Like many of you, I took biology in 9th grade. Never having taken another biology or anatomy course in my educational career, I am ashamed to say that there is much that I have forgotten. One detail that pops into my mind every once in a while is that a mitochondria is the powerhouse of a cell. I am not sure exactly what that means, or how the mitochondria works, or how something as small as a cell has so many smaller parts to it, but I am pretty sure that I am correct about that fact.
Why do I remember that fact? Is it because my biology teacher was amazing? Perhaps. Is it because I remembered some mnemonic such as "mighty mitochondria"? Could be. Is it because Julie Mitochondria was the name of the girl that I secretly had a crush on throughout high school? Unlikely.
No, the real reason that I remember this random fact is that at some point I stayed up late studying for a biology test, memorizing all of the parts of the cell and their functions just well enough so that I would be able to regurgitate that information the next day on the test, and probably again six months later on the final.
Fast forward to today. Like most other teachers, I still give tests from time to time. Being a reasonably good teacher, I try to pack my tests with questions that will test not only my students' ability to memorize, but also their ability to think, to process the material and use it to answer a question that is somewhat different than the exact way that we learned the material in class. However, I inevitably find students who are capable of providing answers that touch on the correct information, that come oh-so-close to actually demonstrating real understanding, but who nevertheless produce a response that shows that they are still collecting information points without truly comprehending what connects them into one larger system. In my earlier example, I can explain the function of the mitochondria and the nucleus and the ribosomes, but I cannot quite explain (in my own words, of course), how a cell functions.
To my mind, this is ultimately the most important contribution of Project Based Learning (PBL) to the business of teaching. My biology teacher (note - she was a wonderful teacher; I'm just picking on the subject since it is an area that I completely avoided, regrettably so, for the rest of my academic career) wanted me to understand cells, so she tried to build my understanding from the bottom up, hoping that by understanding each part, I would understand the whole. Project Based Learning, by contrast, starts from the end and works backwards. A driving question for that cell unit would be something along the lines of "What are cells and how do their discrete parts work together to sustain life?" A culminating project that asked me to consider various diseases that afflict cells and how they do so would drive me to understand each part and what a deficiency in that part would mean for my overall health. There is no way that writing down a few key words in the right place would get me "partial credit" for an assignment such as that.
When reconfiguring existing units to be PBL units, my longest stretches of creative thinking focus on exactly this point - what am I really trying to teach in this unit? As a teacher of religious and legal texts, the answer is not always so obvious since the texts (Torah, Talmud) are not always divided up topically as easily as a Biology or a History textbook might be. At times I need to combine parts of what were previously distinct units or break apart one unit into smaller pieces so that I can focus my students on one or two essential areas for understanding. difficult as this sometimes is, it is also highly rewarding. I emerge from the process with a much richer understanding of what I am trying to teach, and ultimately my students are engaged in a richer and more meaningful educational experience. They are no longer working their way from one Biblical verse to the next, from one Talmudic page to the following one, but rather they are tackling defined units of knowledge and seeking to master and understand them.
Much has been made about the motivational advantages of PBL. I have always contended that people can only be motivated, at least long-term, to do something that they feel that they can understand and can be successful doing. A student with a great memory can perhaps be motivated to memorize lists of facts and dates and names. But any student can potentially be motivated by the opportunity to not only seize control of their learning, but to do so in a way where the path to mastery lies clearly before them.
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
A Jedcamp of Our Own
I have spent considerable time on this blog over the course of the past year writing about Jedcamp. I have been amazed at the power of the Edcamp model to bring people together, to stimulate fresh ideas, and to encourage open discussion in a fully non-threatening environment.
However, I have always wondered about the limitations of the model. By definition, a Jedcamp is populated by a coalition of the willing. People who come to Jedcamp are people who want to come to Jedcamp, and thus they are probably aware of how the day should run and are possibly even prepared to present or lead a session of their own.
