Tag Archives: teaching

We Need to Rethink AI in Education

I promise I’m not the stereotypical cranky, old teacher who doesn’t want to try new things. In fact, I’m quite the opposite. I was an early adopter! (Read through any of the first posts of this blog.) This isn’t just a case of me saying “no” before looking at all the options.

The fact is, I really and truly believe we need to rethink the use of AI in education. In fact, I’ve been trying to warn educators and parents for quite some time.

After talking with teachers, I know that many are worried about how to deal with students using AI to cheat. Those same teachers have to use AI to grade student work, because of an unrealistic workload. But cheating and grading with AI are two of the lowest level problems we have with AI.

My bigger concern is using AI to deliver instruction or tutoring to students, and that’s the main focus of this post.

When we use bots to stand in for DEEPLY HUMAN INTERACTIONS, we create problems for children. I am begging educators to push back on this!

Let’s take a step back and think about learning.

Learning is deeply personal and relational.

When you think about how a brain develops– how learning occurs for each individual– every single child is learning about the world, navigating their surroundings, acquiring new information– and building upon previous learning. A very simplified example: I cannot teach a student to write a complete sentence, if that child has not yet spoken complete sentences.

Students crowd around a rectangular table to view another student's project (student presenting has back to the camera)

Multi-age students gather around the table of one student’s presentation on the invention of paper. PHOTO (c) 2019 Michelle K. Baldwin All Rights Reserved

As educators, we know there are building blocks to each new skill and concept, and so many of those building blocks – how they are initially acquired, stored in short and long term memory, retrieved, etc. — can appear in a child’s life very differently than they do for another child. Because of these differences in experience, how we teach students new material must be personal and relational. The more context I can help them create, the better the student is able to create their own “container” for the new learning.

More importantly, the better I know my students, the more effective I can be in helping them to build their own context — observing them during a learning activity, checking for and monitoring understanding, and adjusting the learning activity in real time to meet the needs of every single child.

I have the ability as a teacher to do this at Anastasis, because it’s how we intentionally planned the school experience and culture… and we set up smaller class sizes, without which, I couldn’t possibly be this responsive to all students’ individual needs. But… the key concept here is intentionally planning an environment where we know our students well enough to help them to have deeply personal learning experiences. Students learn with and from each other, across age/grade levels even, and those experiences teach us so much more than simply “how to” or “what is.” Personalities shine through. Strengths and growth are regularly celebrated.

And yes… I know. Deeply personal learning experiences can be messy, time-consuming, and are anything but efficient. But…

LEARNING is just that… sometimes messy, often time-consuming, and absolutely anything but efficient.

So much of US education today is about systems and efficiency. (There’s an argument to be made that it’s the same issue in many parts of the world, but I do not have experience with enough international schools to write about that, so I won’t.) The daily school schedule is a system that we know doesn’t work well for every kid. In fact, we have loads of research on start times and how much more sleep teenagers need than younger children, yet there are still many, many high schools who start earlier than recommended. Why?

We have some research measuring the impact of homework for elementary students and 6-12 students — yet the system often ignores the research findings to continue using homework in ways that don’t support learning. Why?

Many schools continue using grades to rank and sort students, rather than provide feedback and narratives that explain what a student knows and is able to do. Some schools grade behavior with the same measurements intended to show academic growth, resulting in artificially inflated or deflated scores based on behavior. Why?

The answers to all those “Why” questions often have to do with the systems we have put in place.

I get it. There are millions of children in the US, and they are all currently* guaranteed a free and appropriate education. It takes huge systems to be able to educate that many students, and we’re always looking for the next best thing to be able to educate the masses in a way that is efficient, both with time and money. Resources are spread very thin, and yet we still manage to educate children in the United States. (I’ve written a lot about how the quality of that education varies greatly from school to school, state to state… but this post has another focus.)

 

In trying to live within the systems we have created to educate millions of children efficiently, we have often sacrificed what is best for kids.

We sacrifice what is best for kids- human children – for what is best for the systems. Again, we create schedules of 7 to 8 hour school days with compulsory attendance and very little leeway for kids who get sick, who do not have enough to eat, who may not have a stable home life… the list here goes on and on. And yet, in many education systems, we ignore the human parts of our children and treat them as if they are small containers we need to fill with as much information as we can in each school year.

Red plastic puzzle box with different shapes for young children to learn how to sort shapes and fit into specific shaped holes

Square Block, Round Hole – Photo by Michelle K. Baldwin CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

We have long known that the system doesn’t work for everyone. Too often, we insist that kids fit the system, instead of creating something that works for the kids.

 

Instead of changing the system, we keep trying to create new tools to make the current system even more efficient.

In doing so, we further remove the humanity from the equation, and present kids with ideas like AI tutors.

(For the purpose of this post, I’m going to suspend my urge to rant for multiple paragraphs about the ethics of AI tools- their overconsumption of vital natural resources, and how they scrape (read here: steal) copyrighted work from creators who make a living from their craft. AI tools depend upon creators who have NOT consented to their work being used to train any AI tool. Unless you’re training an AI tool on your own work, and only your own work, I will not agree that you can use any AI tool ethically. </end rant>)

I’m not going to call out any single company trying to sell AI tools to schools, because there are a lot of them, and I am not going after a specific company in this.

What I absolutely want to do is BEG educators to stop, take a breath, and think through the moral implications, as well as the potential of extreme harm, in using AI tutors with students. 

I’ve read advertising copy from several companies trying to sell AI tutors to schools, especially those with large class sizes, as a solution to helping meet each student’s individual needs. Some examples (paraphrased from several so as not to target any one specific company):

  • Do you feel like you need more of YOU to be able to get around to each of the students in your class to help them understand a lesson?
  • Are you struggling to help each one of your students to understand the directions for an assignment? 
  • Is it a hardship on you and the other students in your class when a student has been absent and you need to get them caught up?
  • Do you lack a teaching assistant who can help keep groups of students busy while you work with a small group?

Use our AI tutor for any of these situations! Our tutor will ask your student what they need and then deliver personalized instructions and explanations to get them back on track!

 

When I was a younger teacher struggling with too many classes, too many students, and not enough time in the day to make it all work, this would have seemed like a gift that could solve so many issues.

As a more experienced teacher, I see it for what it is. Maybe because I’ve seen snake oil salespeople come and go with the edtech tools that were supposed to make my life as a teacher easier… and learning better and more innovative (!) for students… it’s easy for me to see through the charade.

