Awhile back I saw an incredible image a friend posted on Facebook. It was short, sweet and to the point- a point that has apparently escaped the "great" leaders of our nation. The image was a side-by-side comparison of how and why Finland dominates the international educational charts while the United States continues to fall flat on its face. There were two columns. On one side it listed the culture and policies related to Finnish education (all strikingly similar to the other Scandinavian counties that accompany Finland as dominant educational nations). On the other side, the culture and policies related to American education. The two columns were the exact opposite in each and every regard. It was startling to say the least. How in the world can we look at a model of true success, do everything the exact opposite, then throw our hands up in outrage when things turn out quite literally the exact opposite?!
As the American government is doing its best to destroy public education in the United States, everyone who is anyone in education has acknowledged the differences between the high scoring and successful counties such as the Scandinavian nations and our own system. No need to Google it, I'll share many examples, starting with my favorite educational advocate Diane Ravitch, who wrote a wonderful piece titled Schools We Can Envy that eloquently highlights the differences between Finnish and American education while introducing Finnish educational expert Pasi Sahlberg, author of the book Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland? Similar articles abound, like this one titled How the Finnish School System Outshines U.S. Education by Stephen Tung or this easy to read slideshow titled Finland's Education System: 10 Surprising Facts That Americans Shouldn't Ignore compiled by Andrew Freeman.
It just seems obvious. We are doing it all wrong, yet expecting to outshine the nations that are doing it all right. It reminds me of the Albert Einstein quote about insanity. "Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Clearly our educational reforms aren't propelling us any closer to Finland or its Scandinavian counterparts that we so desperately desire to out-perform, yet here we are with another administration forcing the exact same educational policies masquerading under a different name. No Child Left Behind. Race to the Top. But statistics don't lie. We're falling farther and farther behind. All of America's children were "left behind". And when you make education a competition as everything in America seems to be- you'll soon find that we're all losing the "race".
I want to jump on the "Look at Finland!" bandwagon too. And I will. In just a moment. But I always try to look at both sides of a story before I jump on board. Which is why in all the research I have done on America vs. Finland, my favorite piece is titled What the U.S. Can't Learn From Finland About Education Reform. I must also stop to say this. I am not a teacher. I know a lot about teaching and what goes on in our schools. I was raised by two public school teachers and am the wife of a public school teacher. But I am not a teacher myself- I was not formally educated to be a teacher nor have I spent a single day standing in front of a class full of children. I am a mother. Not the suburban white kind that Arne Duncan loves so much, though I am suburban and white. I am an educated mother. I am formally educated in child development and child psychology. I have a deep and thorough understanding of how children learn- from their earliest days through their earliest school years as well as from a micro and macro prospective. I have also been educated by my own sons. For the last four years, I have seen everything I have ever studied unfold before my very eyes. I have seen everything from the positive effects of a healthy meal and a good night's sleep to the way young children grapple with concepts like numbers and phonics. I know from experience that children, even our youngest children, understand what is happening around them- the social influences and the culture and the expectations placed on them by their families and by society- and that such things affect their every day behavior and their evolving approaches to life in general. And this is why I must pause before jumping on the Finland bandwagon.
Yes, classrooms and schools in Finland look very different than ours here in the United States. Students in Finland have four hours per day of direct instruction. They have 60 to 75 minutes of recess a day, usually 15 minutes after each instructional lesson. Their class sizes are often less than 20 students per teacher. They take very, very few- if any- standardized tests. By nine years old, Finnish students are learning a second language. By eleven, they are learning a third. And by thirteen, many are learning a fourth. Teachers are given up to two hours per day for planning and curriculum development- as they are responsible for designing their own curriculum with the freedom to teach how they choose. And yes- those things are partly responsible for the educational success in Finland. But not wholly. And that is why it is not enough to say that such "simple" changes to align our US schools to more closely resemble the classrooms of Finland will rocket us to the front of the educational race.
Because here is the problem with educational policy. Education is not impacted by educational policy as much as our government wants to think it is. Here in the US, educational policy is merely a Band-Aid attempting to cover the larger problem. This is why even an exact replica of a Finnish school would fail here in the US. The difference in Finnish educational success lies not in its educational policies or direct practices in the classroom. It lies in the general culture of the country. And here is where I will finally board "Look at Finland" bandwagon.
Finland was founded on equality. Not equality among rich white men, but equality in the truest sense of the word. Men and woman are, and have always been, considered equal. And Finland is a shining example of how welfare works for a country. The Finnish care about all of their people, as is evidenced by the many policies ranging from health care to maternity leave to education. Finland has very, very little poverty. They have a startling low infant mortality rate, high quality universal health care, equal access to the highest quality child care and schools, and with 75 to 80 percent of Finnish workers being union members, they enjoy job security as well as safety and happiness in the workplace. It's no wonder that Finland is continuously ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world.
But here is my biggest sticking point. Respect. The reason Finnish students are the most successful in the world is respect. Respect for mothers. Respect for children. Respect for development. Respect for teachers. In Finland, a mother is given four months of paid maternity leave when her child is born. Four months. Paid. At the end of those four months, both parents are given an additional 158 days of shared parental leave at partial pay (upwards of 70%). This means that the parents- both mother AND father- can choose from any combination of ways that they can each spend time staying at home and raising their children during the most critical first year. After the 158 days of shared, partial-pay parental leave, the parents have the option to remain home with their children until age three- unpaid but with guaranteed job security. Nearly 70% of Finnish families utilize this parental leave policy. For those who can't or choose not to, there is equal access to the highest quality childcare at heavily subsidized rates. The bottom line? In Finland, raising one's children is respectable. They recognize the importance of the bond a child has with his or her parents- both mother and father- and that the parent/child relationship and the learning that occurs in the first three years of life are critical for that child's success as a human being. Here, we have little to no respect for such things. America is one of only eight- EIGHT- countries of the 188 countries known to have parental leave policies to offer NO paid parental leave. Even the poorest nations in the world have more respect for what it means to raise one's own children than we have here in the greatest nation in the world.
Finland also respects the natural course of child development. Kids are allowed to be kids. Kids are allowed to play. In Finland, preschool starts at age 5 and it is 100% play based. Children as young as one year old spend an average of 3 hours playing outside, even in the frigid Finnish winters. Formal schooling- actual academic work- doesn't start until age 7. Yet in their first year of formal schooling, nearly all Finnish children learn to read. Why? Because they are developmentally ready. When schooling follows and compliments the natural development of children, it is going to be successful. When it flies in the face of everything we know about natural development, it is going to fail- with grave consequences for all involved. Except of course those making such ridiculous policies and raking in the big bucks for doing so.
