We Need Balance!!!

The problem arises when children need to learn 1st and 2nd grade basics in 5th grade and the standards tell you otherwise. Now they are telling us that our lesson plans need to be much more detailed explaining every single standard used, how you will teach it and how you will asses it. Looking from a desk point of view, it looks great, BUT in the actual classroom it is ridiculous! Do children need even to be present in the room or can they just send robots instead. These standards are NOT creating self thinkers, they are creating clones.

When a class meets and children get the idea that the ONLY important information is that of what the school demands, what interest are they going to have in learning the material at all? I know that others will say that it is my job to make it interesting, but I am not an entertainer, I am a facilitator, a teacher. My job is to SPARK children's learning and then direct it to where and how they can find the information. Teachers are entertaining now because they need to in order to survive. What kind of thinkers are we creating when children have NO say in what they learn. More and more everything is being scripted for us. Kids don't have a chance.

Of course the question then becomes, how can we monitor teachers to see if they are doing their job? The answer is, look at the work they have produced and what the children can tell you about what they have learned.

Granted, there needs to be some guidelines on what to teach when, but when it is so specific and so rigorous, it leaves no room for the children to explore what they WANT to learn about. There needs to be a lot more room in the day for that!

Question of the day: How do we have balance between a base knowledge that every child knows and that which children get to create themselves?