The Training Wheels of Freedom

When I first read the title of this Blog, I must admit, I was a bit turned off. The lack of knowledge it implied, or so I thought, was a form of helpless frustration I saw all to often in my students when I, as an administrator I met so succinctly put it, "wore the noble kick me sign of the substitute teacher." I tried to be worthy of that nobility, even as my shins began to bruise, but I just couldn't shake the question, how do we motivate diverse students in a rigidly singular environment?

I feel relieved to be writing this from the present as I am about 7 months into a new job as a distance learning teacher. It, like most things in life, brings a whole new set of questions, and in many ways this school has allowed me to answer my older question with a great deal of flexibility in the curriculum. This flexibility has often led me to ask the titular question, "What the hell do I know?" So this brings me to my next question, how do you scaffold freedom?

As a social studies teacher I certainly think about how to do that in terms of political freedom, but that is not the context I want to talk about here. I want to talk about how to scaffold academic freedom. When I first got to Goddard I nearly had a mental break down. I had always done fairly well in my public school, when I could stomach the busy work, but now I had to actually do something, from my own personality? That was pretty scary, if it was bad, if it was good, it was me. It was a transformative experience when I finally understood it (Thanks, Mike Lugo), and I am thankful I didn't try it right out of high school.

This taught me one very important thing, when faced with freedom, it is scary. Given the option, many of us wouldn't look it in the eye. How then can we learn to create training wheels for students that will allow them to learn the same lessons of self actualization that freedom can bring without scaring them away from academics entirely?

In a public school students spend approximately 3 hours a week in class. Homework is somewhat rare, as some studies state it does not help, and more practically it doesn't get done. My students are spared the 5 - 40 minute classes, and must manage their own weekly learning. I am working on a curriculum that teaches research skills and media production skills with room for students to determine content. One of the main question I want them to ask themselves while they move toward their personal goals is this, what can I do in 3 hours?

Any thoughts? Feel free to leave comments. I hope to blog here occasionally. Tip your server, and try the fish.

Study: Poverty dramatically affects children's brains

- By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

A new study finds that certain brain functions of some low-income 9- and 10-year-olds pale in comparison with those of wealthy children and that the difference is almost equivalent to the damage from a stroke.

"It is a similar pattern to what's seen in patients with strokes that have led to lesions in their prefrontal cortex," which controls higher-order thinking and problem solving, says lead researcher Mark Kishiyama, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California-Berkeley. "It suggests that in these kids, prefrontal function is reduced or disrupted in some way."

The study adds to a growing body of evidence that shows how poverty afflicts children's brains. Researchers have long pointed to the ravages of malnutrition, stress, illiteracy and toxic environments in low-income children's lives. Research has shown that the neural systems of poor children develop differently from those of middle-class children, affecting language development and "executive function," or the ability to plan, remember details and pay attention in school.

Such deficiencies are reversible through intensive intervention such as focused lessons and games that encourage children to think out loud or use executive function.

"It's really important for neuroscientists to start to think about the effects of people's experiences on their brain function, and specifically about the effect of people's socioeconomic status," says Martha Farah, director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

Among the most studied: differences in language acquisition between low- and middle-income children. The most famous study, from 1995, transcribed conversation between parents and children and found that by age 3, middle-class children had working vocabularies roughly twice the size of poor children's.

For the new study, researchers used an electroencephalograph (EEG) to measure brain function of 26 children while they watched images flashing on a computer. The children pressed a button when a tilted triangle appeared.

The researchers found a huge difference in the low-income children's ability to detect the tilted triangles and block out distractions — a key function of the prefrontal cortex.

"It's just not functioning as efficiently as it could be, or as it should be," Kishiyama says.

Though the effects of poverty are reversible, children need "incredibly intensive interventions to overcome this kind of difficulty," says Susan Neuman, an education professor at the University of Michigan.

The study appears online in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience and will be published early next year.

William Kamkwamba- an inspiration

At 14 years old, William Kamkwamba wanted to do something to help his family, his parents and six sisters, survive the famine that was spreading across Malawi. The drought had already meant his father, a farmer, didn't have enough money to send William to school. So William improvised. He went to a local library, and with limited English skills began reading books about science. He then began making several trips to the local junkyard and before too long he'd had the requisite parts to build a windmill. He knew if he could proved electricity to his home his mother's life would be easier, and if the windmill could pump water from the earth, his father wouldn't have to depend on the rain from the skies.
William tells this story in "The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind" along with former Associated Press journalist Bryan Mealer. William and Bryan kicked off a three week book tour last night at a party at Manhattan's Metropolitan Tower. The party, sponsored by The Harnisch Foundation was attended by several TED fellows, including TED curator Chris Anderson. William told his story at TEDGlobal in 2007. (http://www.mediabistro.com)

Some "random" thoughts about edukashun and the things I hav learnt after 40 years of practising it.

1.  If you can't keep a sense of perspective and enjoy the wacky things kids do and say you might think of another career

2.  If you have too much self-importance and general uptightness, and can't say wacky things back to them .......

3.  Everyone is an expert on education since we have all experienced classrooms for at least 12 years if not much longer

4.  The typical school day is around 61/2 hours/day (390 minutes more or less). Multipied by 180 days of school (since the 1980's in Calif.)=70,200 minutes/year X say 15 years of schooling (for those who have a teaching credential-more or less)=1,053,000 minutes of school so far. It occurs to me that had I spent that amount of dedicated time learning and playing my guitar, I would now be an absolute virtuoso (probably close to Eric Clapton). Instead, I'm a little better than average in a few things.

5.  These are very random:

5.  A growing body of research verifies what many educators have known all along: Building caring, highly collaborative classrooms is instrumental not only for students' social and ethical development, but also for their success in school and in the modern workplace.  The key is enabling students to take real responsibility for their own and their peers' learning and in the process, enabling them to learn the range of skills and dispositions needed for the 21st century. What can educators do to help create such inclusive, participatory environments; transforming classrooms into productive, student-centered learning communities?

(the above is an intro from a workshop I may attend;  liked the sound of it). This brings up another topic. Education is much like a folk song that is handed down from generation to generation.  While the tune stays much the same- although often played on different instruments as it evolves- words are often added or deleted to change the song by making it more relevant or current. What's my point? I have two: 1) Folk-singers and educators have been ripping off good ideas and making them their own for ever and if the tune is good why not?  2)Since you have so much personal experience being educated, you probably have some ideas about what worked with you and what didn't  3) Everyone enjoys a good tune they haven't heard with words that are absolutely inspiring ala Bob dylan, John Prine (my generation)

Here's to Ruby and the kid who did the report!

Where is critical education and liberation?

What does it mean to be a critical educator? In most of western thought, education takes place in a classroom. In its constant readjustment of the methods and practices of teaching it can and must go beyond the classroom.  Both using the classroom for a place for students to come and bring outside experiences and personal ideas in, and by helping ALL people outside of any classroom remember that we are all learners and anyone can challenge what we have been taught.

Being a critical educator and thinker means asking everyone questions. And asking if people believe if education is the practice of freedom or is it the practice of becoming, or is it the practice of becoming free? Creativity, laughter, questions...education can be found anywhere. It doesn't sit in a classroom waiting to be found. It's in every day conversation. It's in drawing, creativity, observation, reflection and love. If you learn to find it, you can question everything and find truth in yourself. Everyone is on a path to global liberation. Even if that path isn't the one you're on.

So go! Go now! Get off your couch, take off your shoes, stop listening to what your supposed to be doing and question it instead. Be Free! Find freedom in the strangest places.