But an AI tutor is a poor substitute that tries to replace a necessary human interaction. It’s not personal. It’s not relational. You cannot get a true tutoring experience through a simulation.

Let’s break down the harms that come with an AI tutor.

1. Children – including teenagers- do not have the ability to FULLY comprehend abstract concepts.

Abstract thinking is developing in the brains of children through adolescence and even young adulthood. Lacking the ability to fully comprehend abstract ideas, kids can have difficulty discerning between a human interaction and one with a bot. They can verbalize, “I know it’s not real,” and yet we find some young children trying to have conversations with a puppet, for example, as if the puppet has the ability to respond independently of the puppeteer.  Older kids can verbalize that they know Siri or Alexa aren’t real people, but they might respond angrily or with frustration at the bot when they don’t get the response they’re looking for. It doesn’t make sense to be angry at software or hardware, but this is not an uncommon phenomenon.

Bots that “converse” or “teach” children are programmed to be simulations of human interactions. For a child without a fully developed prefrontal cortex, this can create a disconnect between what is real and what isn’t real at time when those distinctions are very important learning milestones.  While kids are more naturally skeptical than they’re usually given credit for, continually blurring the lines with something programmed to SEEM real sets the stage for bigger problems.

2. Anthropomorphization of responsive programs can cause real harm to children… and even adults.

Humans tend to anthropomorphize THINGS, and there’s very real harm to our mental health when we are unable to balance this with real-life experiences. Sure, many of us do this with our pets as well, but at least a living, breathing pet can have an authentic response, not a programmed response.

We see this with kids toys sometimes, but most toys can’t simulate authentic, real-time responses. That’s what makes them toys. Mix the two together… some of us even had a Pet Rock growing up! All it did was sit in a box. So disappointing, right?

I was a young teacher in the 1990s, and so many of my students (7th-12th grades) had Tamagotchis or NeoPets. These virtual pets were advertised as a wonderful opportunity to teach your child about the responsibility of caring for a pet. Kids were obsessed with them! Most of the adults dismissed the virtual pets as just another fad and didn’t think much more about them… until someone’s virtual pet died. Maybe the family went on vacation, and the Tamagotchi was left behind. There were all sorts of these kinds of scenarios, and most of the adults brushed off the kids’ concerns with “but it’s not even real.”

What I observed as a teacher: Some kids were fine. “No big deal. I’ll just start over.” However, there were several kids who were devastated that their virtual pet had died. We had to have a conversation with school counselors (who sometimes weren’t as responsive as I had hoped) about helping a child process that the pet wasn’t real… that the child wasn’t a horrible person for letting this happen, etc. Many of the adults dismissed the very real feelings of guilt and loss these kids experienced over a virtual entity. Those kids grew up to make memes about how sad they were when their Tamagotchis died. It’s treated as a joke now, but many of us who were teaching back then observed those kids and their sadness.

And the thing is… kids’ feelings are real. How they respond to something that feels like guilt, loss, or grief is very real, and it affects their overall well-being. Even if you, the adult, disagrees whether something is traumatic or not, a kid’s brain registers trauma regardless of what adults think and feel about the situation. When you cannot separate what is real and what is “virtual,” the lines are blurred again… but the emotional and mental health aspects can and will be very real problems.

If you have not read about the Eliza Effects: Pygmalion and the Early Development of Artificial Intelligence by Lawrence Switzky, I highly recommend you do.

There are apps, programs, games, and other tools that have been developed to sell to kids (or FOR kids) to make money without any consideration to the very real impact those tools have on the well-being of children.

Think I’m overreacting? These are just some of the most recent headlines. 

AI friendships claim to cure loneliness. Some are ending in suicide. (This article is behind a Washington Post paywall)

Are AI Chatbots Safe for Children?

There Are No Guardrails

AI Companions and the Mental Health Risks for the Young (This article is behind a New York Times paywall)

I know that all these headlines reference at least one or two of the same individuals. There is a tendency in our culture to blame the victim in a way that diminishes the potential for harm from these tools. For me, if these AI chatbots are harmful to the mental health of even one kid… what are we even doing?!?

 

3. AI Bots/Tutors cannot solve problems outside of their programming, and it absolutely matters WHO is doing the programming and packaging of these tools.

(Also… what about student data/privacy?)

I’ve been in education for nearly 30** years, and I can tell you there is always an issue of trust between teachers and community. Children are precious. We cannot allow just anyone to spend hours a day with an impressionable child, right? That’s why teachers are required to be licensed after having been educated in child development and teaching methods. Most schools require its teaching staff to have at least a bachelor’s degree in education, and many schools require ongoing education in order to continue teaching.

So…

  • Who is programming the AI tools? Which groups of people do they represent?
  • What are the implicit biases of the people programming the AI tools?
  • Are there actual certified teachers involved in the programming?
  • Are there actual certified teachers on staff at all in this AI company?
  • Has your district administration done its due diligence by reading all the End User Licensing Agreements (that are often longer than most humans could possibly read)?
  • What exactly is stipulated in the contracts schools sign in the use of AI tutors and other tools?
  • How can these tools make accommodations for students with an IEP? A 504 plan?
  • Can you guarantee students and their families that this company selling you its AI tools will protect student privacy?
  • What is the policy when the AI Tutor leads a student in the wrong direction, or provides factually incorrect information? How does it affect the student’s work/grades?
  • What is the policy when harm is done by an AI Tutor?
  • Can a family opt their child out of a class or teacher using an AI Tutor?

 

Years ago, I worked in the technology department of a suburban public school district. The questions above, although this was long before AI, are similar to the considerations we discussed in meetings with vendors before we would even think about deploying a new ed tech product in our schools. We could not purchase or sign contracts to use a student email product, for example, without ensuring that the laws about student data and privacy were being followed to a “t.”

I know there are lot of educators who work for different AI companies. I hope they’re able to answer some of these questions that would help people feel that their children and their privacy are safe. Past experiences and interactions with ed tech entrepreneurs remind me that a lot of ed tech companies don’t consider these things as much as they want to find a niche market where they can sell a “quick solution.”

 

5. Human Teacher vs AI Tutor – who gets actual face-to-face time with a human is an educational equity issue.

We already know that our educational system is not equitable. By tying school finances and funding to property taxes, schools in the United States vary greatly in resources allocated for students. This is an issue that affects race, kids who live in poverty, kids with special needs, and so much more. 