Lastly, Finland's respect for teachers is paramount to their overall success. Many have claimed that Finland's teachers earn salaries equivalent to that of its doctors. This is not true. Finland's teachers earn a salary equivalent to that of US teachers and slightly lower that that of other European countries. But they are respected like doctors. In fact, in Finland, it is harder to get into primary education school than it is into medical school. To teach in Finland, one must receive a three year master's degree. Getting into one of these programs, fully subsidized by the government, is quite difficult. To begin with, one must be in the top 10% of their college class. Next one must be observed teaching. Only those who show true promise will be invited to continue their education. In 2010, there were 600 open spots in Finnish master's programs for teachers. 6,600 applied. People in Finland want to be teachers. Only the best are allowed to become them. With such an "evaluation" system in place for those entering the profession, there is little need to evaluate teachers in the classroom. Instead, there is a culture of faith in those who are entrusted to teach Finnish youth. Here, there is a culture of doubt. Our government truly believes that few of our teachers are even remotely qualified to teach our children- and their solution is to replace them with those even less qualified. It's no wonder our children are not succeeding.
At this point I'm sure the critics are crying out "But their taxes are ridiculous!!!!" Yes. Yes, they are. And to those living in Finland and other Scandinavian countries, that is okay. How on earth could anyone be happy with the highest taxes in the world you ask? Because their needs are met. Because their basic needs in life are paid for by those taxes. And because the Finnish seem to understand that basic needs including safety, security, health, and education are more important than buying things. The average household income in Finland is much lower than we see here in the US. "They don't get to buy as much stuff," explains Olga Kakhazan of The Atlantic. Here in the US, buying symbols of status and spending frivolously have become more important to us than what really matters. Yet we are outraged when we see finally step back and see that what really matters has suffered gravely.
So now I'm ready to shout LOOK AT FINLAND!!!! But we must look at more than their education system. Certainly, we should look at their schools. In an interview with Stephen Tung of the Stanford Report, Finnish educational expert Pasi Sahlberg was quoted as saying "No high performing nation in the world has been successful using the policies that the U.S. is using." Certainly our educational reform should take note of that. But it is more than just Finland's educational policy we should be taking note of. It is their culture- the values embedded deep within its people and its government. We can't expect to replicate or even come close to Finland's educational success if we don't respect equality. If we don't respect the right of a mother and father to raise their children, giving them the time and security to nurture those critical early years. If we don't respect the children themselves. If we don't respect ourselves as human beings.
Finland does all of these things. We do the exact opposite. And so long as we do- so long as we let our system of inequality prevail, so long as we perpetuate the idea that those with no actual interest in the well-being of our youth and families are allowed to make the policies and cultural shifts that affect the future of our country- we will fail. Our families will fail. Our children will fail. And ultimately our country will fail. No educational policy will save us. While our government wants us to think that education is the problem- that teachers themselves are the problem- it is not. The problem exists long before any five year old steps foot into a kindergarten classroom. The problem is that we are a nation of greed. Of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. We are a nation of politicians. Of elected officials laying in bed with giant corporations and foundations. We are a nation that lacks basic respect for its citizens. We are a nation in need of much more than educational reform. We are a nation that certainly needs to take a long hard look at Finland. There is much to learn about the value of human life- and in that we may begin to understand how to save education as well.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
repost of A Ridiculous Common Core Test for First Graders
I love Carol Burris.
Original article written by Valerie Strauss on October 31, 2013 and posted by the Washington Post at: A Ridiculous Common Common Core Test for First Graders
By Valerie Strauss
Why are some kids crying when they do homework these days? Here’s why, from award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York. Burris has for more than a year chronicled on this blog the many problems with the test-driven reform in New York (here, and here and here and here, for example). She was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in 2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. She is the co-author of the New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers by student test scores. It has been signed by more than 1,535 New York principals and more than 6,500 teachers, parents, professors, administrators and citizens. You can read the letter by clicking here.
By Carol Burris
My speech teacher came to see me. She was both angry and distraught. In her hand was her 6-year-old’s math test. On the top of it was written, “Topic 2, 45%”. On the bottom, were the words, “Copyright @ Pearson Education.” After I got over my horror that a first-grader would take a multiple-choice test with a percent-based grade, I started to look at the questions.
The test provides insight into why New York State parents are up in arms about testing and the Common Core. With mom’s permission, I posted the test here. Take a look at question No. 1, which shows students five pennies, under which it says “part I know,” and then a full coffee cup labeled with a “6″ and, under it, the word, “Whole.” Students are asked to find “the missing part” from a list of four numbers. My assistant principal for mathematics was not sure what the question was asking. How could pennies be a part of a cup?
Then there is Question No. 12. Would (or should) a 6 year old understand the question, “Which is a related subtraction sentence?” My nephew’s wife, who teaches Calculus, was stumped by that one. Finally, think about the level of sophistication required to answer the multiple-choice question in No. 8 which asks students to “Circle the number sentence that is true” from a list of four.
Keep in mind that many New York State first graders are still 5 years old at the beginning of October, when this test was given.
It is easy to point fingers at the teacher or school for giving the test, or to point fingers at Pearson for creating it. The problem, however, goes much deeper. The problem (no pun intended) is at the core.
Question 1 on the first-grade test is based on the New York Common Core Standard, 1.OA4 Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem. Question 12 tests standard 1.OA6, which requires students to use the relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems. Question 8 assesses Standard 1.OA 7 which requires students to determine whether addition or subtraction sentences are true or false. You can find the New York Common Core standards here.
This Pearson first-grade unit test is the realization of the New York Common Core math standards. Pearson knows how the questions will be asked on the New York State tests, because they, of course, create them. Certainly, districts buy Pearson materials in the hope of preparing their students for the tests that will evaluate teachers, principals, students and the school itself.
Part of the problem with the rushed implementation of this reform is that there was never sufficient opportunity for schools to carefully examine and critique the standards themselves. In the field, it has been “whack a mole” as districts implement evaluation systems, testing and data driven networks while wading through thousands of pages of modules.
Are the standards reasonable, appropriate and developmentally sound—especially for our youngest learners? In order to answer that question, it is important to understand how the early primary standards were determined. If you read Commissioner John King’s Powerpoint slide 18, which can be found here, you see that the Common Core standards were “backmapped” from a description of 12th grade college-ready skills. There is no evidence that early childhood experts were consulted to ensure that the standards were appropriate for young learners. Every parent knows that their kids do not develop according to a “back map”—young children develop through a complex interaction of biology and experience that is unique to the child and which cannot be rushed.
