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Perfect Summer Evening...
Let your thoughts flow freely....
Favorite Quotes from Wondrous Words
- “The definition of a poet is someone who notices and is enormously taken by things
- "When we bring (these) resources into our writing workshops, it is essential that we teach young writers how to read them like writers. READERS are interested in knowing Cynthia Rylant once had a dog very much like Mudge, the dog in her Henry and Mudge series. But WRITERS are more interested in knowing how she incorporates tiny snippets of things she remembers from her own life as details in her works of fiction. 'I might try that,' a writer thinks."
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Perfect Summer Evening...
Our Favorite Words
- bamboozle
- serendipity
- hope
- believe
- succulent
Favorite Books
- The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver
Our Golden Brook..White Mountains Hike 2004
Let your thoughts flow freely....
8 comments:
I absolutely see the benefits of a diverse education. I was trained in dance, played the piano, and had numerous art lessons outside of "school." However, I can remember being in high school and having to pay for my own lessons. I was sobbing to my dad that dance wasn't worth the expense, and I remember him carefully explaining the merits of body control, rhythm, determination, hard work, and expressing oneself through art. My own doubts mirrored Sir Robinson's. "Education steers our students toward a career."
But I don't know that I can go as far as Sir Robinson to say that "degrees aren't worth anything today" because of "academic inflation." Can you imagine a dancer that cannot hold a conversation about what is happening in the news or chat about a favorite book they read? What interactions with the world will a musician have who cannot express himself clearly orally or in writing? Won't even a stage hand need to know some basic math to build the sets?
The beauty of an education is its diversity over time. The lessons in thoughtful journal response, and geometry, and critique of current events are elevated when diversified with instruction in the arts. It is true that there is a top-down focus on reading, writing, and math in our schools, especially at an elementary level. But I cannot say schools do not appreciate artistic fields of study. The school of fine arts at my university was held at the same regard as the school of pharmacy. In fact, it is to our nation that many international students flock for the "creative" instruction in higher education. It is US students that excel at thinking outside the box.
Sir Robinson's ideas intersect with my own in that education needs to flourish the gifts and confidence of each child. However, not in a Montessorian "only what you want" format. As educators, we need to help our students grow by offering a variety of formats and validating their efforts. How to do this for each child in public education always takes careful consideration. The Renzulli model for gifted education asserts that all children have special talents that once tapped will lead to great motivation. This is not the suggested "take them out of school and let them dance" approach because all areas of education are important. As a classroom teacher, my first job is to get to know my kids, then it is to offer learning in several formats to both enrich, extend and nurture the various strengths of my students.
hi great comments jenn. I agree with you that degrees do count and that everyone learns differently. I believe that imaginations and creativity should be celebrated and encouraged because we don't all learn the same way. We also don't teach the same way. This is something that I was taught at Lesley and so much emphasis and energy was put into lesson plans that used all the different ways that we learn. At times, we were forced to only present our lessons in the form of the arts -thru dance or music. This was uncomfortable for some of us for different reasons at different times. It was the like experiencing the opposite of what this girl experienced. Once we had to use a car and all its parts to describe the different elements of teaching and learning styles! Yikes! First we had to learn car parts and their function and then plug in the information into our presentation!I love the quote that he used: "Picasso said that all children are born artists-we don't grow into it , we grow out of it." Learning to know our students, bonding with them, and making a constant effort to teach to all styles is so important. How many times have we caught ourselves teaching the way that we learn? I have to remember this all the time that not all students are visual, some have to hear it and some need to feel it, act it out and try a little of everything! Some call this kinesthetic learning and some feel that we learn differently at diffferent times. I don't want my future students to turn into thinking heads that only use their bodies as transportation for their heads! I remember being in college at my job at a preschool and we were decorating a bulletin board for the students. One of my friends did not want to put any of her work up. As we put up the children's work she was carefully looking for the "good" ones for the top so that they could be seen more. She said that her work never got hung up because she was told by a teacher that she did not know how to draw. Ever since then she had believed that! How sad is that? Well, we worked on her and we eventually got to her to hang up one of her pictures. Hopefully, she continued to realize that beauty and creativity is in the eye of the beholder and the one who experiences it. I promised myself that if I was going to put up children's work that I would never make anyone feel that someone else was better than them! I know that we all try to celebrate our differences and appreciate them. All we can do is remember the "gift of imagination and creativity". It's amazing how much you can write in this little box and all the ideas that come to my head! I think I should go make up a song or dance to go with my travelling head! :)
Wow! The video clip was very powerful. I believe in educating the whole child, do value degrees, but can also understand his point. College is not for everyone! I have a brother who is very hands on, couldn’t sit through classes to save his life, and wasn’t valued in school for what his talents were, but what they were not. He was a special needs student who could take apart a car motor and put it back together without directions, and draw each part of a car and motor as if it were a photograph. With a lack of recognition of his talents and educating the whole student, he was left behind as many students are today. The achievement gap for Special Ed students continues to grow and I question if we ARE educating out creativity! Are we building on their talents and educating these children in ways that are meaningful to them? As educators, I do believe we all truly want what is best for kids but do we get caught up in the latest initiative and lack the time to really differentiate learning?
Jenn I totally agree with your points however about being able to have a conversation and partake in the literacy aspects of life. This reminds me of the student in the movie Drumline who was an amazing musician but couldn’t read the music. Can creativity come first and literacy follow? Kindergarten was once about creativity, play and socialization where today it is literacy based. Are we moving ahead too fast? If my brother was valued as a student who was great with his hands first would literacy have followed?