Now throw in who gets actual face time with a human teacher? Who gets assigned an AI tutor? The “learning gap” will continue to grow into an insurmountable chasm.

If you’re skeptical about this point, please take a look around at the most expensive private schools in your area versus, say, a small rural public school.

Again, I ask… which students will have more face-to-face time with a human teacher if an AI solution is proposed? 

As I mentioned above, tutoring is a personal and relational experience. If a student is struggling with the directions given by a teacher, sure. An AI Tutor Bot could repeat the instructions. But, as a teacher, I have a lot of tools already where I can share the written directions, accompanied by an audio file of ME reading the instructions, available without having to use a bot. I’ve done this in products like Seesaw, Google Classroom, Apple Classroom… or something as analog as having the instructions written on a piece of paper or a whiteboard. I don’t need to use AI as a more expensive and problematic substitution for technology we already have.

Maybe the student needs a more in-depth explanation of what we just learned. An AI tutor doesn’t know WHY that student needs more explanation. Maybe they didn’t sleep well the night before. Maybe they’re hungry. Maybe they need to move around the room. Maybe they didn’t have context for the new concept. There are endless reasons why a student might need more explanation, and an AI tutor cannot read that in a child… NOR DO I WANT IT TO TRY. If a kid needs more explanation, I can bring them into a small group. I can partner that student with other students to learn together. There are numerous options available… why bring in a technology with the potential to do harm when I can solve that problem without it?

Human issues need human solutions… and kids need humans who care about them enough to know this.

 

Final Thoughts

I’m going to return now to my first main point in this post. Learning is deeply personal and relational. As I sit here typing this, soooo many faces of so many students are in my thoughts, thinking about their unique personalities and special gifts they bring to the world. I’m absolutely a better person for having them, even for a tiny bit of time, in my life… and I hope they feel that I KNEW them and helped them learn.

If you’re not designing education around the kids in front of you, you’re trying to make the kids fit a system.

What we have learned at Anastasis is, that challenging the system– the status quo, thinking about the kids as the starting point… all of that is possible. When you design a living curriculum around the needs of children, the learning IS personal and relational. Kids feel successful, and we see proof of growth in every one of our graduates.

If we really want to improve education, AI is not going to save us.

Getting back to really knowing our students, cultivating relationships in the name of helping students grow and learn, and holding true to what learning means to THEM… well, that’s a pretty good start.

Oh, and that FUNDING thing. ALL kids deserve to be in safe, clean, healthy buildings where the adults know who the students are- not just their names, but really know them. We can’t do that when our schools are overpopulated and underfunded.

 

photos of Kelly Tenkely and Michelle Baldwin on a dark blue background; text: "Dreams of Education"

Dreams of Education Podcast

Kelly Tenkely and I discuss learning on our Dreams of Education podcast. We talk a lot about AI in education in episode 9 (released 12/5/24) and episode 10 (scheduled for 12/12/24).

 

NOTE: A lot of what I’ve written in this post is based on my experiences as an educator: a public school teacher, a private school teacher, an education technology/professional development coordinator, an adult ed teacher… and an endlessly curious learner. I’ve cited some (not all) sources in this post for expertise I don’t have. I’ve also made statements that, to me, seem to be common knowledge amongst most educators– and didn’t include citations for those. If you feel that some of these issues aren’t common knowledge and do require citations, by all means, please add them in the comments. Or write your own blog post. 🙂

 

*Let’s hope that free public education remains free and appropriate.

**That number might be over 30 by now. I stopped counting.

Thoughts on Motivation

I had a Twitter conversation last week about motivation for teachers. Since then, numerous posts, tweets, and situations have popped up right in front of me, and I knew I needed to write about this.

The gentleman¹ I was debating on Twitter (the actual thread isn’t important to recount in its entirety) about motivation was correct in his statement that motivation is intrinsic. I can’t truly motivate another person to change behavior. I can, however, provide an environment that helps to inspire, challenge, and provide opportunities for autonomy and creativity. That was my point in the debate. When the environment is lacking, it’s difficult to stay motivated. We can’t and shouldn’t always blame an individual for a lack of motivation.

Since that tweet thread, I read tweets from an account called AnonymousProfessor.² Angus Johnston quoted this one and added his own thoughts:

This resonated with me and led back to the conversation I’d had earlier. How do we expect students to be motivated when they’re treated as adversaries? Even if the kids aren’t treated in that manner, they still sense it. Kids are entirely more perceptive about their teachers than most people believe.

This goes for teachers and administrators also. If the environment in which we learn and work stifles who we are, how we learn, how we help others to learn, it is very difficult to be motivated. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but day after day, month after month, the drudgery wears on a person’s ability to remain motivated. In some instances, it’s quite soul-crushing.

I read another post on Facebook this morning by a former teacher who watched a video of a guitar-playing youngster on Steve Harvey’s show, Little Big Shots. His comment with the video was something along the lines of “I wish some of my former students had shown this kind of drive.” My first thought after reading that was… what did YOU do to help those kids recognize their own passions? Knowing this person, I’m sure he did a lot. He was a fantastic teacher… but this comment still wore on me.

Do we recognize and honor our kids’ passions? What could they be excited about and want to learn more? Because the drive to excel at something is personal, we have to ensure that kids have the opportunity to show us those things that excite them! Additionally, we have to help introduce concepts/skills/topics to kids in a way that might create a new spark. If kids don’t know what they don’t know, how can we help them explore new ideas that might generate a new passion? This is all about the culture of learning in our schools. Is the culture in YOUR school open to these ideas to help kids explore their own interests, or only that which is in the written curriculum?

Drive… motivation… whatever you want to call it. You can’t be motivated about things that aren’t interesting to you. You might summon up some willpower to trudge into the things you just have to get through, but that’s not motivation.

I don’t want kids to have to see learning as something to suffer through. I don’t want classroom teachers to feel like they just have to make it through until summer break… or worse, until they can retire. In either case, for students and teachers, that’s a lot of years to go uninspired.

I get it. We are human beings. We’re going to have ups and downs. If I’m in a classroom (which I am currently), it’s up to me to stay motivated for my students. And I’m not a superteacher… I have my sucky days like anyone else. Where I’m fortunate, though, is that I am in a learning environment where I have autonomy and room to be who I am… to teach in a way that suits me, but also inspires my kids.  I am inspired daily by our school leader and my colleagues, and we have each others’ backs. Our students benefit from that, because that’s what we hope to provide for them as well. But not everyone has that type of environment.

