Rock On

Last weekend I was at a neighborhood party which the police broke up at 11:00 pm.  I think they expected to find 18-20 year olds rather than the 40-60 year olds in the backyard when they came around the corner of the house. All of which made me think of how some people continue their energetic pursuit of life and others resign themselves to wistfully thinking of what once was or what could have been.

In terms of the education world, the energetic pursuit of excellence has revitalized many veteran teachers (see any of the writings of Mark Barnes, Dave Burgess or AJ Juliani among others) and caused them to embrace a new way of thinking and to give students educational autonomy rather than the age old system of lecture, quiz and test.

For those who cling to the legacy educational methods along with many students, it seems like teachers who encourage student control of their learning are taking a lazy way out by making kids do most of the work.  In fact, even the students in our Arete PBL Academy when surveyed expressed the belief that teachers who lecture work harder than those who require students to pursue their interests, and solve authentic problems.  John Koker, Dean of Letters and Science at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh captured traditional school perfectly when he said, "School: the place where kids go to watch adults work."

Even though providing student voice in their education invariably takes more energy, creativity, research, interactions, feedback, the results are invigorating.  Seeing student excitement and engagement with their learning is thrilling for any teacher.  Knowing that students are staying up all night in July talking about project ideas for next year is mind blowing!!