We also know that the standards were internationally benchmarked. We are told continually that we are “falling behind.” Yet the age at which students begin school varies from nation to nation.
In the United States, students begin Grade 1 at the age of 5 or 6.
In Finland, students begin Grade 1 at age 7.
In Singapore, students begin Grade 1 at age 7 after two years of kindergarten.
This is not an argument for starting school at a later age. Canadian students also begin first-grade at age 6. But we must recognize, especially given that Singapore’s standards were used to develop the Common Core, that we are asking our young children to engage in intellectual tasks for which they may not be developmentally ready.
Finally, let’s do a quick comparison of the standards of the Common Core and those of high-performing Finland. You can find the math curriculum of Finland here ( beginning on page 158). You can find the New York Common Core standards for math here.
Notice that the first Finnish math objective incorporates the importance of students deriving satisfaction and pleasure from problem solving. In contrast, the Common Core does not speak of enjoyment but rather “a habitual inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own efficacy.”
The Finnish “description of good performance at the end of second grade” (there are no kindergarten or first-grade standards) can best be described as topical, open-ended and descriptive, thus allowing teachers to differentiate while working with tasks such as geometry or measurement. In contrast, the Common Core standards are behavioral and prescriptive such as, second-grade standard: 2MD9.
I am amused by all of the politicians and bureaucrats who love the Common Core and see it as the salvation of our nation. I suspect they are supporting standards that they have never studied. I wonder if they have ever read the details that ask first-graders to “compose and decompose plane and solid figures” and “to determine if equations of addition or subtraction are true or false.” It is likely that much of the support for the Common Core is based on the ideal that we should have national standards that are challenging, yet the devil in the detail is ignored.
When one actually examines the standards and the tests like the sample I provided, it quickly becomes apparent why young students are crying when they do their homework and telling their parents they do not want to go to school. Many New York children are simply not developmentally ready to do the work. Much of the work is confusing. When you add the pressure under which teachers find themselves to quickly implement the standards and prepare students for standardized testing, it becomes clear why New York parents are expressing outrage at forums across the state.
It is time for New York State to heed, at the very least, the New York State United Teachers’ call for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing, thus providing time for New York to re-examine its reforms, and change course. New York, sadly, has been a canary in the Common Core coal mine, and if we do not heed the danger a generation of students will be lost.
Original article written by Valerie Strauss on October 31, 2013 and posted by the Washington Post at: A Ridiculous Common Common Core Test for First Graders
By Valerie Strauss
Why are some kids crying when they do homework these days? Here’s why, from award-winning Principal Carol Burris of South Side High School in New York. Burris has for more than a year chronicled on this blog the many problems with the test-driven reform in New York (here, and here and here and here, for example). She was named New York’s 2013 High School Principal of the Year by the School Administrators Association of New York and the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and in 2010, tapped as the 2010 New York State Outstanding Educator by the School Administrators Association of New York State. She is the co-author of the New York Principals letter of concern regarding the evaluation of teachers by student test scores. It has been signed by more than 1,535 New York principals and more than 6,500 teachers, parents, professors, administrators and citizens. You can read the letter by clicking here.
By Carol Burris
My speech teacher came to see me. She was both angry and distraught. In her hand was her 6-year-old’s math test. On the top of it was written, “Topic 2, 45%”. On the bottom, were the words, “Copyright @ Pearson Education.” After I got over my horror that a first-grader would take a multiple-choice test with a percent-based grade, I started to look at the questions.
The test provides insight into why New York State parents are up in arms about testing and the Common Core. With mom’s permission, I posted the test here. Take a look at question No. 1, which shows students five pennies, under which it says “part I know,” and then a full coffee cup labeled with a “6″ and, under it, the word, “Whole.” Students are asked to find “the missing part” from a list of four numbers. My assistant principal for mathematics was not sure what the question was asking. How could pennies be a part of a cup?
Then there is Question No. 12. Would (or should) a 6 year old understand the question, “Which is a related subtraction sentence?” My nephew’s wife, who teaches Calculus, was stumped by that one. Finally, think about the level of sophistication required to answer the multiple-choice question in No. 8 which asks students to “Circle the number sentence that is true” from a list of four.
Keep in mind that many New York State first graders are still 5 years old at the beginning of October, when this test was given.
It is easy to point fingers at the teacher or school for giving the test, or to point fingers at Pearson for creating it. The problem, however, goes much deeper. The problem (no pun intended) is at the core.
Question 1 on the first-grade test is based on the New York Common Core Standard, 1.OA4 Understand subtraction as an unknown-addend problem. Question 12 tests standard 1.OA6, which requires students to use the relationship between addition and subtraction to solve problems. Question 8 assesses Standard 1.OA 7 which requires students to determine whether addition or subtraction sentences are true or false. You can find the New York Common Core standards here.
This Pearson first-grade unit test is the realization of the New York Common Core math standards. Pearson knows how the questions will be asked on the New York State tests, because they, of course, create them. Certainly, districts buy Pearson materials in the hope of preparing their students for the tests that will evaluate teachers, principals, students and the school itself.
Part of the problem with the rushed implementation of this reform is that there was never sufficient opportunity for schools to carefully examine and critique the standards themselves. In the field, it has been “whack a mole” as districts implement evaluation systems, testing and data driven networks while wading through thousands of pages of modules.
Are the standards reasonable, appropriate and developmentally sound—especially for our youngest learners? In order to answer that question, it is important to understand how the early primary standards were determined. If you read Commissioner John King’s Powerpoint slide 18, which can be found here, you see that the Common Core standards were “backmapped” from a description of 12th grade college-ready skills. There is no evidence that early childhood experts were consulted to ensure that the standards were appropriate for young learners. Every parent knows that their kids do not develop according to a “back map”—young children develop through a complex interaction of biology and experience that is unique to the child and which cannot be rushed.
We also know that the standards were internationally benchmarked. We are told continually that we are “falling behind.” Yet the age at which students begin school varies from nation to nation.
In the United States, students begin Grade 1 at the age of 5 or 6.
In Finland, students begin Grade 1 at age 7.
In Singapore, students begin Grade 1 at age 7 after two years of kindergarten.
This is not an argument for starting school at a later age. Canadian students also begin first-grade at age 6. But we must recognize, especially given that Singapore’s standards were used to develop the Common Core, that we are asking our young children to engage in intellectual tasks for which they may not be developmentally ready.
Finally, let’s do a quick comparison of the standards of the Common Core and those of high-performing Finland. You can find the math curriculum of Finland here ( beginning on page 158). You can find the New York Common Core standards for math here.