But what about a Jedcamp where not everyone has chosen to be there? In other words, what if a Jedcamp was like most professional development days, where people are there because their school has mandated that they be there? Would such a Jedcamp have the same energy and excitement? Would teachers be as willing to be involved? To put it another way, does the Edcamp/Jedcamp model have the potential to supplant traditional professional development, or is it doomed to remain a niche phenomenon, enticing a certain type of teacher while failing to reach the majority?
We put this question to the test this past week at Yavneh Academy, where I serve as a teacher and administrator. For our Election Day in-service, we divided the day into four parts, some for development and some for housekeeping. For an hour and a half after lunch, we devoted the time to an in-house Jedcamp for our entire faculty.
Knowing that not everyone was familiar with the model, I had sent out several emails in the weeks leading up to the event explaining some of the rules, and I used some time during lunch on Election Day to review the major points. A sign-up board was placed in the lunch room, allowed for two 35-minute sessions and up to five rooms at a time (we had roughly 80-90 faculty members present). After a slow start, the board quickly began filling up, with topics as diverse as teaching through movement, balancing life as a teacher and a parent, and how to handle the convergence of Thanksgiving and Chanukah (which happens this year and not again for almost 80,000 years). Once the board was filled and teachers had a chance to choose their first session, I stood back, held my breath and...
Success.
Within minutes, each room was bursting with colleagues who do not always have the opportunity to interact, getting to know each other and enthusiastically tackling the topics at hand. As at the actual Jedcamps that I have been privileged to run, it was difficult to end the sessions, as teachers wanted to continue discussing and analyzing the issues that were raised in each room. When the second session came to an end and everyone proceeded to their other meetings for the day, there was a noticeable buzz in the hallways, and several teachers came over to me to express their satisfaction with and enjoyment of this out-of-the-box approach to professional development.
So, what were my takeaways from this experiment?
However, I have always wondered about the limitations of the model. By definition, a Jedcamp is populated by a coalition of the willing. People who come to Jedcamp are people who want to come to Jedcamp, and thus they are probably aware of how the day should run and are possibly even prepared to present or lead a session of their own.
But what about a Jedcamp where not everyone has chosen to be there? In other words, what if a Jedcamp was like most professional development days, where people are there because their school has mandated that they be there? Would such a Jedcamp have the same energy and excitement? Would teachers be as willing to be involved? To put it another way, does the Edcamp/Jedcamp model have the potential to supplant traditional professional development, or is it doomed to remain a niche phenomenon, enticing a certain type of teacher while failing to reach the majority?
We put this question to the test this past week at Yavneh Academy, where I serve as a teacher and administrator. For our Election Day in-service, we divided the day into four parts, some for development and some for housekeeping. For an hour and a half after lunch, we devoted the time to an in-house Jedcamp for our entire faculty.
Knowing that not everyone was familiar with the model, I had sent out several emails in the weeks leading up to the event explaining some of the rules, and I used some time during lunch on Election Day to review the major points. A sign-up board was placed in the lunch room, allowed for two 35-minute sessions and up to five rooms at a time (we had roughly 80-90 faculty members present). After a slow start, the board quickly began filling up, with topics as diverse as teaching through movement, balancing life as a teacher and a parent, and how to handle the convergence of Thanksgiving and Chanukah (which happens this year and not again for almost 80,000 years). Once the board was filled and teachers had a chance to choose their first session, I stood back, held my breath and...
Success.
Within minutes, each room was bursting with colleagues who do not always have the opportunity to interact, getting to know each other and enthusiastically tackling the topics at hand. As at the actual Jedcamps that I have been privileged to run, it was difficult to end the sessions, as teachers wanted to continue discussing and analyzing the issues that were raised in each room. When the second session came to an end and everyone proceeded to their other meetings for the day, there was a noticeable buzz in the hallways, and several teachers came over to me to express their satisfaction with and enjoyment of this out-of-the-box approach to professional development.
So, what were my takeaways from this experiment?
