Happy Birthday Max and Molly!!! Yes, I’ll come and make you Yoda pancakes now.

In those same six weeks, I have had to change the way I think about learning.  As a secondary teacher, the way that elementary kids learn is a little foreign to me.  I’ve never had to really think about and wonder about strategies that will help them develop into readers and writers.  So, I’m off into yet a new realm of my own education.  I’ve been reading and thinking a lot lately about how to best support my own kids in their efforts to learn to read and write.  By no means do I feel as though I have any idea what I’m talking about yet, but here are some of my observations…

1. The more kids read and write, the better they become at it.  This may seem obvious, but as I’ve watched them make strides, I notice that they are more interested in it.
2. Learning is social.  Again, this isn’t anything new to me, just watching my twins learn from each other is amazing.  Not only do they learn on their own, they help each other by spelling words that they know and attempting to read each other’s stories.
3. I have to leave them alone.  Pushing them and supporting them are two different things.  The educator in me wants to push them to put spaces between their words and to remember which words to capitalize.  They don’t need me correcting them all the time, they need me to support and read the stories that they write.

I still want my kids to be challenged and I still say that I want them to be more than “fine“, but I’m also committed to learning along with them by learning how to best support them.  It’s a switch for me.  Being a parent is hard.  But as I walked out of my bedroom to go to work this morning and saw Max laying on the floor of the hallway with pen and paper in hand trying to figure out how to spell “kindergarten” so he could write a story, it reminded me of how much he loves to learn right now and how much I love to support that learning.

Great isn’t good enough.  How would that philosophy play out in education?  Is it about students making the “perfect” project?  Is it about making AYP year after year?  Is it high scores on standardized tests?  It could be, but I look at it not in terms of measuring oneself against a set bar or in comparison to another district/state/program etc., but rather, I think it has to do more with internal motivation.  Everyday when I go to work, my hope is that I’ve made my building, my district and education as a whole a little better than it was the day before.  It could be the culmination of a 6 month project, or it could be as simple as showing a teacher how to use a tool, but whatever it is, I want every interaction that I have with teachers and students to be meaningful and “great”.  As my own kids have started school, I want every day to be beyond great for them.  I want them to discover and grow.  I want them to have that internal drive to strive for their best and to know that there’s always room for improvement.  Yes, in some case, “great” will have to do and it others “good” or “good enough” will work.  But, when it comes to my work and the importance that education plays in the lives of students everywhere I don’t know that “great” will ever be “good enough” for me.

My kids, Max and Molly, are twins who have been in daycare since infancy. Because my wife and I both work, after the maternity leave was over, our 8 week olds began having someone else take care of them. It was difficult to accept that we might not be the biggest influence in their lives but, truly, we were just glad to have help. Our family had doubled in the course of a day and, this being our first child/children, we weren’t really prepared for the torture that sleep deprivation brings. So, off they went to Tutor time and thus began their (and our) educational experiences. After about four months we moved them to the YMCA daycare center. It was a great move for them and us and we’ve been advocates of the center ever since.

When we took them out of the Y I remember talking to their last teacher who assured me that “they’ll be fine in kindergarten”. They are well behaved, intelligent, sensitive and curious and they “thirst for information”. Needless to say, I’m proud of them.

A few weeks ago I took them for their kindergarten screening so they could be evaluated as to their kindergarten readiness. I wasn’t surprised when I was told that they were ready. They had been to summer school in the same building in a jumpstart to kindergarten program, been in childcare their entire lives and had always been interested in learning. (Go figure since their dad is a teacher.)

At the end of the screening I talked to both of the teachers who had worked with them and they had passed with flying colors. Again, I wasn’t surprised but I was still haunted by the phrase, “they’ll be fine.” This may make me a “high-maintenance parent”, but I don’t want them to be “fine”. I want them to be challenged. I want them to learn to ask questions. I want them to learn how to problem solve. Now I’m not suggesting that they won’t be. But, in my limited elementary experience, I see far more time spent on learning how to walk in a line and be quiet and behave. While these are all important skills and I understand that they must be included, especially as students start their educational journey, it concerns me that the things that I find so charming about them (their songs, made up stories and, well…. spirit) will be unacceptable in the classroom. Yes, they need to learn when and where different behavior is appropriate, but, for me, “fine” isn’t good enough. Like all parents I want my kids to change the world. Who knows, they just might. It’s just hard to be a teacher when you’re kids are in school.