Notice that the first Finnish math objective incorporates the importance of students deriving satisfaction and pleasure from problem solving. In contrast, the Common Core does not speak of enjoyment but rather “a habitual inclination to see mathematics as sensible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own efficacy.”
The Finnish “description of good performance at the end of second grade” (there are no kindergarten or first-grade standards) can best be described as topical, open-ended and descriptive, thus allowing teachers to differentiate while working with tasks such as geometry or measurement. In contrast, the Common Core standards are behavioral and prescriptive such as, second-grade standard: 2MD9.
“Generate measurement data by measuring lengths of several objects to the nearest whole unit, or by making repeated measurements of the same object. Show the measurement by making a line plot, where the horizontal scale is marked off in whole-number unit”. P 19.Finns do not have an equivalent standard 2MD 19: Work with time and money. I will let readers draw their own conclusions.
I am amused by all of the politicians and bureaucrats who love the Common Core and see it as the salvation of our nation. I suspect they are supporting standards that they have never studied. I wonder if they have ever read the details that ask first-graders to “compose and decompose plane and solid figures” and “to determine if equations of addition or subtraction are true or false.” It is likely that much of the support for the Common Core is based on the ideal that we should have national standards that are challenging, yet the devil in the detail is ignored.
When one actually examines the standards and the tests like the sample I provided, it quickly becomes apparent why young students are crying when they do their homework and telling their parents they do not want to go to school. Many New York children are simply not developmentally ready to do the work. Much of the work is confusing. When you add the pressure under which teachers find themselves to quickly implement the standards and prepare students for standardized testing, it becomes clear why New York parents are expressing outrage at forums across the state.
It is time for New York State to heed, at the very least, the New York State United Teachers’ call for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes testing, thus providing time for New York to re-examine its reforms, and change course. New York, sadly, has been a canary in the Common Core coal mine, and if we do not heed the danger a generation of students will be lost.
George Carlin: Education Sucks!
George Carlin on why education sucks. I don't normally share things with this kind of language, but it is absolutely spot on. Every person in America should hear this piece!!
repost of Our Kids Aren't Taking Your Test
Original Link: Our Kids Aren't Taking Your Test
, the parent of a first-grader at Castle Bridge School in New York City, reports on their struggle to opt out students from a new state standardized test.
, the parent of a first-grader at Castle Bridge School in New York City, reports on their struggle to opt out students from a new state standardized test.
November 11, 2013
"Parents at a small, progressive, dual-language public school in New York City took a bold stand against standardized testing by refusing to allow children in kindergarten through second grade to take new state-required tests."
Dear Mr. Arne Duncan
Originally posted on Love, Learn Play
Dear Mr. Arne Duncan
Dear Mr. Arne Duncan
Dear Mr. Arne Duncan,
It has come to my attention that your latest defense of the Common Core movement was to deny its downfalls whilst casually casting the blame on "white suburban moms" who all of a sudden realized that their children weren't as bright as they thought they were. I don't for a single second believe your excuse that the line was the result of "clumsy phrasing" that you "regret". I believe your comment represents your true feelings of the people you represent while at the same time demonstrating your inability to critically reflect on your own program. You yourself said that no one enjoys hearing tough news but that "all parents need the truth." It is only fair that you get to hear the truth as well. So as a "white suburban mom", I would like to address you personally.
My husband and I come from two families of teachers. My mother and father were public school teachers. My sister is a public school teacher. My mother-in-law was a public school teacher. And my husband is a public school teacher. He is one of the very best- recognized at the district and state level nearly every year for his dedication to education and his exceptional abilities in the classroom. My husband and I owe everything we have to public education. We were raised on the salaries of public school teachers and both received an exceptional education from a public high school that you have since deemed a complete and utter failure. We are now raising our own sons on a single teacher's salary. We have always believed in the system- the system we were raised in and educated by. Until now.
You see, I am more than just a white suburban mom. Yes, I am white. Yes, I live in the suburbs- of Detroit to be exact. I even proudly drive a minivan. I think we can both agree that I was the target of your snide comment. But you missed your mark Mr. Duncan. Because I am not upset after realizing that my children aren't quite as bright as I thought they were. Quite the contrary. I am the mother of four year old identical twin boys whose IQ's have tested just shy of Albert Einstein's. I am the mother of the youngest set of identical twins ever accepted into MENSA. The truth is, my sons are far brighter than I will ever be able to comprehend. And the truth is, I still hate your Common Core.
Years ago, when Common Core was in its infancy, my husband was a strong supporter. The movement began as a way to remove the hundreds of overly specific standards and replace them with larger concepts that teachers could teach and students could learn more in depth. But that is not what Common Core is today. To begin with, the Common Core standards you bribed states to implement were developed not by teachers or experienced educators but by so called "educational experts" who work for the publishing companies who stand to make billions in profits from Common Core. While it is true that the Common Core standards are not a curriculum, I will call you out on a technicality there. Students must pass your Common Core assessments, therefore, the teachers must teach what is on the assessments and only what is on the assessments. Districts are being forced to buy ridiculously expensive curriculums designed specifically to help their students pass your tests- curriculums designed by the publishing companies who helped design your standards. Sounds fishy to me because indeed, your friends are making billions of dollars at the expense of our students. And let's not forget what your assessments mean. They are in no way a tool to help teachers understand the specific learning needs of their students. In fact, teachers have no access to the data from your assessments and are completely unable to use them to assist teaching and learning in the classroom. Instead, your tests exist solely to determine a teacher's value and worth. If you believe that a single assessment is able to determine a person's worth- an assessment for which children living in poverty, children for whom English is a second language, children with disabilities, even children who simply don't learn best with pencils and bubbles are ill prepared- then I challenge you to engage in a discussion about World War I shipwrecks with my four year old sons. I fear you will find yourself ill-equipped to match the knowledge of two preschoolers thus I will be able to deem you a useless failure of an educator and human being. Seems ridiculous? Why yes, it is.
Let's also not forget that fact that your standards claim to exist for the purpose of teaching 21st century skills for college and job market preparation. Except that districts nationwide are cutting vocational programs because they must use what little money they have to buy Common Core curriculum. And nowhere in that curriculum is there room for teachers to teach problem solving, creativity, collaboration, or critical thinking skills. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for music or art. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for classic literature or complete, in context, pieces of historical literature. While I will admit that not once in my adult life have I needed to know the exact details of The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice, the act of delving into such classic texts taught me the valuable life skills of thinking critically, thinking deeply, and thinking analytically. In fact, those are the exact skills I have used to critically analyze your Common Core standards and come to the conclusion that they are pure rubbish. Or is it that you don't want our children to learn the skills necessary to reach that conclusion on their very own?