- The Edcamp model can work even when the participants "have to" be there.
- Schools should consider a change of pace for some future PD day and allow the faculty the opportunity to make use of this model to discuss the issues that they want to talk about.
- Hopefully, the next time I post that a Jedcamp is taking place, more teachers will be aware of what that is and may even try it out.
Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Jedcamp Brooklyn - Building a Community
Six months since the first New York-area Jedcamp, the second one was held this past Sunday in Brooklyn, New York. For those of you not from the New York Metropolitan area, Brooklyn may seem relatively close to Paramus, New Jersey, home to the last Jedcamp. However, locals know that the distance from one locale to the other may as well be a thousand miles, so daunting is the traffic in between and so seemingly far away are our two states (even though they are roughly contiguous).
And that is exactly one of the goals of JedcampNJNY - to start creating a community among the thousands of educators who work in Jewish education from Long Island to Brooklyn to Queens to Manhattan to the Bronx to New Jersey to Rockland County. While this is not something that is easily accomplished in one day or one conference, it is something that I believe can happen one step at a time.
The demographics of this week's Jedcamp were noteworthy, particularly in contrast to April's camp. While the springtime event drew heavily from the local population in Bergen County, New Jersey, Sunday's camp predictably had a strong Brooklyn showing. However, both camps attracted people from across the region, and it is that group of individuals who will likely develop into the core of the Jedcamp community. How so? As we continue to plan Jedcamps and related events, the educators who become regulars will be the individuals who carry the banner for Jedcamp in their schools, encouraging their colleagues to try it out, sharing their growing wealth of experiences from having attended several Jedcamp events.
The goal of creating a Jedcamp community is to craft something that exists at all times, at not only at the several events during the year. As such, I see spaces such as #jedchat on Twitter, Jedlab on Facebook, the YU2.0 and YUHSchinuch communities, and the Lookjed mailing list as a series of overlapping communities that everyone is able to plug into between discrete events. The core group of people who put together JedcampNJNY first came together via Twitter, but at this point we have all met face to face many times, and we have worked to collaborate on a variety of other projects, as have many other people who first connected at a Jedcamp. The various online communities provide opportunities for people to continue conversations that they began at live events, or to start conversations that will then become live discussions at live events. While no one can have 1,000 "best friends", it is good to know that there are thousands of educators out there who are ready to reply, respond, and reflect in a thoughtful and constructive manner.
There are more Jedcamps (and related events) coming, and the potential to create one exists everyone. If you live near one, sign up to attend. If there is none being planned in your community yet, step up and plan one. Come and join the growing community.
And that is exactly one of the goals of JedcampNJNY - to start creating a community among the thousands of educators who work in Jewish education from Long Island to Brooklyn to Queens to Manhattan to the Bronx to New Jersey to Rockland County. While this is not something that is easily accomplished in one day or one conference, it is something that I believe can happen one step at a time.
The demographics of this week's Jedcamp were noteworthy, particularly in contrast to April's camp. While the springtime event drew heavily from the local population in Bergen County, New Jersey, Sunday's camp predictably had a strong Brooklyn showing. However, both camps attracted people from across the region, and it is that group of individuals who will likely develop into the core of the Jedcamp community. How so? As we continue to plan Jedcamps and related events, the educators who become regulars will be the individuals who carry the banner for Jedcamp in their schools, encouraging their colleagues to try it out, sharing their growing wealth of experiences from having attended several Jedcamp events.
The goal of creating a Jedcamp community is to craft something that exists at all times, at not only at the several events during the year. As such, I see spaces such as #jedchat on Twitter, Jedlab on Facebook, the YU2.0 and YUHSchinuch communities, and the Lookjed mailing list as a series of overlapping communities that everyone is able to plug into between discrete events. The core group of people who put together JedcampNJNY first came together via Twitter, but at this point we have all met face to face many times, and we have worked to collaborate on a variety of other projects, as have many other people who first connected at a Jedcamp. The various online communities provide opportunities for people to continue conversations that they began at live events, or to start conversations that will then become live discussions at live events. While no one can have 1,000 "best friends", it is good to know that there are thousands of educators out there who are ready to reply, respond, and reflect in a thoughtful and constructive manner.