So what can we do? Collectively, there are ways to help.

  1. Recognize and be aware that some people – students and teachers- go to school/teach in a place that wears on their emotional well-being. It’s not always a matter of “just suck it up.” You can only do that for so long.
  2. LISTEN. Don’t interject ideas of what they could do better… just be a listener. Sometimes people who feel they are trapped in a no-win situation at a school just need a friendly ear. Yes, it’s probably going to be negative, but just be there for that person. Use supportive phrasing, such as “I can imagine that would be very difficult,” etc.
  3. Instead of giving them platitudes, motivational memes,  or “go get ’em, tiger” suggestions, ask them how you can provide support.
  4. Probably the most important: If YOU are in a place to help change the surroundings, DO IT.
    • If you’re a teacher with students who don’t seem motivated, don’t blame them. Look at yourself and make the changes your students need. ASK THE KIDS ABOUT THEMSELVES. <– This is a good place to start.
    • If you’re an admin, and there is a morale issue in your building, that’s on you to help change. Enlist some people who are willing to step up and help you turn things around. Change “business as usual” by asking for input, and then actually read it and implement some new practices.
    • Ask for help. Ask other people what they do to inspire.
    • Find someone who inspires you, and then model some of those same practices in your own leadership.

I think the most important way to help another individual to be motivated is to look around, reflect on the surroundings, and be brutally honest with yourself… how are you contributing to a place where it’s easier to be complacent or just go through the motions? I know from experience how hard it is to admit that YOU might be the problem… but YOU can also be part of the solution.

Thanks for reading.

 

 

 

 

¹I’m not sharing his name here, because this post is a) not about our debate, b) not a wish to prove him wrong, nor c) an attempt to out or shame another person in any way.

² This account makes me embarrassed for the people who contribute and for those who like/share its contents. This is a shameful practice for educators, and you can #dobetter.

Learning vs Teaching

Do you ever write a blog post and leave it in “drafts” for so long… you forget your wrote it? That happened with this post. This post was initiated last spring and completed today with some additions.

For too long now, we have equated “learning” with the “result of being taught.” I’m not refuting the fact that we can learn from great teachers… in fact, that’s not my point at all. Teachers make a significant impact in whether students have an opportunity to learn or not in a school environment.

Rather, the point I want to make is that, for too long, we have equated learning with consuming what has been delivered TO learners. Traditional schooling has tried to make learning a passive activity, and I feel the damage we’re doing to children is resulting in generations of people who cannot think for themselves. Additionally, they have a difficult time learning anything that is new or unfamiliar – if a problem is put in front of them that doesn’t resemble a problem they’ve already seen, most students will struggle.

Recently, I’ve noticed a lot of educators talking about how we need to help students learn “how to learn.” I vehemently disagree. Children come to us as innate learners. If anything, most schooling conditions children to turn off their learning brains and substitute with their compliance/consumer brains. If you think you have students who need to be taught how to learn… you’re wrong. They just need help reprogramming themselves to actually learn, and that requires removing almost everything they have been conditioned to do in a traditional school environment.

Learning isn’t memorizing something and then performing on a test. If you disagree with me, pull out a test from one or two months ago and give it to your students. Most of them will not be able to pass this test, even if they aced it before. Now, if those same students created something through building, baking, composing, painting, etc. – something where the learning was meaningful, my guess is that they would be able to replicate (and most likely improve) their creations over and over again.  

When I speak to other educators about learning, they usually agree… except when it comes to facts and skills they strongly believe must be TAUGHT.

EXAMPLE: I am constantly asked how I TEACH my students to read, considering I do not focus on teaching and drilling sight words, phonemic awareness, etc.
 
I usually answer, “I don’t TEACH my students to read.”
 
I get the same questions when it comes to math… “How do they learn math if you don’t practice math facts?” *
 
And the question, especially from other educators, “How will your students learn to read, learn their math facts (etc.) if you don’t TEACH them?”
 
Yet… my students DO learn to read. They do learn their math facts, and so, SO much more!
 
How is it at all possible that the students in my classroom are reading, are applying math facts to actual math problems that they find (not necessarily problems I give them to solve)?
 
The answer is simple, and it’s one we’ve forgotten over years – nearly a century really- of delivering information to kids to “learn.” Consuming information that is delivered from a teacher is not LEARNING. 
 
When I memorize a bunch of stuff that someone else decides is important for me to know, that process takes one of the most important facets of learning out of the learners hands– the agency of the learner.
 

Human beings learn about the world around them when they’re curious… when they see a need to know and understand something… and then want to USE that newly found knowledge/skill. Good teachers know this and help provide an environment where kids are able to learn and pursue those things that make them curious. Master teachers know how to expose children to new experiences – those they may not discover on their own – to create new opportunities for learning to occur. 

Inventing, planning, and building a new form of mass transportation for water.

Inventing, planning, and building a new form of mass transportation for water.

 
When WE (educators) decide what students should learn, it becomes a chore. Curiosity lessens. And the opportunity to actually use that new knowledge is rarely provided outside an artificial environment.
 
Case in point… I have observed years and years of children sitting in science class “learning” from a textbook. THAT is not science! That’s reading comprehension. When you have never practiced actual science and only read about it… that is not learning science.
 
In discussions with other educators, I often hear things along the lines of “Well, if I don’t explain it to them first, how will they learn it?” This line of thinking misses the beauty of true learning. Ask any adult what they remember the most from high school. I guarantee it won’t be anything they were “taught” and memorized for a test. Delivered information resides in our short-term memory if we don’t do anything beyond memorizing it. We KNOW this… it’s not new to teachers. We learn that memorization is the lowest order of thinking. So why do we still concentrate more in this area in education than the others? Short answer: it’s the quickest and easiest to test. Efficiency for the win (or not). The longer answer is much more complicated.
 
I’ve written several posts like this before with explanations about what learning IS and what it IS NOT.  So have a lot of other people. I’ll add some to comments and welcome your additions as well! 
 
So to get back to my original example (and reason for writing this post)…
The answer to the questions I get from educators who see what we do at Anastasis Academy  – and wonder how on earth my K/1s learn how to read, write, understand math, etc.  -without teaching via traditional methods educators are used to seeing –  is THIS:
 
I don’t teach kids to read.
I don’t teach kids to write.
I don’t teach kids to memorize math facts… or vocabulary… or any of those other delivered items/standards to which we have clung so tightly in traditional education.
 