My sons are four years old. They are no strangers to learning about a topic in depth. They could rival any expert with their knowledge of the Titanic and her sister ships the Britannic and Olympic. They know more about Frank Lloyd Wright than you will ever know in your life. While driving through urban Detroit they excitedly shout out the styles of architecture that each church was built in and they can identify the architectural style of every single column they have ever seen. They also know how to read and how to add and subtract. They know all fifty states and their capitals. They know each element on the Periodic Table and they understand in depth the discoveries of the greatest scientists in history. They are learning to multiply, they are learning how Mars may be able to support life and they are learning the history behind World War I.
Next September they will turn five and be of age for entering kindergarten. There, they will learn to fill in bubbles. Kindergarten teachers the country over are spending hours, days, and weeks on this skill in hopes that their little charges can properly bubble in the answers to your tests. In kindergarten my sons will learn that they have no control over their learning. They will learn that they must learn the exact same things that every kindergarten child in America must learn, regardless of their individual needs. And for our sons specifically, they will learn that learning is painfully boring. They will learn that conformity and conventionality are more important than their individuality and individual learning needs because your Common Core standards and assessments do not take into account the individual stories that each child brings with him or her to school. They do not account for the child who hasn't eaten in four days. The child who is more worried about dodging bullets at home than about completing homework. The child who suffered a stroke in utero and struggles to grasp the pencil he needs to use to fill in your bubbles. And the children, like mine, who are years and years beyond their grade level and desperately deserve the chance to learn at the frantic pace that their brain functions. Instead of learning that school is the gateway to the world- the place where they can learn everything and anything they want- kindergarten will teach my sons that school is nothing more than high stakes standardized testing. And the stakes don't even involve them.
So please Mr. Duncan, listen carefully. I know that is a lot to ask from you, being that I am just a white suburban mom. But here is the hard truth. Because of your Common Core, my husband and I have made the preliminary decision NOT to send our sons to public school or to any of the charter schools that also exist solely for the financial gain of businessmen. It is not because I fear your assessments will open my eyes to the fact that my dear little ones are not as bright as I want to think they are. On the contrary, it is because my precious little boys are wise beyond their years and have surpassed even you, our United States Secretary of the Department of Education, in understanding what education truly is.
No, my sons will not fill in a single one of your bubbles. Instead, my sons will continue to learn the way young children should learn. They will play. They will play for hours and hours on end. When they play with their Legos they will build ships, which will lead to questions about density and buoyancy which will lead to in depth research on the scientific principals of physics. My sons will roll in the dirt and get mud caked on their little faces and in the process they will discover how spiders differ from ants and worms differ from fungi and how trees grow and how the length of the day determines when photosynthesis shuts down for the winter. And when I hose them off at night, they will learn about water and the mountains it flows down, the rivers it flows through, and the lakes and oceans it flows into. Because my sons LOVE to ask questions. They are curious and inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. And when they learn something new, as they do 100 times a day, they will go back to their toys. They will go back to their Legos and wooden blocks and crayons and they will use those tools to make sense of what they just learned. They will play it out until their new knowledge fits comfortably into their previous understandings of how the world works. But they will not hold a pencil for eight hours a day. They will not judge their teacher's worth by attempting to answer purposefully confusing questions that they can't make sense of. Because I, a stupid self-inflated white suburban mother of two of the brightest, most academically capable little boys you should ever have the pleasure of meeting, HATE your Common Core. And that Mr. Duncan, is the hard truth that YOU need to hear.
Sincerely,
Offended
It has come to my attention that your latest defense of the Common Core movement was to deny its downfalls whilst casually casting the blame on "white suburban moms" who all of a sudden realized that their children weren't as bright as they thought they were. I don't for a single second believe your excuse that the line was the result of "clumsy phrasing" that you "regret". I believe your comment represents your true feelings of the people you represent while at the same time demonstrating your inability to critically reflect on your own program. You yourself said that no one enjoys hearing tough news but that "all parents need the truth." It is only fair that you get to hear the truth as well. So as a "white suburban mom", I would like to address you personally.
My husband and I come from two families of teachers. My mother and father were public school teachers. My sister is a public school teacher. My mother-in-law was a public school teacher. And my husband is a public school teacher. He is one of the very best- recognized at the district and state level nearly every year for his dedication to education and his exceptional abilities in the classroom. My husband and I owe everything we have to public education. We were raised on the salaries of public school teachers and both received an exceptional education from a public high school that you have since deemed a complete and utter failure. We are now raising our own sons on a single teacher's salary. We have always believed in the system- the system we were raised in and educated by. Until now.
You see, I am more than just a white suburban mom. Yes, I am white. Yes, I live in the suburbs- of Detroit to be exact. I even proudly drive a minivan. I think we can both agree that I was the target of your snide comment. But you missed your mark Mr. Duncan. Because I am not upset after realizing that my children aren't quite as bright as I thought they were. Quite the contrary. I am the mother of four year old identical twin boys whose IQ's have tested just shy of Albert Einstein's. I am the mother of the youngest set of identical twins ever accepted into MENSA. The truth is, my sons are far brighter than I will ever be able to comprehend. And the truth is, I still hate your Common Core.
Years ago, when Common Core was in its infancy, my husband was a strong supporter. The movement began as a way to remove the hundreds of overly specific standards and replace them with larger concepts that teachers could teach and students could learn more in depth. But that is not what Common Core is today. To begin with, the Common Core standards you bribed states to implement were developed not by teachers or experienced educators but by so called "educational experts" who work for the publishing companies who stand to make billions in profits from Common Core. While it is true that the Common Core standards are not a curriculum, I will call you out on a technicality there. Students must pass your Common Core assessments, therefore, the teachers must teach what is on the assessments and only what is on the assessments. Districts are being forced to buy ridiculously expensive curriculums designed specifically to help their students pass your tests- curriculums designed by the publishing companies who helped design your standards. Sounds fishy to me because indeed, your friends are making billions of dollars at the expense of our students. And let's not forget what your assessments mean. They are in no way a tool to help teachers understand the specific learning needs of their students. In fact, teachers have no access to the data from your assessments and are completely unable to use them to assist teaching and learning in the classroom. Instead, your tests exist solely to determine a teacher's value and worth. If you believe that a single assessment is able to determine a person's worth- an assessment for which children living in poverty, children for whom English is a second language, children with disabilities, even children who simply don't learn best with pencils and bubbles are ill prepared- then I challenge you to engage in a discussion about World War I shipwrecks with my four year old sons. I fear you will find yourself ill-equipped to match the knowledge of two preschoolers thus I will be able to deem you a useless failure of an educator and human being. Seems ridiculous? Why yes, it is.