There are more Jedcamps (and related events) coming, and the potential to create one exists everyone. If you live near one, sign up to attend. If there is none being planned in your community yet, step up and plan one. Come and join the growing community.
Thursday, October 10, 2013
JedcampNJNY Returns - With a Full Year of Events!
After last April's highly successful JedcampNJNY in Paramus, New Jersey (see here for more), one of the most common reactions was either "When is the next one?" or "Why didn't I know about that - I would have loved to attend!" Clearly, the model of an open-ended, participant-driven, free day of professional development (with good food) had struck a chord with many people, much as the Edcamp movement continues to grow and expand to an ever-growing list of cities.
To try to address that desire for more opportunities for professional development, JedcampNJNY will be offering a full complement of activities this coming year. Our overall goal is to continue to expand the community that has been formed through the #Jedchat hashtag on Twitter, through various online groups such as YU2.0 and YUHSChinuch, and through Jedcamp itself, and to be able to maintain momentum throughout the year while providing several opportunities for people to participate, connect, and share with colleagues from around the region.
First and foremost, JedcampNJNY - Brooklyn is just 10 days away! Under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Bitton (@RabbiMBitton) and David Galpert (@dgalpert), our opening Jedcamp of the year promises to be at least as exciting and dynamic as the last one. The event will take place at Magen David Yeshiva High School in Brooklyn on Sunday October 20th, and you can fill out your free registration at this link.
Following Jedcamp, we are introducing a series of "Night Activities". These events will be shorter and more focused in nature, and will not always follow a strict Jedcamp format. On November 20th, Yehuda Chanales (@chanales) of Torah Academy of Bergen County will be hosting an evening dedicated to discussing Learning, Spirituality, and Inspiration in the 21st Century. On December 18th, Shira Leibowitz (@shiraleibowitz) of Solomon Schechter in Queens will be organizing an evening dedicated to discussing educational technology and social media. We are working as well to confirm a third Night Activity in February. Further information about all of these evenings, including how to register, will be disseminated through the various networks in the weeks preceding the events.
Finally, our year will be capped off in May by a second Jedcamp, hosted at the Frisch School in Paramus, NJ by Tzvi Pittinsky (@techrav) and Tikvah Wiener (@tikvahwiener). Our hope is that the plethora of events will allow as many educators as possible to take part at least once and to thereby add themselves to a growing network of Jewish educators who are perpetually linked and always have someone to turn to to discuss whatever is on their mind about Jewish education.
To try to address that desire for more opportunities for professional development, JedcampNJNY will be offering a full complement of activities this coming year. Our overall goal is to continue to expand the community that has been formed through the #Jedchat hashtag on Twitter, through various online groups such as YU2.0 and YUHSChinuch, and through Jedcamp itself, and to be able to maintain momentum throughout the year while providing several opportunities for people to participate, connect, and share with colleagues from around the region.
First and foremost, JedcampNJNY - Brooklyn is just 10 days away! Under the leadership of Rabbi Michael Bitton (@RabbiMBitton) and David Galpert (@dgalpert), our opening Jedcamp of the year promises to be at least as exciting and dynamic as the last one. The event will take place at Magen David Yeshiva High School in Brooklyn on Sunday October 20th, and you can fill out your free registration at this link.
Following Jedcamp, we are introducing a series of "Night Activities". These events will be shorter and more focused in nature, and will not always follow a strict Jedcamp format. On November 20th, Yehuda Chanales (@chanales) of Torah Academy of Bergen County will be hosting an evening dedicated to discussing Learning, Spirituality, and Inspiration in the 21st Century. On December 18th, Shira Leibowitz (@shiraleibowitz) of Solomon Schechter in Queens will be organizing an evening dedicated to discussing educational technology and social media. We are working as well to confirm a third Night Activity in February. Further information about all of these evenings, including how to register, will be disseminated through the various networks in the weeks preceding the events.