I guess I was one of those kids whose was educated out of creativity! I have always said that I was born without that creativity bone that others have but maybe it was just something that I was taught. I am "still learning" to draw and I never could really carry a tune. I think it is so sad that we never have time during our regular school day to spend time working on simple arts and crafts projects just to give the kids time to be creative! It has to be tied into other curriculum somehow to be deemed worthwhile. I felt very guilty the other day when we spent almost an entire morning making tissue paper butterflies for our classroom because we missed out on math, but when I see my students cutting abilities I feel better knowing I'm giving them a little more practice cutting straight, smooth lines. I loved when Sir Robinson was talking about intelligence and how it is diverse, dynamic, and distinct. All too often we only see test scores and not students to determine success. Final thought: As teachers, isn't it our jobs to help students find what their passions are, not direct them to the passions we think they are suited for?
Do Schools Kill Creativity? I watched this video a little over a week ago. It was difficult to put into words what I first thought. You see, I first felt defensive. The title spurred some negative thoughts. When a person, not in the trenches, reports to the masses, what is wrong with our education system, I tend to take it personal. I heard what Sir Ken Robinson was saying, but I wondered how would he do it differently? I believe that most teachers enter into this career wanting to be an inspiration. But it becomes nearly impossible to be all things to all people. We have continued to add components and programs and demands into a school day. We haven’t taken anything off of the teaching schedule.
And I am not convinced that we have taken creativity out of schools. I see many examples from creative young people and caring teachers. I would agree that children do not have enough opportunity to delve into their creative self, but then again they do not have enough time to socialize, or run, or read for pure pleasure…. I believe that a six hour school day can not be the ONLY education that students receive. Home and community have to play a significant role in helping children find their creative selves. Do schools kill creativity? Educating people in the importance of celebrating the gifts and hopes of our future, of our children, is an inspiring task. Educating people about a failure of our schools, without remedy, does not inspire the creative side of me.
Amen, Ronnie! I too watched this clip about a week ago. I've been mulling the information around trying desperately to put into words my reaction.
Here goes...I think until society reevaluates what it deems important, no changes can be made in the school system. I am a former dance teacher with a strong background in music theater. I hum and sing and dance without even realizing it. I use music whenever possible. I believe drawing/sketching can be incredibly helpful in retelling significant details in stories. I believe these skills aren't necessarily valued by society.
I remember losing many of my dance students during their sophomore years in high school. These were amazing dancers with potential to become professionals. I would ask, "Why?" The answer was always the same. "I can't get scholarship money to college by being a dancer." But they could if they took up a sport like softball, track, or volleyball. We were losing amazing students because society has deemed sports more important than the arts. Just look at professional althetes' salaries. It is rare to see someone in the field of the arts make that much. Some artists do garnish that much support and appreciation-however they usually have to die first!
I felt very defensive listening to Sir Ken because it seemed like he was saying we had a choice as teachers. We could just choose to change our focus. I am a dance teacher/choreographer who had to choose to transfer my love of teaching to a classroom setting in order to have health insurance, retirement package, and time off with my child. I think that choice was made for me based on what our society values. And until that changes teachers will continue to educate children on a core base of knowledge that society has deemed important while encouraging children to express themselves through the arts. Creativity is not dead in the classroom; we help it shine through in any way we can!
During my students music block the other day I watched as they danced and moved around the room with colored scarves flying over them and could see some of them becoming dancers in the future! Some of them were truly feeling the beat of the music and did not want it to stop. I see the pride my students take in their artwork and I always say to them that maybe they will be a famous artist someday. I think that it is so important to have those dreams, but I don't think that learning the basics like reading, writing and math along the way will necessarily take away from that dream. I liked what Jenn said about a dancer not being able to hold a conversation about a favorite book they read. My sister is an artist not just by what she draws, sculpts and photographs but also by how she sees the world and lives her life. She captures moments in photos that I don't ever see! I still think that for her and for most in her situation she could not reach her dreams without getting an education and having all the experiences and opportunities that come along with. My sister reads countless books about art and photography to improve her craft and to do that she needed and education. I think that if a child has a passion for the arts or music then it should never be taken away. I think that creativity should be celebrated in the classroom and I think that can not only be done within lessons geared solely towards the arts and music, but integrated into the lessons we teach everyday. I do agree that math, reading and writing are all things we focus highly on in school, but at the same time I hope we leave enough room for creativity and imagination so that the student's dreams are not taken away!
In listening to Sir Robinson speak I am amazed by the power of "being afraid to be wrong." I don't know how many countless times I have taken the slightly simpler route to avoid being wrong, how may times I have said to parent, "he is afraid to take risks", how many times friends did things without really knowing why. So much of everything comes down to the fear of bein wrong. I know my three year old has no concept of being wrong. If she thinks that pink is blue, she says that. My five year old insists that leopard lizards are the same thing as jaguars and he has no problem saying that. I on the other hand, thing things through a thousand times before I a willing to be wrong. I don't want to paint because it may look bad, I don't always want to write because it may not sound the way I want it to. Risk taking is so important in all that we do, it's so safe. I don't know when we lose that, I just know that there is so much riding on the thought of being wrong.
I have thought alot about Sir Robinson's comment about degrees not being worth anything. While I feel like that may be a bit extreme I think his point is well spoken. It used to be that you did need to graduate high school to get a job, then you needed to have a bachelor degree to get the job you wanted, now there are so many people who find themselves needing a master's degree to find the job they want to be doing. With so many people completing education, are they really doing what they want to be doing or are they simply checking off the list?
I have always felt that my goal in teaching has been to give children the skills to love learning and to be able to love, whatever that may be. However, it is so difficult to balance the demands of education and what it takes to ensure that each child is successful in their own way.
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