Let's also not forget that fact that your standards claim to exist for the purpose of teaching 21st century skills for college and job market preparation. Except that districts nationwide are cutting vocational programs because they must use what little money they have to buy Common Core curriculum. And nowhere in that curriculum is there room for teachers to teach problem solving, creativity, collaboration, or critical thinking skills. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for music or art. Nowhere in that curriculum is there room for classic literature or complete, in context, pieces of historical literature. While I will admit that not once in my adult life have I needed to know the exact details of The Great Gatsby or Pride and Prejudice, the act of delving into such classic texts taught me the valuable life skills of thinking critically, thinking deeply, and thinking analytically. In fact, those are the exact skills I have used to critically analyze your Common Core standards and come to the conclusion that they are pure rubbish. Or is it that you don't want our children to learn the skills necessary to reach that conclusion on their very own?
My sons are four years old. They are no strangers to learning about a topic in depth. They could rival any expert with their knowledge of the Titanic and her sister ships the Britannic and Olympic. They know more about Frank Lloyd Wright than you will ever know in your life. While driving through urban Detroit they excitedly shout out the styles of architecture that each church was built in and they can identify the architectural style of every single column they have ever seen. They also know how to read and how to add and subtract. They know all fifty states and their capitals. They know each element on the Periodic Table and they understand in depth the discoveries of the greatest scientists in history. They are learning to multiply, they are learning how Mars may be able to support life and they are learning the history behind World War I.
Next September they will turn five and be of age for entering kindergarten. There, they will learn to fill in bubbles. Kindergarten teachers the country over are spending hours, days, and weeks on this skill in hopes that their little charges can properly bubble in the answers to your tests. In kindergarten my sons will learn that they have no control over their learning. They will learn that they must learn the exact same things that every kindergarten child in America must learn, regardless of their individual needs. And for our sons specifically, they will learn that learning is painfully boring. They will learn that conformity and conventionality are more important than their individuality and individual learning needs because your Common Core standards and assessments do not take into account the individual stories that each child brings with him or her to school. They do not account for the child who hasn't eaten in four days. The child who is more worried about dodging bullets at home than about completing homework. The child who suffered a stroke in utero and struggles to grasp the pencil he needs to use to fill in your bubbles. And the children, like mine, who are years and years beyond their grade level and desperately deserve the chance to learn at the frantic pace that their brain functions. Instead of learning that school is the gateway to the world- the place where they can learn everything and anything they want- kindergarten will teach my sons that school is nothing more than high stakes standardized testing. And the stakes don't even involve them.
So please Mr. Duncan, listen carefully. I know that is a lot to ask from you, being that I am just a white suburban mom. But here is the hard truth. Because of your Common Core, my husband and I have made the preliminary decision NOT to send our sons to public school or to any of the charter schools that also exist solely for the financial gain of businessmen. It is not because I fear your assessments will open my eyes to the fact that my dear little ones are not as bright as I want to think they are. On the contrary, it is because my precious little boys are wise beyond their years and have surpassed even you, our United States Secretary of the Department of Education, in understanding what education truly is.
No, my sons will not fill in a single one of your bubbles. Instead, my sons will continue to learn the way young children should learn. They will play. They will play for hours and hours on end. When they play with their Legos they will build ships, which will lead to questions about density and buoyancy which will lead to in depth research on the scientific principals of physics. My sons will roll in the dirt and get mud caked on their little faces and in the process they will discover how spiders differ from ants and worms differ from fungi and how trees grow and how the length of the day determines when photosynthesis shuts down for the winter. And when I hose them off at night, they will learn about water and the mountains it flows down, the rivers it flows through, and the lakes and oceans it flows into. Because my sons LOVE to ask questions. They are curious and inquisitive and hungry for knowledge. And when they learn something new, as they do 100 times a day, they will go back to their toys. They will go back to their Legos and wooden blocks and crayons and they will use those tools to make sense of what they just learned. They will play it out until their new knowledge fits comfortably into their previous understandings of how the world works. But they will not hold a pencil for eight hours a day. They will not judge their teacher's worth by attempting to answer purposefully confusing questions that they can't make sense of. Because I, a stupid self-inflated white suburban mother of two of the brightest, most academically capable little boys you should ever have the pleasure of meeting, HATE your Common Core. And that Mr. Duncan, is the hard truth that YOU need to hear.
Sincerely,
Offended
Standardized Testing and The ADHD Epidemic
Originally posted on Love, Learn, Play under the title "ADHD? No Thank You!"
ADHD? No Thank You!
ADHD? No Thank You!
The New York Times posted an incredible article on ADHD last week titled The Not So Hidden Cause Behind the ADHD Epidemic. If you have young children or if you work with young children or even if you simply know young children, it is a must read. The not so hidden cause? Our education system. More specifically- No Child Left Behind. Among other sociological factors, author Maggie Koerth-Baker presents undeniable evidence that our incredibly misguided education system has resulted in the skyrocketing number of ADHD diagnoses- which also means a skyrocketing number of kids on powerful psychotropic drugs. She presents a research study in which Stephen Hinshaw, a professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley made a startling discovery. As each state adopted the federal No Child Left Behind program and instituted similar and even more rigorous standardized testing programs, that state saw a subsequent and drastic rise in ADHD cases. Each state, one by one, without fail.
By trade I am a clinical social worker specializing in child and adolescent therapy, so it would be foolish of me to say that ADHD doesn't exist. But my time as a therapist and my time as a mother both lead me to support the premise of this article with complete certainty- cultural and societal factors have led to far too many of our kids being diagnosed and medicated for ADHD and it's about time we as parents and teachers start recognizing this. We are doing our children an incredible disservice by expecting them to be tiny adults and then medicating them when they can't live up to those standards.