Finally, our year will be capped off in May by a second Jedcamp, hosted at the Frisch School in Paramus, NJ by Tzvi Pittinsky (@techrav) and Tikvah Wiener (@tikvahwiener). Our hope is that the plethora of events will allow as many educators as possible to take part at least once and to thereby add themselves to a growing network of Jewish educators who are perpetually linked and always have someone to turn to to discuss whatever is on their mind about Jewish education.
Tuesday, October 1, 2013
PBL and the Search for an Authentic Audience - A Success Story
I have written before that one of the most difficult parts of constructing a true Project Based Learning project is finding an authentic audience for the project. I spoke at length with the wonderful Suzie Boss (@suzieboss) about this topic over the summer, and we agreed that sometimes you have to "invent" an audience. By that I mean that, as I wrote in the linked blogpost, sometimes you set up someone or a group of people to be an audience, and for the purposes of the project they play the role of someone who has a genuine interest in the project. Think about a school science fair - most parents who come to view the projects have no prior interest in any of those topics (even the topic chosen by their own child), but they take a momentary interest during the fair - then go home and more or less forget about all of it.
However, I am happy to share a true success at finding an authentic audience. My colleague Simcha Schaum (@simchaschaum) conducted a project last spring with his 6th grade class where he asked them to learn material relating to some of the seasonal changes made in the prayers. He charged the students with creating bookmarks that theoretically could be handed out in shuls (synagogues) so that people would know what changes to make when, and what to do if they made a mistake. Rabbi Schaum had a couple of local Rabbis come to class so the students could present their bookmarks, and the project concluded with some very wonderful presentations and some very gracious Rabbis.
However, the project did not conclude there. This past week on the Jewish calendar was one of the times when changes are made to the prayers. And a day or two later, Rabbi Schaum received the following email from one of the Rabbis who visited his class back in May:
However, I am happy to share a true success at finding an authentic audience. My colleague Simcha Schaum (@simchaschaum) conducted a project last spring with his 6th grade class where he asked them to learn material relating to some of the seasonal changes made in the prayers. He charged the students with creating bookmarks that theoretically could be handed out in shuls (synagogues) so that people would know what changes to make when, and what to do if they made a mistake. Rabbi Schaum had a couple of local Rabbis come to class so the students could present their bookmarks, and the project concluded with some very wonderful presentations and some very gracious Rabbis.
However, the project did not conclude there. This past week on the Jewish calendar was one of the times when changes are made to the prayers. And a day or two later, Rabbi Schaum received the following email from one of the Rabbis who visited his class back in May:
The "pretend" authentic audience, which at the time was sufficient to motivate the students to complete their projects, has successfully become a real authentic audience! While not every project meets with such success, it is inspiring to know that our audience is out there - we just have to set the wheels in motion so that we can find them.Hi Rabbi Schaum,As [you may have heard], the bookmarks were a huge hit in shul on Shmini Atzeres. I distributed them (and explained where they came from) and went over the related halachos [laws] before Musaf, and that was the heads-up to begin saying Mashiv Haruach. Everyone has been using the bookmarks to remind themselves to say Mashiv Haruach and enjoying them.Yasher Koach [kudos] to you and the students, and thank you!Wishing you much hatzlacha [success] this year,
Monday, September 30, 2013
The Return of Jedchat
To many people, Twitter is the very definition of a waste of time. It is where movie stars and athletes share their deep thoughts and remind the rest of us that they are not poets or philosophers. However, for many people, and for many educators in particular, Twitter is a magnificent way to connect, to share, and to broaden one's horizons.