I facilitate a learning environment where they are curious.
 
I facilitate a learning environment where they want to learn to read.
 
I facilitate a learning environment where they want to make sense of numbers.
 
(I could go on, but I think you get the picture.)
 
We do not drill phonics or math facts. We read all the time. We talk about letters, sounds, word endings, rhyming words, patterns, etc. IN THE CONTEXT OF WHAT WE ARE LEARNING. Always.
 
Let me emphasize that…
Yes, sometimes we’ll stop and talk about how verbs in the past tense sound like they end in a “t,” but the patterns we see in our books are “-ed.” We remark about this pattern every time we see it, and then we also start noticing it in our writing.
Pretty soon, the students start to think and edit themselves in their writing of past tense verbs. It makes sense to them, because it comes up in the context of what they’re already doing. These types of little mini or “pop out” lessons happen all the time, but the most important part is this: it’s always in the context of what we’re learning. I cannot stress this enough.
 
So if you ask me how I teach my kids to read if I don’t focus on all the traditional 20th/21st century methods of teaching reading, I will tell you…
 
I don’t teach them to read. They LEARN to read.
You can substitute any other concept/skill in the above sentences, because the emphasis is always on LEARNING, not teaching.
 
 
 (My class and I blog at architectsofwonder.edublogs.org… we share a lot of what we do and how we learn there. We also tweet from @TeamBaldwin and would love to hear from you!)

*Two of my “learning and math” posts that are relevant:

Trust, Compassion, and Love

Think about this:

Why do we cheer on Katniss Everdeen and company in the Hunger Games? Katniss sees a wrong and wants to fix it. The authority (the Capitol) abuses its power. When a person in one of the districts breaks the rules or speaks out against the Capitol, they’re physically and publicly punished. Katniss doesn’t trust the Capitol, and she leads a revolution… and we cheer.

When our STUDENTS communicate to us something they see as a wrong, do we applaud them for speaking up? Or do we try to shut them down and force compliance? When they break our rules, do we sit down and talk with them? Or do we punish? How often is that punishment public and/or physical?

 

What if…

  • we showed kids that we trust them?
  • we stopped requiring absolute compliance with no questioning? (because we wouldn’t want that requested of us, right?)
  • we looked at their acts of defiance as courage to stand up and advocate for themselves?
  • we taught them how to respect others by showing them respect first?
  • we looked at “discipline problem children” as who they really are? Human beings who need our care, trust, compassion, love… and no labels. They are children. Period.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about the video* I watched where a young girl was thrown around her classroom while still in her chair… because she didn’t put her phone away. People commented that it wouldn’t have happened if she would have just done what she was told. Comply with my rules, or we will physically cause you harm? In my eyes, the ONLY justification in putting hands on a child is if he (or she) is endangering himself or others… and then only to restrain.

Reading more about her story is heartbreaking. What if an adult in that school had taken the time to simply stop and TALK with her? I’m betting we wouldn’t have seen a video of her being thrown around the room.

It’s extremely obvious that we do not trust kids… and that the depth of our fear OF those children (yes, children) goes so far that we allow them to be hurt by us. We allow them to be treated as LESS than. Less than human. And when you account for the suspension/expulsion rates broken down by race, you see an even more sinister story. We don’t trust kids, especially children of color.

I say “WE,” because each of us is complicit in allowing to this happen over and over again when we don’t stand up to make it end NOW.

I’ve come a long way from my first few years of teaching. Those years when I required absolute compliance. Those years when I didn’t listen to a “sob story,” because I didn’t trust the kids to do what they were “supposed” to do. Those years when a lot of my students hated me and didn’t trust me at all. I didn’t trust them. I didn’t respect them. As their teacher, I was supposed to anticipate that these students would try to get the better of me… would try to be lazy… would try to do anything but what they were supposed to be doing… if I didn’t have the upper hand.

Now, I look back on some of those kids I had… the really defiant ones… and I know they were hurting. I know they needed me to teach them that life was more than what we learning in the classroom… that someone could care about why they were upset. That sometimes an adult who will just LISTEN is more important than following the rules every step of the way. And I wasn’t that teacher.

I’ve read and heard a lot of comments about how “kids are so disrespectful nowadays,” and how they need to be taught respect properly. (Read here: we need to teach them to fear us). Any time I’ve ever heard someone use the phrase, “they need to be taught to respect me,” it always comes across as derisive. Full of contempt. As a child, why would I ever want to respect someone who wants me to fear them?

How can we teach kids to respect us if we don’t respect them?

How can we teach kids to trust us if we don’t trust them?

I am the adult in the classroom. THE ADULT. I need to ensure the safety of my students… yes. But they are in my care, and I take that very seriously. My second priority as a teacher is to help these children love to learn. My first priority is to make sure they know they are cared for. They are trusted. And yes, they are loved. When they make mistakes… and they WILL… I need to be the adult who can think past the mistake. I need to be the adult who sees the child in front of me. The child waiting to see how I will react.

I didn’t do that when I first became a teacher, and that still haunts me. I will not make that same mistake again.

 

 

 

*I didn’t link to the video. There are too many of these types of videos. This is a crisis, and we have to step up. Do better.

Dreams Fulfilled

As the school year came to a close for us this past May, I realized that I had just finished my 20th year in education: six years in 7-12 vocal music, eight years as a technology professional development coordinator, two years in elementary general music, and the last four as a teacher at Anastasis Academy.

At each stage in my education career, I have loved working with my students, both children and adults. But somehow, I always felt something was missing. I didn’t always like that students were required to learn a certain way or a pre-defined set of skills and concepts… and that I was required to teach in a certain way. It didn’t seem like real learning to me.

A good friend of mine, Sharon Comisar-Langdon (who just retired after 34 years!) visited Colorado a while back. It was great to catch up with Sharon and her husband, Randy. I found myself going on and on and on about how much I loved Anastasis and the incredible opportunities we have for our students. At one point, Sharon remarked, “Michelle, what you’re doing at this school is what we ALL went into education to do.”

That statement has stuck with me since that time, and she was right. I have never been happier as a teacher than I am now – watching our students at Anastasis grow in their confidence, ask amazingly deep questions, and become excited about learning! This is a place where students LOVE school. This is a place where teachers love school!

