible and teachers need the professional autonomy to do what’s in the best interest of children, not be mandated to stick to the standardized curriculum when in many cases it’s just not working.
It’s time to pause, take a step back and re-calibrate our approach to public school. Every child that walks through those doors deserves a high-quality education. Every child that walks through the doors of a public school is unique. Why then do we continually try to fit these unique amazing young people into a box of predetermined, skills and standards? Why aren’t we taking the child from where they are allowing them to lead their learning? Why aren’t we supporting them as facilitators?
Current brain research opens our eyes to the conditions necessary for efficient and effective learning. What does that look like? It looks like active engagement. It looks like joy. It looks like relevance and a high level of interest. If we are not incorporating that into our public schools, we are going to continue to lose students in droves.
As part of the AASA Advancing Rural Schools cohort, I recently learned about the Wilder school district in Wilder, Idaho. This district has partnered with CEN, Collegiate Edu-Nation, a network of high performing rural school districts that have transformed teaching and learning.
I have yet to visit the school district, but from what I understand students engage in a personalized learning pathway and have taken charge of their learning. The expertise of teachers is critical in this process because they are supporters and facilitators of learning. This model is what we need to take kids into their future; A personalized approach to learning where students are in the driver’s seat. Is this easy? Of course not, but don’t our children deserve the best that we can offer?