One of the most exciting things about Twitter is a twitterchat. While probably not what the creators of the social networking site had in mind, twitterchats are high-paced and concise (only 140 characters at a time) conversations among an unlimited amount of participants. Chats operate by employing a hashtag (or #hashtag), and each post includes that hashtag. Participants set their Twitter page (or hootsuite, tweetdeck, or other such program) to follow that tag, and - presto - every post that includes that tag, even if made by someone that they are not following, appears in their stream.
Following in the footsteps of the wonderful #edchat, a twice-weekly chat about all things education, #jedchat was begun two years ago by Akevy Greenblatt (@Akevy613), Dov Emerson (@dovemerson), and Meir Wexler (@RabbiWex) as a parallel version focusing on Jewish education. The weekly chats became a meeting place for many Jewish educators who wanted to expand their networks and discuss some of the pressing issues in Jewish education, and the hashtag itself became an ongoing way for those educators to reach out to one another to seek advice, share successes, and disseminate news.
With the founders having all moved on to new endeavors and having less time to devote to Jedchat, a new team of moderators will be kicking off Jedchat's third year this Wednesday night, October 2nd, from 9pm to 10pm Eastern Time. Some things to know about the new season of Jedchat:
One of the most exciting things about Twitter is a twitterchat. While probably not what the creators of the social networking site had in mind, twitterchats are high-paced and concise (only 140 characters at a time) conversations among an unlimited amount of participants. Chats operate by employing a hashtag (or #hashtag), and each post includes that hashtag. Participants set their Twitter page (or hootsuite, tweetdeck, or other such program) to follow that tag, and - presto - every post that includes that tag, even if made by someone that they are not following, appears in their stream.
Following in the footsteps of the wonderful #edchat, a twice-weekly chat about all things education, #jedchat was begun two years ago by Akevy Greenblatt (@Akevy613), Dov Emerson (@dovemerson), and Meir Wexler (@RabbiWex) as a parallel version focusing on Jewish education. The weekly chats became a meeting place for many Jewish educators who wanted to expand their networks and discuss some of the pressing issues in Jewish education, and the hashtag itself became an ongoing way for those educators to reach out to one another to seek advice, share successes, and disseminate news.
With the founders having all moved on to new endeavors and having less time to devote to Jedchat, a new team of moderators will be kicking off Jedchat's third year this Wednesday night, October 2nd, from 9pm to 10pm Eastern Time. Some things to know about the new season of Jedchat:
- Moderators - Jedchat will be moderated this year by Rabbi Avi Bernstein (@RabbiBernstein), Aliza Chanales (@alizachanales), and yours truly (@rabbiross).
- Unlike in the past, when Jedchat presented a topic and let the conversation range freely for an hour, the chats will hopefully take the more structured form favored by chats such as #educoach, which present a series of guiding questions throughout the course of the chat to help keep the conversation moving and to prevent one aspect of the topic from dominating or becoming stale.
- Polls will be put out via Twitter every Tuesday offering a selection of potential topics for the next night's chat.
Of course, one of the best aspects of #Jedchat is that it is an opportunity for professional growth and development that is absolutely free. No airfare, no conference fees, no tolls. As long as you have an internet connection nearby, you can be a part of this wonderful conversation. So share this post with other Jewish educators, and clear your schedule for Wednesday nights. We look forward to welcoming you to the conversation.
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Teachers are Experts Too
A woman took her 9-year old son to the doctor for his annual physical. After the usual battery of measurements, pokes, prods, and shots, and after the doctor had completed asking the child about his eating habits, daily activities, and favorite sports teams, the doctor turned to the mother to offer his assessment of the child's health.
"It seems that your son is a wonderful and healthy boy," the doctor began. "Of course, he should eat some more fruits and vegetables, and we do recommend trying to limit screen time if possible, but he is generally growing exactly the way we would expect him to."
"Thank you," replied his mother. "What about his height and weight."
"Looking good there as well. He is 45th percentile in both height and weight, which is more or less consistent with his development until now."
An awkward silence.
