The show starts out showcasing his artistry as a glass-blower and how he founded this company after talking to another glass-blower about the lack of opportunities in this field. It then shows how he developed a technology company called Square, as a way of solving a problem involving accepting a payment. How McKelvey branches into different endeavors from glass-blowing to computer programming to job creation for underserved communities is showcased; the thread that connects each endeavor is that he is fierce about solving problems. "If something is wrong, who's going to fix it? If not me, then who?"
I know he doesn't egotistically believe that he can solve all the problems of the world, but he does want to solve that ones that come his way, the ones that engage and activate him. There are problems enough for all of us. What he did, was inspire me to activate that mode.
I have been involved in education activism for many years, questioning and speaking out about the fallacies of No Child Left Behind and the high-stakes testing culture that public schooling has become all across the country. In the Obama era of Race to the Top and teacher evaluation based on student test scores, the problems are even worse. The adoption of the Common Core standards are intrinsically connected with the madness of current reform efforts, but I hear very little opposition to them among my colleagues. The effect of focus on testing and standards has produced a huge problem that I would like to be able to solve somehow - we have lost sight of the child, the student, as an individual.
When I first got into teaching, it was all about that. It was about being child and student-centered. It was about multiple intelligences and different learning styles. It was about unit teaching and integrating subjects into cohesive, connected learning experiences. The debate between whole language and phonics had been resolved - you needed multiple approaches, not just one. It was about engaging students. It was about inquiry. It was about solving problems. It was about building confidence. Empowerment. This was the profession I fell in love with. It has changed. And not for the better. It has devolved. The things I am proud of as a teacher are relegated to my blog writing. The things that seem to count are the things that I could care less about. Yes, test scores. I could care less about test scores. I care about my students learning and I value tests as a way to keep track of their progress, but the obsession with data, data, data in current practice is over the top.
Old-timers will tell you that if you have been in teaching long enough, you will experience pendulum swings. So if I don't like some "fad" or initiative, just wait it out, the pendulum will swing back. I really think there is something more ominous going on than a fly-by-night harmless pendulum swing. So - I have identified the problem. Public schools and public school teachers are judged by the test scores that their students produce. Teachers, like me, are not in the profession to raise test scores, they are in it to connect to children, to make a difference in their lives. There is a huge disconnect. What is the result of a system whose main concern is the raising of test scores? Less time, attention, and resources on activities chosen for engagement and joy, and more on activities directly related to testing.
Since I am now in the "winter" of my career, the way I had chosen to solve the problem is to look forward to retirement. I see the writing on the wall in regards to teacher evaluation based on student "growth," and the implementation of the Common Core, and I will soon say, good luck and good-bye. But then I get a dose of inspiration from a glass-blower named Jim McKelvey, and I wonder - Is there a way to solve this problem? How can we make the system more child and student focused? How can we have public schools that are models of innovation and aloha? Can it be done at my level, at the grass roots?
I don't have a solution. I only have a reignited desire to solve the problem.
What if We Are Asking the Wrong Question about Public Education in America?
ReplyDeleteThere is a question at the center of discussions about educational reform: “Why do children fail?” or, more often, “Who is to blame for the failure of education in America?”
We talk about poverty, racial discrimination and segregation, deteriorating neighborhoods; bad schools, teachers and unions; charter schools and vouchers; privatization; testing; and, holding teachers and schools accountable.
What if our questions are the wrong questions?
Consider a different question.
“Why do children succeed in school?” Or, better yet, “What do successful students have in common?”
We will discover that it is not affluence. There are many successful students who are affluent and there are also poor children who excel. Conversely, there are affluent students who fail as badly as some of their poorer classmates.
It is not race, because the list of excellent students includes students with white skins and black and every color in between.
It is not bad schools bad teachers, because excellent students can be found in both our best and worst schools.
The one characteristic that most links our best students, wherever we find them, is that they are supported by parent(s) who are determined that their children will get the best possible education and who consider themselves to be partners, sharing responsibility with teachers and principals.
The most common characteristic of children who fail is that they are not supported by parents who are determined, committed, and who accept responsibility as a partner in the educational process.
These new questions and their answers should change the way we think about education.
Education is in crisis because of a burgeoning population of mothers and fathers who live under a stifling blanket of hopelessness and powerlessness. These men and women are effectively disenfranchised and no longer believe in the American Dream for themselves or for their children. They do not stress the importance of education to their children; they make little if any effort to prepare their children for learning; and, they view their children's teachers and principals as adversaries. Many have lost control over their children and are no longer the guiding influence in the daily lives of their sons and daughters.
Because the quality of the education our children receive will determine the future of the U.S. in the Twenty-first Century, we face two challenges:
1. We must utilize every resource at our disposal to pull parents into the process as fully participating partners in the education of their kids. It is the absence of this partnership that results in the lowest level of motivation to learn on the part American children in generations and this is a reality that must be altered at all cost.
2. We must admit that our current educational process is poorly structured to get the results we seek. We must create a reality in which children are given time to master their subjects before they are expected to move on. After all, we do not expect that they all will have achieved the same things by the end of twelve years of school. What we need is that they will have learned as much as they are able and that they can apply what they have learned when they enter the next stage of their lives, whatever that may be.
The first challenge demands that we strive to change the culture of American society to one in which the American dream is real and achievable, if not for every man and woman, then at least for their children. It will require that we quit bickering and come together as a unified force to achieve a common objective.
There can be no excuses for failing to achieve the second challenge because the educational leaders in each of our fifty states has the authority to change, by decree, the educational process in their state.
If we continue down the same path, we place our entire future as a society in jeopardy.
I very much agree with you. Across the country, parents are rising up against corporate reform, mainly the test -based pressure and the Common Core standards attached to them. I do believe that parents will be the force that will change the current status quo. Why should their children not get a well-rounded education? I will join them, wholeheartedly. But I don't think teachers alone are going to change the course of things. We do need parents to power up.
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