ADHD hits home for me on two levels. The first is my dear husband. I've always teased that he has the most severe undiagnosed ADHD in the history of the world. He was something of a nightmare in elementary school, except that his mother never saw him that way and she worked tirelessly to make sure his teachers didn't either. Had she not been so involved in his education, he would surely have been diagnosed with ADHD- even twenty something years ago before it was all the rage. Instead of insisting that he be diagnosed and medicated, which surely would have made her life easier, she was adamant that he not be diagnosed or medicated. On the contrary, his mother saw his endless energy as productive and his busy mind to be creative. In the second grade he had to take the Iowa standardized test- this was long before standardized testing was considered "best practice" in education- and he totally and completely failed. One of the reading passages was about some mythical creature. He was supposed to read the passage and answer the questions. But he didn't. He didn't answer a single question on that test. He drew pictures. Very detailed, beautiful pictures with an artistic talent far beyond his years. On the surface he looked completely distracted. Except that he knew exactly what he was doing and why. The authors of the test had drastically misinterpreted what the mythical creature would look like and Jon felt their descriptions to be all wrong- bordering on foolish. He knew he could read and he knew what the passage was about. Answering the questions seemed to be a waste of his precious eight year old time. Instead he was compelled to draw accurately detailed pictures of the creatures to show the authors what they should have described in their passage. I'm pretty sure his teacher didn't appreciate this- then again her job didn't depend on the results of this one standardized test- but his mother found his "results" to be quite logical. You see, when one has an accurate and honest understanding of child development and the purpose of childhood, the light becomes visible. Jon wasn't inattentive, distracted, or unable to focus on the reading passage. In fact, he focused quite sharply- on what he deemed to be a much more important issue than the empty bubbles in his test booklet. He couldn't let the authors live their lives with such a poor understanding of mythological creatures when he saw a wonderful opportunity to enlighten them!
The stories Jon's mother tells about his early years in school have always made me laugh, though I have always wondered how she never once considered that Jon may truly have ADHD. Then I became a mother myself. And it was just my luck that God blessed me with not one, but two exact replicas of my husband as a child. The older the boys get, the more I realize that their brains work exactly like their father's. And the more I become aware that to the outsider, any outsider, my children look like they need a hefty dose of Ritalin.
Our boys function- morning 'til night- at a pace that would exhaust an Ethiopian marathon runner. In fact, when they were two years old, they ran 3.1 miles. Continuously. In my living room. On the couch. Their brains move even faster than their little bodies. In the matter of a half hour, they will demand to cover- in a depth and detail unimaginable to any other four year old on the planet- ancient Incan bridge building, the buoyancy of ocean liners, the three time periods of the Mesozoic era, and the age old question of whether or not ducks go to Heaven. In the middle of such discussions, they will pause to use their finger to draw imaginary pictures in the air. Though they look incredibly aloof, we have come to learn that this is their way of integrating new images and concepts into their pre-existing schemas of how the world works. When they are done, they will sprint to another part of the house to act out our conversation. It is not uncommon for them to dart away mid-sentence to go put imaginary apples in the refrigerator or to build an imaginary "zoobrary" in the living room containing all 827 childrens books we own... all while continuing to engage in a deep discussion about the ethics of removing artifacts from the wreck of the Titanic. They look distracted. But in reality they are intensely focused on committing their newfound knowledge to memory by acting it out with their little bodies.
When we do our homeschool work, both boys can complete the entirety of their reading and math lessons without their tiny little butts ever making contact with the surface of their seat. On any given day, at least 20% of their schooling is completed while suspended in mid-air with their elbows on their desks and their feet hooked over the backs of their chairs. And it is a requirement that they each fall out of their desk with such vigor as to result in moderate injury at least once during each lesson. And yes, it affects their work. I often have to temper my frustration because I know that if they could just sit still for six seconds, they could form their letters and numbers with beauty and precision. But they are four years old. The fact that they are learning that four plus eight equals twelve needs to be enough- even if their answer are written sloppily. And the fact that they can answer such equations correctly, every single time, at four years old should excite any educator from here to Timbucktoo. But for the aforementioned reasons, sending the boys to school is one of my biggest fears in life.
What teacher is going to let them climb their feet up the wall to read upside down? What teacher is going to let them hang from the ceiling fan when they are curious about the physics of motion? What teacher is going to let them run around acting out everything they learn?
Everyone tells us that someday our boys will "outgrow" this and learn to conform to what is expected of them in school. People tell us they are just young, but that someday they will read while sitting perfectly still and seek the answers to their questions in books instead of physically acting them out with their bodies. People have told us they will "level out" with time and learn to think more slowly and deliberately. But they won't. And I know this because my husband has never "outgrown" such things. His endless energy and his divergent thinking have never even come close to what one could call "leveled out". He still can't sit still. He just can't. He still can't do a single thing in life the simple way, the quiet way, the passive way, or in any way that conforms to any kind of standard. Not even at work. At work he launches pop bottles through the ceiling of his classroom. The janitor has stopped asking if he wants the ceiling tiles replaced because the poor janitor knows that replacing them is an exercise in futility. Once Jon bashed a bowling ball through the concrete wall in the back of his classroom and just last week he let his physics students hang from the water pipes. And his students come back year after year after year to thank him for inspiring their education and their lives. It is the same endless energy and creatively divergent thinking of his childhood that makes him one of the greatest teachers you will ever meet. So no, the boys aren't going to "outgrow" this. And while it might be easy to wish that maybe someday they will, I don't wish for that at all. I don't wish for them to sit still. I don't wish for them to be quiet or passive. I don't wish for them to master the art of sitting in a desk for eight hours a day- not next year for kindergarten or twenty years from now. Whatever they choose to do in their lives, I hope with every ounce of my exhausted heart that they launch pop bottles through the ceiling and bash bowling balls through walls and swing from the water pipes with gusto.
I'm not sure what we will do with the boys for school or if or how they will fit into this system that demands nothing more of children than to sit still and fill in tiny bubbles. My kids don't sit still and I don't want to make them. Kids aren't meant to sit still. Especially young boys. Somehow in our country's quest to rise to the top of the educational ladder, we have failed to take note that the countries all ready at the top do not require their young children to sit at all. Scandinavian countries do not start formal education until seven or eight years old. Prior to that, play based programs, forest schools, and *gasp*- parents staying home to raise their children are common introductions into education. They also have an incredibly low prevalence of ADHD. Because kids are allowed, expected even, to do what kids are supposed to do- and that is be kids. Our culture seems to be well on its way to losing sight of what being a kid means. But even if it takes me all the coffee in the world to keep up, our boys are going to spend their childhood being exactly what little boys are meant to be. They will be wildly energetic, exuberantly creative, and bursting at the seams with Dabrowski's psychomotor overexcitability. But I'll be damned if anyone ever puts a label on that.
By trade I am a clinical social worker specializing in child and adolescent therapy, so it would be foolish of me to say that ADHD doesn't exist. But my time as a therapist and my time as a mother both lead me to support the premise of this article with complete certainty- cultural and societal factors have led to far too many of our kids being diagnosed and medicated for ADHD and it's about time we as parents and teachers start recognizing this. We are doing our children an incredible disservice by expecting them to be tiny adults and then medicating them when they can't live up to those standards.