"Forty-fifth percentile??" responded the mother. "I don't understand that. My husband is over six feet tall and I was always on the tall side myself! How can our child possibly be below average??"
Taken slightly aback, the doctor tried to allay the mother's concerns: "I wouldn't be concerned at all. There is nothing in any of his records or tests that would indicate any form of abnormality. Furthermore, we see many children who have dramatic growth spurts in the early teenage years."
"Are you sure you measured properly? I mean, you are only seeing him here in the office. I see him every day, with his siblings and friends, and he certainly doesn't look like below average to me!"
"There really is nothing to be alarmed about," said the doctor, trying again, " He is a healthy boy with good habits who is developing just the way we want him to."
"You know, I have never seen that nurse who took the measurements before," continued the mother, barely heeding the words of the doctor. "Is she new here? How long ago did she receive her degree? How do I know that she knows what she is doing?"
End of story
************************
I think that, for most of us, the above story sounds ridiculous. Yes, people do sometimes seek out second opinions, but probably not about the height and weight of their nine-year old child. Certainly, we would not expect someone to challenge the medical credentials and abilities of the doctors and nurses who have taken such measurements.
And yet - what if this story was taking place not in a doctor's office but in the principal's office? What if the issue was not the height of the child but an assessment of the child's academic abilities? Would we find the story ridiculous - or familiar (not necessarily from personal experience, but perhaps from hearing about someone else who had just such a conversation)? I think that the answer to this question is fairly obvious.
But why? Why would people who would never question their doctor's assessment of their child so readily question the assessment of another type of professional? At some level, I believe that people understand that educators know their business, and that business is mainly understanding children, understanding how children learn and interact, and using that understanding to find ways to best teach that child and foster his growth as a student and as a citizen - and doing the same thing for scores of different children at the same time. It is a business that requires its practitioners to be part teacher, part psychologist, part peace-maker, part politician, and part-so-many-other-things-that-I-can't-list them-all. True, teaching relies far more on on-the-job training (experience) than on formal classroom training (you don't need a Ph.D. to teach), but most people don't question their mechanic either and he received very little classroom training for his job.
An interesting thought occurred to me in this vein while reading this article by the wonderful Joe Posnanski, perhaps one of the best sportswriters, and therefore best writers, around today. In the article, Posnanski asks why everyone cares about baseball players who use steroids, yet everyone more or less knows that steroids are rampant in football and no one bats an eyelash. His answer, in a nutshell, is that baseball seems to each of us like something that we could probably do, and therefore we are offended on a more visceral level when we find out that someone has cheated. Football is basically "American Gladiator" - pure entertainment that most of us could not and would not take part in. But plenty of middle-age men out there are still playing softball every Sunday, convinced that they are one swing away from making SportsCenter.
Teaching seems to me to have some of the same sense of "I could do that" hanging over it. How many parents were at one time a youth group leader, camp counselor, little league coach, scoutmaster, etc? They have had experience leading and instructing children! How different is teaching? Sure, teachers do it every day and not once a week; and, sure, teachers have to get kids to do sometimes unpleasant tasks like finding root words and multiplication tables; and, of course, teachers have to worry about things like state standards and lesson plans and parent-teacher conferences and report cards; but, at the end of the day, isn't teaching English to 7th grade boys five days a week for a year basically the same thing as coaching them for 10 Sundays in the spring?
Of course it's not. However, the possibility exists to have such thoughts. I don't think that taking biology in 9th grade gives me license to question my doctor, and I don't think that one undergrad course in the Constitution makes me Alan Dershowitz. By the same token, and in the same way that baseball looks doable but is played at a level beyond what most of us could ever hope to do, teaching is a specialized profession performed by real professionals. Thankfully, most parents do realize that. Spread the word.
"It seems that your son is a wonderful and healthy boy," the doctor began. "Of course, he should eat some more fruits and vegetables, and we do recommend trying to limit screen time if possible, but he is generally growing exactly the way we would expect him to."