I watched a lot of my teacher friends post countdowns to summer break on Facebook and other social media sites a few months back, and I realized at the time, I had no idea how many days we had left. As much as I enjoy sleeping in occasionally during the summer, I’m not excited for summer break anymore. I miss my students! I miss the joy of learning I am so privileged to witness in those children every single day.

I didn’t mean this to sound like a commercial for our school, but more a testament to what happens when you stick your neck out and do something DIFFERENT. Anastasis is different.

To Kelly Tenkely (who is actually celebrating a birthday today), I express my profound gratitude. Thank you for thinking, “why not me? Why shouldn’t I just start my own school?” Thanks for writing a blog post that started Anastasis. Thank you for making a place where people WANT to be – what I have always loved about teaching and learning happens because of your dreams and drive to make them happen.

This also makes me wonder… why don’t more of us do this? Why don’t we stand up to the lawmakers, those who make and enforce policy, and demand what’s best for kids? Why do we insist on “fixing a broken system” with more of the same things that make kids unhappy? Learning should be an experience that is enjoyable, challenging, and based on the needs of each child. I don’t see that happening in most places.

My friend, George Couros, often asks, “Would you want to be a kid in your classroom?” I can truly answer an enthusiastic YES to that question now… and I wish my own children could have experienced learning in this school as well.

As a child, I knew that I wanted to become a teacher, because I love learning… and I wanted to share that love and joy with others. As much as I enjoyed my previous experiences, there was always something missing. Teaching at Anastasis is not just a job. Now I am able to share my passion about learning with our students. As Sharon noted, I get to do what I always dreamed about doing. The smiles on their faces, the realization you see in their eyes when they learn something on their own terms, the pride they feel when they see their progress, and the joy they experience because they know they’re in a place that honors them as unique individuals – THAT is what I wanted to be able to experience when I dreamt about going into teaching. Dreams fulfilled.

Guest Post – Addressing the Viral “Epic Dad Response”

My friend, Nolan Schmit, is a teacher and composer extraordinaire. What I know most about him is his commitment and dedication to the students he serves.

Today, I read a post that Nolan wrote in response to this viral story: Abington dad’s letter becomes matter of principal. (I purposefully chose THIS link, rather than the other incredibly sensational posts I’ve seen about it.) As is typical of stories that elicit an emotional response, it was shared widely, and outrage grew as quickly as the story made the rounds.

My first thought after reading this story was: Yay! Parents who want to (and can afford to) take their children on learning trips are awesome!

My second thought was: schools don’t always have the option of defining “excused” and “unexcused” absences on a per case basis. It doesn’t mean that those types of family trips are discouraged… just that it’s how they’re defined. I know this all depends on the school and district.

Nolan didn’t leave it at that. He responded today with what I think is a justified perspective, and I wish that those who are seething with outrage would consider the position that schools are in when it comes to students and absences. I asked Nolan if he would consider reposting/guest blogging here, and he agreed.

Nolan Schmit - nolanschmit.com

Nolan Schmit – nolanschmit.com

Nolan’s response:

OK. I’ve got to say something. It doesn’t take a lot to get me fired up, but it takes a lot for me post something like this. I feel the need to be an apologist for public education, especially when misinformation is floating around.

I posted part of this on a friend’s page, but am reposting it here.

There is a photo going viral from a guy named Mike Rossi who is upset with his kids’ school because he took his kids on a vacation during the school year and the school wrote him a letter saying the kids’ absences are not considered “excused” absences. Rossi wrote a letter back to the school to “slam” the school for being so rigid and to tell them how educational and valuable the trip was. Many people are treating Mr. Rossi like a hero for “sticking it” to the school and, by extension, the government for being too intrusive.

Let me first say I am in favor of kids having these types of experiences, because THEY ARE VALUABLE and open up the world to kids. Travel and other opportunities for enrichment are needed, desired and invaluable. As Mark Twain said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” I’m on Mr. Rossi’s side on this part of the issue.

To be fair, though, he can’t blame the school. Public education has been under fire for decades and people have DEMANDED that there be accountability. Because of these outcries and the subsequent results at the ballot boxes, we ended up with NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND.

The good part of NCLB is that it has encouraged improved practices in the classroom and has made teachers much more aware of how to reach ALL kids. I’m a better teacher now than when I started and it is not simply due to experience, but some great professional development that resulted from the mandates of NCLB.

The bad part is that schools are put in an impossible position on several fronts. First, it is impossible for 100% of students to achieve the same level of proficiency on any skill or topic on a given date. Punishing schools for this is beyond crazy. That’s like firing your kid’s coach for incompetence because she was unable to coach your kid to run the 400m in under 52 sec.

Second, TODAY the measure of success established FOR schools, right or wrong, is standardized testing. Kids pass the test = good teaching. Kids fail = bad teaching. We take no mitigating circumstances into account. For instance, a child can arrive from the Ukraine with NO ENGLISH skills in third grade and are expected to be at the same level of proficiency as their English speaking peers by fourth grade. This is INSANE. There are many teachers fearing for their future, because when a kid misses school, they miss the content being covered. While the trip may be invaluable, the content covered in class is the ONLY content over which the students will be tested and, in some districts, the only measure by which teacher success is determined.

I empathize with schools, because they have a job to do. Schools don’t have the right to tell parents what to do with their children, but how can schools do the job of educating when kids aren’t in class? You can’t say, “We demand that our kids score well on these tests, will fire you if they don’t, and we can pull our kids out of school as much as we want. If they don’t learn, it is STILL YOUR PROBLEM.”

You can’t have it both ways.

If you vote people into office who have no clue how to craft legislation as it relates to education, this type of thing is the result.

I’ve been in public education for 22 years. I am not a stereotype. I am not owned by a political party. I don’t hate home-schooled kids. I don’t hate private and parochial schools. My liberal friends would call me conservative. My conservative friends would call me liberal. I care about one thing and one thing only. I want every student that comes into my classroom, no matter what their background, beliefs, skin color, religion, life philosophy, culture, race, sexual orientation, economic status, skill set, degree of physical and mental wellness, talents, limitations, interests and ambitions, to treat others with and be treated with kindness and to be able to learn to the best of their abilities. That’s it. I am not unique in this respect. The vast majority of my colleagues feel the same way. Kids are why we got into this profession. We want to give children the tools to live a rich, fulfilling, healthy, purposeful life.

I would prefer that schools were free to allow more opportunities for enrichment, but enrichment now takes a backseat to test scores. We’ve voted, we’ve made our beds and now we have to lie in them.

