90s07 Contradictions

In June of 1990 I wrote in my journal about some contradictions in education. Many are as true now as they were then. I don’t recall what prompted this writing but think the Iowa Writing Project, the work I had done at the University of Iowa, and my experience as an educator, heavily influenced me. Each of the bulleted items deserves some explanation but for now I will let them speak for themselves.

• We teach by lecture yet we know the lecture method is the least effective method.
• We demand silence yet we know that articulation fosters learning.
• We use standardized tests yet we know student achievement can’t be measured in simple terms.
• We teach skills yet we know that to learn to write you must write.
• We teach skills yet we know that to learn to read you must read.
• We have teacher centered classrooms yet we know learner centered classrooms are more effective.
• We demand regurgitation of information but we know processing is the ultimate goal of education.
• We stick to content at the learners expense even though we know the learner is far more important than the content.
• We demand attention yet we don’t attend to learners.
• We tell students to value writing yet we seldom write.
• We tell students to value reading yet we seldom read.
• We know modeling is an effective teaching strategy yet we seldom show the learner how to do what we want.
• We know the learner will do better if he/she is interested yet we don’t care about his/her interests.
• We know learning is infinite yet act like it is finite.
• We know to learn students must make connections between what they already know and the new information yet we provide no opportunity to make the connections.
• We know many of the things we want kids to lean are broad, general concepts yet we insist on putting objectives in measurable terms.
• We know teachers are the experts yet we treat them like they know the least.
• We know the first years of school are the most critical yet we spend the least amount of money on them.
• We tell teachers “time on task” is important but we fill their time with trivial tasks.
• We know kids aren’t products yet we insist on using the factory model.
• We know comparing our schools, where we try to educate all, to foreign schools, where they educate the elite is unfair yet we constantly let it go unchallenged.

Around this time I was fascinated by the notion that people seldom articulate what they know or believe and when they do they sometimes are surprised at where it leads them. For me it was making sense out of experiences and all of the influences in my life. As a read these again for this blog I was amazed at how true they still are and how much I still believe much of what I did when I first wrote them back then.