"Thank you," replied his mother. "What about his height and weight."
"Looking good there as well. He is 45th percentile in both height and weight, which is more or less consistent with his development until now."
An awkward silence.
"Forty-fifth percentile??" responded the mother. "I don't understand that. My husband is over six feet tall and I was always on the tall side myself! How can our child possibly be below average??"
Taken slightly aback, the doctor tried to allay the mother's concerns: "I wouldn't be concerned at all. There is nothing in any of his records or tests that would indicate any form of abnormality. Furthermore, we see many children who have dramatic growth spurts in the early teenage years."
"Are you sure you measured properly? I mean, you are only seeing him here in the office. I see him every day, with his siblings and friends, and he certainly doesn't look like below average to me!"
"There really is nothing to be alarmed about," said the doctor, trying again, " He is a healthy boy with good habits who is developing just the way we want him to."
"You know, I have never seen that nurse who took the measurements before," continued the mother, barely heeding the words of the doctor. "Is she new here? How long ago did she receive her degree? How do I know that she knows what she is doing?"
End of story
************************
I think that, for most of us, the above story sounds ridiculous. Yes, people do sometimes seek out second opinions, but probably not about the height and weight of their nine-year old child. Certainly, we would not expect someone to challenge the medical credentials and abilities of the doctors and nurses who have taken such measurements.
And yet - what if this story was taking place not in a doctor's office but in the principal's office? What if the issue was not the height of the child but an assessment of the child's academic abilities? Would we find the story ridiculous - or familiar (not necessarily from personal experience, but perhaps from hearing about someone else who had just such a conversation)? I think that the answer to this question is fairly obvious.
But why? Why would people who would never question their doctor's assessment of their child so readily question the assessment of another type of professional? At some level, I believe that people understand that educators know their business, and that business is mainly understanding children, understanding how children learn and interact, and using that understanding to find ways to best teach that child and foster his growth as a student and as a citizen - and doing the same thing for scores of different children at the same time. It is a business that requires its practitioners to be part teacher, part psychologist, part peace-maker, part politician, and part-so-many-other-things-that-I-can't-list them-all. True, teaching relies far more on on-the-job training (experience) than on formal classroom training (you don't need a Ph.D. to teach), but most people don't question their mechanic either and he received very little classroom training for his job.
An interesting thought occurred to me in this vein while reading this article by the wonderful Joe Posnanski, perhaps one of the best sportswriters, and therefore best writers, around today. In the article, Posnanski asks why everyone cares about baseball players who use steroids, yet everyone more or less knows that steroids are rampant in football and no one bats an eyelash. His answer, in a nutshell, is that baseball seems to each of us like something that we could probably do, and therefore we are offended on a more visceral level when we find out that someone has cheated. Football is basically "American Gladiator" - pure entertainment that most of us could not and would not take part in. But plenty of middle-age men out there are still playing softball every Sunday, convinced that they are one swing away from making SportsCenter.
Teaching seems to me to have some of the same sense of "I could do that" hanging over it. How many parents were at one time a youth group leader, camp counselor, little league coach, scoutmaster, etc? They have had experience leading and instructing children! How different is teaching? Sure, teachers do it every day and not once a week; and, sure, teachers have to get kids to do sometimes unpleasant tasks like finding root words and multiplication tables; and, of course, teachers have to worry about things like state standards and lesson plans and parent-teacher conferences and report cards; but, at the end of the day, isn't teaching English to 7th grade boys five days a week for a year basically the same thing as coaching them for 10 Sundays in the spring?
Of course it's not. However, the possibility exists to have such thoughts. I don't think that taking biology in 9th grade gives me license to question my doctor, and I don't think that one undergrad course in the Constitution makes me Alan Dershowitz. By the same token, and in the same way that baseball looks doable but is played at a level beyond what most of us could ever hope to do, teaching is a specialized profession performed by real professionals. Thankfully, most parents do realize that. Spread the word.
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