Our society has put all the educational eggs in the assessment basket and forgotten what constitutes real learning and the impact other life experiences have on the total education of a child.

Thanks for letting me ramble, but when I see or hear misinformation being spread, I feel obligated to stand up for truth and facts.

Peace.
N

A Math Tale – How I Know They Are Learning

Backstory to this post:

Teaching in an inquiry-based school, we don’t isolate “subjects” as most traditional schools do.  The beauty of this model is that kids really get to make connections. Science doesn’t just happen at a certain time of day, and it usually involves many other content areas as well. I love when my students are able to connect on their own that music is science is math is history is communication… and so on.

Although we don’t teach subjects in isolation all day, we do spend some time looking at content areas on their own for supporting understanding.

Math is a great example of one “subject” in our school that receives some supplemental time. It still looks different, though, because we meet each child where he/she is and help to move more deeply into understanding.

(I started to type “move forward,” but that’s not necessarily what happens, nor should it.)

 

The FOCUS of this post:

The problem with math in so many traditional schools is that there is a push to move kids along, rather than guide them into understanding. If you memorize facts easily, you’re going to do well in math early on. The problem with how math is often taught – and how most people think it should be taught – is that we focus so much on the “abstract” — the written facts. My friend Rafranz Davis says, “experiencing math starts with the ‘why,’ not the ‘how.'” I love this! Multiplication tables and formulas, for example, are the how, not the why.

Because so many of us, educators and non-educators alike, were taught with a focus on the math facts, we tend to forget that the conceptual understanding — the “concrete” and “representational” aspects of numbers — is entirely more important than what we memorize. A lot of students who do well in elementary or primary math classes find themselves struggling in pre-algebra or other math classes that require an understanding of what those facts mean, how numbers are related, the underlying patterns in those facts, and how it all connects. <— The WHY

Flash cards, worksheets, and apps that only focus on drilling facts are not what our kids need. They do not show us what our children have learned and understand about math.

BUT… this is where so much time, effort, and concerns lie. If students do not have their multiplication tables memorized by 3rd or 4th grade, they’re labeled as behind their peers. As a teacher, this frustrates me immeasurably. Yes, we want kids to be fluent in their facts, but the problem is when we assign a date and time to when they must have these facts memorized.

You might have a child who memorizes easily, but doesn’t truly understand what the fact means. I once had a student who knew that 5×3=15, but did not know that 5 groups of 3 items was the meaning behind it. Another one of my students understood that multiplication was grouping, but she could not recall fluently each fact if put on the spot.

Teaching a K/1 class for the first time has reinforced my philosophy of how I teach math- they WHY comes before the HOW. An example from today sealed the deal:

I have four students, all boys, in my class. (I know. Yes, I typed “four.”)

Every one of these boys, ages 5 and 6, is in a different place in his understanding of addition and subtraction facts. Some can skip count by 7s. Some are still struggling with addition and subtraction facts up to 10.

Today, we did some problem-solving with an activity I found on MathPickle.com: Addition Boomerang. (Watch the video – it explains how the boomerangs work. Definitely worth the 5 minutes.)

I started with all 4 of the kids together and demonstrated how the boomerangs work. We started with one boomerang with a +1 to reach the target of 10. Then we changed it to +2 to the target of 10. The boys were seeing this as an easy activity, and liked the idea of going around the boomerang circle.

Next, I changed it to two boomerangs: +3 and +4 with the same target of 10. I asked them to find every combination, both successful and “fails.”

This is what we produced together:

Boomerang1

 

After we discussed other combinations, they determined that they had found all the successful combinations. Anything else we we might try would result in similar fails. This discussion was incredible, because some of them still don’t always remember the commutative property of addition. We often have to review that if 3+4=7, then 4+3 also equals 7. Epiphany moment!

After our discussion, I paired them up and gave them their own boomerangs to solve. One group had to get to the target of 20 with +4 and +5. The other group needed to get to 12 with +2 and +3.

Boomerang3

Boomerang2

Here’s the beauty of what I witnessed today. One of my boys who is very fluent in addition facts well past 10 struggled with this activity at first. He didn’t understand what we were trying to do. After working with his partner, he exclaimed, “Oh! I get it!” Exuberant smiles followed. Those facts he memorized are beginning to come to life for him.

Another one of my boys who is not fluent in addition facts to 10 whizzed through this activity. He was counting so quickly, his partner had to ask him to slow down so he could figure it out as well. I can still ask him, “what is 4+5?” and it will take him as long as it takes to put up 4 fingers followed by 5 fingers. But when I asked him which combinations would work in his boomerang, he amazed me at how quickly he could come up with different combinations, AS WELL AS explain WHY. This is a kid who would fail a standardized fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice math test on addition facts to 10. Give him a method in which to find a pattern or solve a puzzle, and he is able to show exactly what he understands.

When parents have come to me over the years with concerns- or outright nervousness- about where their kids are in math, I have tried to reassure them that a) kids don’t learn at the same pace, b) knowing facts is NOT understanding mathematics, and c) kids need a variety of activities that help them explore the relationship of numbers in meaningful and relevant ways.

Drilling facts, and even emphasizing facts over understanding of the concrete and representational aspects of what numbers and operators mean does a lot of damage to how kids view “math.”

So here’s my advice:

  1. Take a deep breath. Your child’s math progress does not reflect poorly on you as a parent. I promise.
  2. If you have taken your child to a math tutoring business*, remember that it is a business. They will find something (anything!) wrong with your child’s progress to sell you their services.
  3. If you really want to help your child understand the relationship of numbers, find activities that involve, but do not focus on math. Baking, building, measuring, counting, budgeting for groceries– all of these are great ways to involve your child in something that requires some skills and concepts without it being the only focus. Math facts, by themselves, can be tedious and tiresome for a lot of kids (especially for those who have been told they are “behind”).
  4. One of my students can count by 7s because he is a huge football fan. Ask him how many points have been scored with 6 touchdowns… he knows the answer. And he is SIX. Football matters to him, so groups of 7s and 3s are meaningful to him, too. What matters to your child? Build on that.
  5. Puzzles and patterns are fabulous ways to help kids make sense of numbers. If your child loves patterns, but hates “math,” there is a disconnect here. Find puzzles that your child might enjoy and do them together. Be patient, and don’t feed answers.
  6. Do a little research on Concrete-Representational-Abstract instruction (CRA). This has been my underlying philosophy of how I help kids learn concepts in math (and music, for that matter), and I’ve seen kids’ understanding improve significantly. This method connects the HOW with the WHY.
  7. If you’re teaching math, where is your emphasis? I know many of you have pacing guides, material/textbooks to cover, and even scripts you are required to follow… but are you helping your students understand? If yes, please add some of your resources or suggestions in the comments. (Thanks!)

