Here are some highlights:
“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake: We spend a
fortune teaching trigonometry to kids who don’t understand it, won’t use it,
and will spend no more of their lives studying math. We invest thousands of
hours exposing millions of students to fiction and literature, but end up
training most of them to never again read for fun (one study found that 58
percent of all Americans never read for pleasure after they graduate from
school). As soon as we associate reading a book with taking a test, we’ve
missed the point.”
“There’s no room for someone who wants to go faster, or
someone who wants to do something else, or someone who cares about a particular
issue. Move on. Write it in your notes; there will be a test later. A
multiple-choice test.
Do we need more fear?
Less passion?”
“What is school for?
If you’re not asking that, you’re wasting time and money.
Here’s a hint: learning is not done to you. Learning is
something you choose to do”
“43. How not to teach someone to be a baseball fan
Teach the history of baseball, beginning with Abner
Doubleday and the impact of cricket and imperialism. Have a test. Starting with
the Negro leagues and the early barnstorming teams, assign students to memorize
facts and figures about each player. Have a test.Rank the class on who did well
on the first two tests, and allow these students to memorize even more
statistics about baseball players. Make sure to give equal time to players in
Japan and the Dominican Republic. Send the students who didn’t do as well to
spend time with a lesser teacher, but assign them similar work, just over a
longer time frame. Have a test .Sometime in the future, do a field trip and go
to a baseball game. Make sure no one has a good time. If there’s time, let kids
throw a baseball around during recess.Obviously, there are plenty of kids (and
adults) who know far more about baseball than anyone could imagine knowing. And
none of them learned it this way.
The industrialized, scalable, testable solution is almost
never the best way to
generate exceptional learning.”
“Teach a kid to write without fear and you have given her a
powerful tool for the rest of her life. Teach a kid to write boring book
reports and standard drivel and you’ve taken something precious away from a
student who deserves better”
“132.What we teach
When we teach a child to make good decisions, we benefit
from a lifetime of
good decisions.
When we teach a child to love to learn, the amount of
learning will become
limitless.
When we teach a child to deal with a changing world, she
will never become
obsolete.
When we are brave enough to teach a child to question
authority, even ours, we
insulate ourselves from those who would use their authority
to work against each
of us.
And when we give students the desire to make things, even
choices, we create a world filled with makers. “
This really is a must read for every educator.
While there is a lot here to digest and I don’t meant to
simplify the major issues that we face today but to me we could change a lot if we just put
“LIFE” back
in school
LIFE to me stands
L- Learning
I-Is
F- Fun
(for)
E- Everyone
Perhaps if we made learning fun and engaging we could “Stop
Stealing Dreams” and create Dreams