Finally, let me be clear, I think that their school and their teachers are AWESOME!!!! Under no circumstances do I want to be misunderstood. I’m proud of where they are and I’m excited for their future and I wouldn’t change that for anything. But… more than anything, I question the educational process as a whole. I do believe in public education, but I also understand what it’s like to be a teacher and trying to help all students. Now I’m learning what it’s like to be a parent of a student in the current educational landscape and it’s not a comfortable place for me right now. Truly, I hope that I don’t get comfortable. I want to help my kids and all the students that I work with to be challenged, ask meaningful questions and learn how to problem solve.

Is it really OK for us to make sure our students are “fine” or should we strive for something greater than that? I know my answer. What’s yours?

I had just finished my Master’s degree and was doing corporate training for Executrain of St. Louis.  I enjoyed the job but something didn’t seem right and, after lots of discussion and fretting over what to do, I reentered the educational arena and went back to the high school I had left a few years earlier to teach kids.  This wasn’t an altruistic type of career change and it wasn’t because I thought that I’d enjoy it more.  My return to the classroom was for purely selfish reasons.  I wanted more time with my kids and I wanted make education better for them.  Since then, every move that I make has been dictated by that goal.  My involvement on the NCTE Executive Committee, my work with NotK12Online, my move to my current school district (where my kids will also attend) was all based on my desire for their educational experience to be as rich and productive as possible.

Five years ago that seemed like a great reason, but it was a reason that I couldn’t really see and actually picture.  I can see it now.  This fall my children will be starting Kindergarten.  They will be starting on their edcuational experience.  It makes me wonder whether, in the last year and a half, I’ve made enough of an impact on the teachers in my district.  Will their creativity be stifled by walking in single file lines or will they thrive in an environment in which they have choice and are taught to question?  Unfortunately I can’t say for sure.  But I now have a different lens.  One through which I look at every teacher I work with and ask myself whether I would be satisfied with my kids in their classroom.

My reasons for being in education today are selfish.  I want the best for my kids.  I recognize that and have come to terms with it because if it’s good enough for my kids, then, in my mind, it’s good enough for everyone else’s kids.  Would I have approached the classroom differently if I had had kids when I began my career?  Absolutely.  Now, as I work with teachers, I have a completely different (and I think better) approach than I would have had before my kids were born.  It’s a perspective that keeps me up at night, but one that makes me work harder.  Hopefully, my work is making a difference, not just for my kids, but for all kids.

As we were talking after the screening, I began to think about what my children had just gone through and I asked them if they enjoyed it.  The answer from both was a resounding “YES”.  What was it that made it fun?  They were asked to do tasks to assess their abilities and through those tasks, they were assessed on their abilities.  There were no paper bubbles to fill in (granted they’re 5) and it wasn’t a “standardized test”.  They were being assessed by their abilities that could be observed by professionals.  I’ve heard about other tests that are given to 5 year olds as a part of a screening (luckily I don’t know the names of them because I’ve never had the misfortune of seeing my child struggle through one).  As I understand it, the screener will ask a student to complete a task and then, with no expression or feedback, watch as the child completes it.  Either the child does, or does not complete said task and is given a specific amount of points based on how well they do it.

This reminded me of the MAP test (Missouri’s standardized test) that I have proctored for a number of years.  As I was giving the test I was not allowed to give any feedback to my students, provide direction or really even talk to them during the test.  I never thought that this was an effective method of testing but as I watched my own kids being “assessed”, those memories really came back to me.  I guess that’s just one of the things I have to continually look forward to as a parent who is also a teacher.

What would happen if we didn’t take grades as Alfie Kohn suggests?  What would education look like if all the concepts and instruction that our kids endure was instead discovery and project based?  Would my kids be unable to live in our society if they didn’t have to take a standardized test? Would they be prepared for jobs of the future if they had great collaborative and problem solving skills, but had not been through a traditional school environment in which a teacher imparts great amounts of knowledge in their general direction.  I have faith the my kids will find success in their future endeavors.  I also have faith in the school system in our country.  I don’t have faith in standardized tests.  Finally, I don’t have faith in those who don’t understand education because their decisions are based on “when they were in school”.