 |
|
Virgin Galactica – http://www.virgingalactic.com/ |
On my way down Arch Street this morning, walking to SLA for the last day of Educon, I listened to a TED audio podcast, an interview with Richard Branson, of Virgin-Atlantic Airlines, conducted by TED curator, Chris Anderson. I didn’t know anything about Branson, except for Virgin… and his interest in space travel. So it surprised me when Anderson mentioned that he (Richard) did not have a very successful education experience. Branson admitted to being dyslexic, and that he never really understood school work. He left school at 15.
Now there are two messages that we might take from this. One, a really smart person can overcome learning difficulties and be successful. The other one, the disturbing one, “How many truly talented people has ‘schooling’ failed, individuals who haven’t found the way or the environment to success?” “How many opportunities to enable talented people as valuable contributors souls we have squandered for the sake of ‘business as usual?'”
During one of the Educon conversations I participated in yesterday, a young teacher lamented over older high school students, who should have graduated a couple of years ago. They need to graduate and get out and start living. They do not have time to do interesting learning activities, because they already have a job? What can we do for them, before it is too late.”
Here’s what I wanted to say, but didn’t, for fear that it would come across as callus. I wanted to say — should have said — “It’s already too late!” “It is too late to enable that student, who is ready to become an adult. It is too late for your high school to capture the potentials of that student and benefit from the contributions she might have made, if her personal talents had been recognized, encouraged, and harnessed.” I applaud this young teacher for here position, and for what she may be doing for older high school students, and, “Keep doing it.” We need to do all that we can. I’m not suggesting that we give up.
But I think that we need to acknowledge the tragic waste that is resulting from today’s system. We need to stop believing that we can bandaid the system into relevance. I think that we need to be willing to say, “It’s too late for her. Now, what can we do to make sure that we never have to say that again.”
I’ve read the biographies (in various forms) of several currently-successful, mostly famous people who the world would consider highly talented, perhaps genius. The common theme in all these stories? School didn’t work for them. They floundered, or even failed, marking time until they could get out and follow their passions. In my work with gifted students, I hear similar stories in meetings with teachers and parents. I’m with you–any child who falls through any crack in our system for any reason is a tragic waste. I wish I knew the answer…I suppose we all do. I do know that having the courageous conversations, like the ones I witnessed and participated in this weekend at Educon, will move us closer.
I thought that your comment was so important, Gerald, that I wrote my reply in my next post.
I currently have a student in one of my classes with dyslexia. I teach 6th grade Language Arts and I am very concerned with his level of frustration as he encounters work that is increasingly more and more challenging. For the times we as teachers get to see the wonderful moments where students “get it” there are also those moments that you know are pivotal-where we can lose a student. It is heartbreaking. I am currently taking Edtech classes and am very hopeful that new technologies might be part of a solution for many of these students. I am excited at the prospect of being able to tailor lessons/material to a student’s level/interest. I may be naive, but I look forward to (and am working toward in my own classroom) a day when students will be able to demonstrate their understanding of content in ways that match their own learning styles-I have my fingers crossed that new technologies can be part of the answer.
I was barely an adult myself, aged 19, when my son was born. He started Kindergarten already reading and was reading at a post high school level by 4th grade. He was in the gifted program but began having disipline problems in 7th grade. Nothing major, not distuptive, just things like he wouldn’t pay attention in class, he wouldn’t show up to class and was found playing in the band room or the art room. His grades dropped and by high school they told me he was learning disabled in math. He hated being in the learning support program and made a threat “that he was going to kill ‘someone'” he ended up in an alternative placement for his last 4 months of his senior year. He lost all faith in education and refused to apply to college. I lost him because I was not educated enough to stand up for him and say they were wrong for not noticing his talents and challenging him to do more. I thought that “they know best” and “they are the experts”. They didn’t know HIM! How many kids does this happen to?
This is an incredibly sad story — and probably way to common for us to admit!
— dave —
David, I love you bringing Richard Branson’s story to the light (and that you also listen to TED talks walking around…yeah!), AND my experience in working with hundreds and hundreds of folks for whom school was not a successful experience is: ITS NEVER TOO LATE. Often, as several of your commenters note, it isn’t until people get out of school that they actually begin to appreciate their talents and abilities and develop them. Old-fashioned school was an institution designed to sort and track kids, and to reward only about the top 15% and crown them as truly able. It still acts this way in the lives of many students, even though this is completely counterproductive and in conflict with what we know about human development and capacity. So yes, so many students are languishing in school now. How do we make their learning lives more viable and meaningful? How can we transform this institution? That is a central question of the work I do. Thanks for raising your voice on this!
Kirsten Olson
author of Wounded By School (Teachers College Press 2009)