Monday, August 26, 2013

10 things we need to remove from education

1). Traditional bell systems that tell students when to learn and stop learning... learning doesn't just exist in between the ringing of bells.

2). Schools that block and filter the internet... the world doesn't filter and block and we're preparing students for the 'real world' right?

3). Educator evaluation systems that focus on blaming educators for poor student success... pointing fingers is never going to get us where we need to be.

http://goo.gl/jgk3Bj
4). Schools that don't value relationships over standardized test scores... a caring adult can save a kid's life, a standardized test score can't and won't.

5). Policies that forbid and punish students for hugging and holding hands... when did the most basic functions of human interactions become socially unacceptable? 

6). Schools that don't make a concerted effort to ensure that every kid gets warm food in their belly every single day... I can barely function when I'm hungry, so I'm quite sure our students aren't much different.

7). The mindset that if we put a laptop or tablet in front of every single student they will automatically be more successful... writing a paper on a laptop is no different than writing a paper on paper.

8). Schools that believe educators are the only ones with knowledge and information worthy or sharing in the educational setting... we live in a time when the students are more knowledgeable than ever. Shame on us if we don't embrace and take advantage of it.

9). Thinking that mounds of data and information are going to solve all of our educational woes... being data driven is one thing. Being driven by data is something completely different. If you don't change anything, you aren't data driven.
 
10). The negativity surrounding the value of public education and the slow erosion of free education for the masses... as soon as we fail to see the value and extreme importance of free public education, we will slowly begin to see that our current societal problems will pale in comparison.

**I love education and I love being an educator. It's my hope this blog post can be used as a springboard to getting more and more educators to reflect and hopefully in turn improve education. If you spend a few moments thinking about something you read here, then I was successful with my post.