October 2

October 2

Dear Mom,

I can’t say that I’m having a good day.  It started off with my pregnant cook calling out for the week.  I really don’t mind cooking, but I am spreading myself too thin, and can feel it. What I need to be doing is spending time in the classroom.  Here’s what happened.

This last month was wonderful.  At least that's what I thought.  The teachers have been sharing stories of things going on in their rooms, so I assumed that they were on board.   

So, when some of the moms in Deirdre’s class asked for a conference, I was a bit surprised. It was then that I learned that Deirdre had told the parents “we aren’t doing letter of the week or letter pages this year”, but didn’t tell them what we were doing in place of letter pages.  She also told the parents that she isn’t using a curriculum this year, and that she was going to teach the children only what they wanted to learn.  Well, this explanation didn’t sit too well with my moms (can you blame them?) and they are panic stricken that their children will leave the fours room as illiterate hobos.  (My paraphrasing, but still…)

I understand that in this age of accountability, we are responsible for identifying specific goals and documenting growth in our children.  I also understand that letter sheets and projects appear to “prove” that something productive happened in the classroom.  But I also know and believe that it is the experience, not the capstone project,  that is most meaningful for children. Albert Einstein said it best: “The only thing that interfered with my learning was my education.”

What I can’t understand is why teachers and parents cannot make the shift from didactic teaching to the discovery zone?  Is it because they are scared of losing control of the children?  I don’t think so.    I once thought they maybe were scared to grow, that they didn’t want to change their ways.  But nowadays I believe that they just need some help.

You know when two year olds have an altercation; the teachers say to them, “use your words and tell her how you feel.”?  I always thought that was funny (as well as misleading), since two year olds don’t have a huge repertoire of feelings with which to refer.  However, when teachers learned to say, “tell her that you are mad (sad, angry, whatever),” they were giving the children the actual tools to use.   Once the teachers learned what to say to their children, the children learned what to do, and communication between two year olds became more productive.  Maybe what I need to do is give my teachers the tools, and help them feel comfortable using them, rather than just telling them “use your words.”