Thoughts on Education
My daughters and I love to listen to books on tape while riding to and from wherever it is we need to go during the weekdays. The most recent book is called "The Report Card", a delightful story about a genius 5th grader who hides her giftedness so that she will appear normal to other children, especially to her best friend who is of average intelligence. Nora, the heroine of the story, sets out to convince the adults in her life that standardized testing is not the only way to measure intelligence. She gets their attention by getting all D's (and one C) on her first 5th grade report card. The author of the book, Andrew Clements , brilliantly portrays a typical shy, intelligent child who struggles to find her identity in a world where everyone is put into an intellectual box.
I particularly like the story of Nora, because I was one of those intelligent children who was usually at the top of the class and had few friends because of it. The story shows us that adults and educators are often guilty of being so concerned over test performance, they fail to see the student behind the good and bad grades.
As a parent who has attempted to educate my own children, I have learned, perhaps not quickly enough, that children learn differently, and all children are brilliant in their own way. Some are master test takers, others have incredible artistic abilities, others are wonderful on the athletic field. Sadly, in an attempt to "leave no child behind", educators are now more concerned about a child's grades and test scores than they are in the child's real education. My two children learn very differently, and I know from teaching piano for the last twenty years, that this is the case with all children.
I suppose it all goes back to the goal of education. Do we want children who can spit out facts? Or, do we want children who can take those facts and translate them into practical living. It is no good if a child can solve a geometry problem if he doesn't know when to use that problem in every day life. Neither does it do a child any good to learn 50 dates in history if he doesn't know the signficance of what happened on those dates. We teach children so they can be thinking adults. If we don't do that, we will have failed our children miserably.
I particularly like the story of Nora, because I was one of those intelligent children who was usually at the top of the class and had few friends because of it. The story shows us that adults and educators are often guilty of being so concerned over test performance, they fail to see the student behind the good and bad grades.
As a parent who has attempted to educate my own children, I have learned, perhaps not quickly enough, that children learn differently, and all children are brilliant in their own way. Some are master test takers, others have incredible artistic abilities, others are wonderful on the athletic field. Sadly, in an attempt to "leave no child behind", educators are now more concerned about a child's grades and test scores than they are in the child's real education. My two children learn very differently, and I know from teaching piano for the last twenty years, that this is the case with all children.
I suppose it all goes back to the goal of education. Do we want children who can spit out facts? Or, do we want children who can take those facts and translate them into practical living. It is no good if a child can solve a geometry problem if he doesn't know when to use that problem in every day life. Neither does it do a child any good to learn 50 dates in history if he doesn't know the signficance of what happened on those dates. We teach children so they can be thinking adults. If we don't do that, we will have failed our children miserably.
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