Ah, Jenni, you're both shaking me up and inspiring me as you so often
do, both in highlighting this quote (sad but true for many in our
profession) and in your thoughtful blog entry. I think many of us on
ISED-L are way out on the cutting edge of 100-year-old progressivism
(!), and I think many of us are frequently frustrated with others in
the field (sometimes in our own schools, sometimes not) who see only
"traditional" teaching in the rear view mirror.
At the same time, I have begun (reluctantly) to bow to the point of
view that some people really prefer "education as we have it" to
"learning as we need it." This could be alumni who have happy memories
of their own time in school, parents who feel that "traditional"
teaching did just fine by them thank you very much, students who
believe that "traditional" teaching awaits them in their future
classrooms and progressive learning won't prepare them. I was
introduced today by Larry Ferlazzo to a blog by Larry Cuban which
eschews "either-or" thinking on this and other issues for more of a
"both-and" approach. My own thinking tends to a "both-and" mode as
well.
My school resisted starting a middle school program for years. Among
the strongest resistance came from faculty who said they signed up to
teach in a high school, loved high school teaching but didn't feel
comfortable with middle school students, and didn't want any part of a
middle school. And you know what? If that's how they felt, then of
course they shouldn't be part of a middle school. And they aren't. All
teachers at my school are happily working with the age group(s) they
prefer, as far as I know at any rate.
So maybe part of the shift will come in acknowledging that different
people learn - and teach - differently. Different schools can go in
different directions, or set up parallel paths to graduation (however
that becomes defined in the future). All that matters is that students
of different learning styles and needs find those needs met and are
happily preparing themselves for their adult lives.
Take care,
Bill Ivey
Stoneleigh-Burnham School
On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 6:57 PM, Jennifer Voorhees
<voorheesj@sidwell.edu> wrote:
> I also appreciated this comment made in the roundtable discussion...
>
> =93We are so comfortable with what we have today, we look for confirmatio=
n of our existing hypothesis. We look in the rearview mirror. The future ei=
ther looks like the present or a lot like the past in most of our imaginati=
ons.=94
>
> More about this session on my blog: http://collabcorner.blogspot.com
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