ADHD hits home for me on two levels. The first is my dear husband. I've always teased that he has the most severe undiagnosed ADHD in the history of the world. He was something of a nightmare in elementary school, except that his mother never saw him that way and she worked tirelessly to make sure his teachers didn't either. Had she not been so involved in his education, he would surely have been diagnosed with ADHD- even twenty something years ago before it was all the rage. Instead of insisting that he be diagnosed and medicated, which surely would have made her life easier, she was adamant that he not be diagnosed or medicated. On the contrary, his mother saw his endless energy as productive and his busy mind to be creative. In the second grade he had to take the Iowa standardized test- this was long before standardized testing was considered "best practice" in education- and he totally and completely failed. One of the reading passages was about some mythical creature. He was supposed to read the passage and answer the questions. But he didn't. He didn't answer a single question on that test. He drew pictures. Very detailed, beautiful pictures with an artistic talent far beyond his years. On the surface he looked completely distracted. Except that he knew exactly what he was doing and why. The authors of the test had drastically misinterpreted what the mythical creature would look like and Jon felt their descriptions to be all wrong- bordering on foolish. He knew he could read and he knew what the passage was about. Answering the questions seemed to be a waste of his precious eight year old time. Instead he was compelled to draw accurately detailed pictures of the creatures to show the authors what they should have described in their passage. I'm pretty sure his teacher didn't appreciate this- then again her job didn't depend on the results of this one standardized test- but his mother found his "results" to be quite logical. You see, when one has an accurate and honest understanding of child development and the purpose of childhood, the light becomes visible. Jon wasn't inattentive, distracted, or unable to focus on the reading passage. In fact, he focused quite sharply- on what he deemed to be a much more important issue than the empty bubbles in his test booklet. He couldn't let the authors live their lives with such a poor understanding of mythological creatures when he saw a wonderful opportunity to enlighten them!
The stories Jon's mother tells about his early years in school have always made me laugh, though I have always wondered how she never once considered that Jon may truly have ADHD. Then I became a mother myself. And it was just my luck that God blessed me with not one, but two exact replicas of my husband as a child. The older the boys get, the more I realize that their brains work exactly like their father's. And the more I become aware that to the outsider, any outsider, my children look like they need a hefty dose of Ritalin.
Our boys function- morning 'til night- at a pace that would exhaust an Ethiopian marathon runner. In fact, when they were two years old, they ran 3.1 miles. Continuously. In my living room. On the couch. Their brains move even faster than their little bodies. In the matter of a half hour, they will demand to cover- in a depth and detail unimaginable to any other four year old on the planet- ancient Incan bridge building, the buoyancy of ocean liners, the three time periods of the Mesozoic era, and the age old question of whether or not ducks go to Heaven. In the middle of such discussions, they will pause to use their finger to draw imaginary pictures in the air. Though they look incredibly aloof, we have come to learn that this is their way of integrating new images and concepts into their pre-existing schemas of how the world works. When they are done, they will sprint to another part of the house to act out our conversation. It is not uncommon for them to dart away mid-sentence to go put imaginary apples in the refrigerator or to build an imaginary "zoobrary" in the living room containing all 827 childrens books we own... all while continuing to engage in a deep discussion about the ethics of removing artifacts from the wreck of the Titanic. They look distracted. But in reality they are intensely focused on committing their newfound knowledge to memory by acting it out with their little bodies.
When we do our homeschool work, both boys can complete the entirety of their reading and math lessons without their tiny little butts ever making contact with the surface of their seat. On any given day, at least 20% of their schooling is completed while suspended in mid-air with their elbows on their desks and their feet hooked over the backs of their chairs. And it is a requirement that they each fall out of their desk with such vigor as to result in moderate injury at least once during each lesson. And yes, it affects their work. I often have to temper my frustration because I know that if they could just sit still for six seconds, they could form their letters and numbers with beauty and precision. But they are four years old. The fact that they are learning that four plus eight equals twelve needs to be enough- even if their answer are written sloppily. And the fact that they can answer such equations correctly, every single time, at four years old should excite any educator from here to Timbucktoo. But for the aforementioned reasons, sending the boys to school is one of my biggest fears in life.
What teacher is going to let them climb their feet up the wall to read upside down? What teacher is going to let them hang from the ceiling fan when they are curious about the physics of motion? What teacher is going to let them run around acting out everything they learn?
Everyone tells us that someday our boys will "outgrow" this and learn to conform to what is expected of them in school. People tell us they are just young, but that someday they will read while sitting perfectly still and seek the answers to their questions in books instead of physically acting them out with their bodies. People have told us they will "level out" with time and learn to think more slowly and deliberately. But they won't. And I know this because my husband has never "outgrown" such things. His endless energy and his divergent thinking have never even come close to what one could call "leveled out". He still can't sit still. He just can't. He still can't do a single thing in life the simple way, the quiet way, the passive way, or in any way that conforms to any kind of standard. Not even at work. At work he launches pop bottles through the ceiling of his classroom. The janitor has stopped asking if he wants the ceiling tiles replaced because the poor janitor knows that replacing them is an exercise in futility. Once Jon bashed a bowling ball through the concrete wall in the back of his classroom and just last week he let his physics students hang from the water pipes. And his students come back year after year after year to thank him for inspiring their education and their lives. It is the same endless energy and creatively divergent thinking of his childhood that makes him one of the greatest teachers you will ever meet. So no, the boys aren't going to "outgrow" this. And while it might be easy to wish that maybe someday they will, I don't wish for that at all. I don't wish for them to sit still. I don't wish for them to be quiet or passive. I don't wish for them to master the art of sitting in a desk for eight hours a day- not next year for kindergarten or twenty years from now. Whatever they choose to do in their lives, I hope with every ounce of my exhausted heart that they launch pop bottles through the ceiling and bash bowling balls through walls and swing from the water pipes with gusto.
I'm not sure what we will do with the boys for school or if or how they will fit into this system that demands nothing more of children than to sit still and fill in tiny bubbles. My kids don't sit still and I don't want to make them. Kids aren't meant to sit still. Especially young boys. Somehow in our country's quest to rise to the top of the educational ladder, we have failed to take note that the countries all ready at the top do not require their young children to sit at all. Scandinavian countries do not start formal education until seven or eight years old. Prior to that, play based programs, forest schools, and *gasp*- parents staying home to raise their children are common introductions into education. They also have an incredibly low prevalence of ADHD. Because kids are allowed, expected even, to do what kids are supposed to do- and that is be kids. Our culture seems to be well on its way to losing sight of what being a kid means. But even if it takes me all the coffee in the world to keep up, our boys are going to spend their childhood being exactly what little boys are meant to be. They will be wildly energetic, exuberantly creative, and bursting at the seams with Dabrowski's psychomotor overexcitability. But I'll be damned if anyone ever puts a label on that.
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