My Comment
Tricia,
I agree, most teachers would laugh at me in the face if I talked to them about giving every student an A when they walked into the room. They would be most concerned about them giving up because they already had an A. But the truth of the matter is, a lot of them have given up already with our current system because they see themselves as a B or C or D or even E. Perhaps, there’s a possibility that by giving them the A at the start they will be an A at the end? Something to think about.
Original Post
Wk2 Reading post – From Zombie to Rekindled
What an amazing read! I want to share this book with the world! The following quote captured my attention, “that inside every block of stone of marble dwells a beautiful statue; one need only remove the excess material to reveal the work of art within.” Up until this quote I was in the zombie zone where I was reading the words but they were just not making an impression, then I read this quote. I easily could see how this quote could apply to students. As educators we really do need to look at our students as individuals each one a beautiful statue. These words are beautiful and contain a wonderful sentiment but then you walk into the classroom and all those beautiful statues are covered in pigeon poo and you realize you are tired, burned out and there are to many demands made on you to chisel down to those beautiful statues. I brought this quote up to a room full of teachers and the comments I received were; give me one to one student ratio and I can definitely appreciate their inner beauty, Yeah right who has time to differentiate that much, If there were more hours in the day etc. you get the drift.
So next I brought up my other favorite quote of the reading, “The practice ofgiving the A allows the teacher to line up with her students in their efforts to produce the outcome, rather than lining up with the standards against these students.” The response I received from my teacher friends regarding this quote was, standards we have to meet standards! We can’t just give students an A! Therein lies the problem with this book and what it is saying. I am all about the Art of Possibility, I see myself as the person that would go to Africa and see all the barefoot citizens and think, wow what a great market (actually I would probably go back to the U.S. raise money and donate shoes) but I could see how it could be a great market. Unfortunately in our education system we have too many people who would say, forget it, they are not wearing shoes at all there is not a market here. That is why it would take a HUGE paradigm shift for teachers to give all students an A when they walk into the classroom. They can’t they have to line up with the standards against the students and the market is leaning more and more toward standards so how can there be an Art of Possibility?
Alyson Patrash EMDT MAC 