 

I’m fortunate to teach at a school** where we MAKE time for kids to explore and have those epiphany moments, whether it’s in their mathematic abilities, reading, asking questions, creating, building, or discovering their passions. (It’s a pretty awesome place to be a kid AND an adult who gets to witness it all.)

Above all else, I want to do what’s right for each of the children in my care every day. There’s a reason “Drill and Kill” became a thing in describing math practice activities. I don’t have any place for that when I want to help children understand.

(+10,000 points to you if you read all the way to the end. TL:DR is not in my vocabulary.)

 

*”math tutoring business” in this sense refers to corporate and for-profit businesses, not individuals.

**Shameless plug: if you want to witness in person what we do in our school, please join us at 5sigmaeducon.com next month!

Educational Leaders

When someone asks you to recommend a great educational leader, whose names come to your mind?

[CC image credit: Leo Reynolds]

 

Next question… how many of them are currently in the classroom?

Please don’t get me wrong. This is not a post* that is about bashing administrators, educational consultants, or others whose names often come up in leadership conversations. Some of the people I respect the most and who are my very good friends are people with these titles.

I’m concerned, though, that the lack of respect for classroom teachers isn’t just a problem among non-educators. I think WE are all guilty of it, too.

Oh sure… there are the times when a classroom teacher wins an award with a lot of publicity. You’ll hear that teacher’s name often. He/she might be asked to special events, meet with dignitaries, etc. After a year (or maybe less), nada.

It’s ironic when those of us in education discuss educational reform and blame our society’s lack of respect for the teaching profession… yet, is it all that different in our own ranks? Seriously. When was the last time you had a keynote speaker that was someone in the classroom RIGHT NOW?

Don’t even get me started on the percentage of women or minorities invited to share their expertise. Yes, you could name some right now in the comments section, and they would probably be the same people I would list. Compare that number, however, against the norm.

Is it because we, as classroom teachers, are not great at self-marketing by nature? Is that what it takes? Personally, I get tired of people marketing themselves all over Twitter and blogs. Maybe that’s just me.

Or, and this is my sincere question to you, is it because we really don’t respect the people in the classroom as much as we think we do? 

I welcome your thoughts. Thanks for reading.

 

*Please know that I am more than aware of how important administrators are in a school. They can make such a huge difference in empowering their teachers and children to move forward, take risks, and create an incredible learning environment. I’ve also known, however, many teachers doing amazing things IN SPITE of lousy administrators. This is NOT an anti-admin post. 🙂

 

It Is About The Students

Student-centered learning. Do you know what that really looks like?

 

Sometimes I feel like a lazy teacher in this student-centered world at Anastasis Academy… but that’s only because the majority of my teacher training in undergraduate (and most of my graduate) classes prepared me for a TEACHER-centered classroom.

You are the teacher. You are the deliverer of information, knowledge, skills.

As a music teacher, some of the workshops I attended helped me realize that the kids have to experience learning to gain knowledge and skills. Very few undergrad or grad classes did this.

So what does this student-centered classroom REALLY look like?

Some days, it looks pretty chaotic from an outsider’s point-of-view (actual statement from a visitor to our school).

Some days, it looks like kids working together on a project they have designed themselves.

Some days, it looks like a child excitedly running up to me, saying, “Mrs. Baldwin! Look at this! I found this really cool information about…” x,y, z.

But most of the time, it looks like kids satisfying their own curiosity without much interference from me.

I’m on the sidelines, and I love that.

Honest disclosure: it took us a while to get to this point, because even at 8-10 years of age (those are the ages of the kids I have), these kids have been programmed to look to an adult for answers. And questions. And direction. And time management. And so on. Some days are better than others. Recently, I feel like they have regressed a little bit in independence, and I have to force myself NOT to step in.

What I know in my heart, though, is these kids are developing skills that will serve them well throughout their entire lives. They are not memorizing facts provided through notes or worksheets from me. They discover… they experiment… they reflect… and they are learning to hold themselves accountable for their own learning.

The student-centered classroom is about the STUDENTS. It’s my job as their teacher to help provide an environment in which they can learn, experience, problem-solve… and then get out of their way.

 

Saints or Scapegoats

Over winter break, I saw a couple of local news segments about a teacher who had won an award for her great teaching. The phrases used to describe her:

  • “tirelessly giving of herself”
  • “works late nights and weekends to do whatever it takes”
  • “selfless and saint-like”

My first impression was that she must be a really great teacher… but then, I  became aware that I was also slightly annoyed. I couldn’t put my finger on it right away.
Why was I annoyed? Was I jealous? Not really. After a little thought, I realized it was the fact that this woman’s entire life was dedicated to the education of students… and nothing else. There was no mention of her own family, or if she even had one. There wasn’t a single word about any of her non-school related activities.

So, I looked around at some other teacher award articles. Did you know that a search for “award,” “teacher,” and “tirelessly” results in 465,000,000 returns on Google? I found many of the same types of descriptions of teachers, and that word “tireless” is found over and over and over.

On the bright side, many awards given recently also feature the words “innovative,” “creative,” and “inspiring.” Now, those are words I can get behind! Some of the these descriptions also mention the families of those teachers, as well as their community and leisure activities. To me, this signals a balance in the lives of these teachers, and I think they are more likely to be successful with students than those who dedicate every minute of their day to teaching.

As I reflect back on 2011, the Teacher-as-Superman/Wonder Woman (or Saint) conundrum, and the backlash on the teaching profession in general, I wonder if our expectations of what a teacher should be gets in the way of helping kids to be the very best they can be. If we perpetuate that myth of a saint-like teacher, there will definitely be those who suffer by comparison and then become the scapegoats for everything that’s wrong with education. Regardless, none of that helps the kids who struggle day to day, either due to home environment, lack of proper nutrition, learning difficulties, or just plain boredom in school.

Looking forward to your thoughts…

(note: I didn’t link to any of the articles or videos of news segments, because I did not want to put any one specific teacher on the spot. It’s not about those particular people… more the idea of what a teacher is or isn’t.)