After reading the excerpt from this article, I started to think about the purpose of our school curriculum. Is curriculum created to allow students to fully develop their innate skills and talents (ex. the things that give them flow) or is it created to expose students to a wide variety of topics, skills, and possibilities? I think that they way in which our nation currently creates curriculum focuses on the idea that students in the early grades should be exposed to a variety of areas and skills in order to allow children to develop competence. The current practice also seems to support the notion that curriculum should get more specific to the needs and interests of the student, as he/she gets older. While this makes sense in many ways, the examples provided in this article highlight the fact that children are often turned off by things that are uninteresting to them and/or areas that are difficult for them. By placing such an emphasis upon competence in the basic subjects in the early grades, the educational system probably does turn off many young students, especially boys. I have personally seen this happen in the area of reading to several young male students. Developmentally, many boys are not ready to master required reading skills at the time that they are first presented. Perhaps this lack of competence creates an environment where these students stop trying and fall even farther behind. Interestingly, these same students might be more willing to develop their reading skills, if this area of learning was aligned to an area of high interest.
On a slightly different note, (sorry for getting off topic!) the different learning styles of male and female students is an area that I struggle with for a variety of reasons. In this age of political correctness, parents and educators sometimes get offended by the suggestion that boys and girls require different treatment in order to learn. But, I do believe that this is sometimes true. Some examples that I have found include: maturity level (I do believe that boys and girls are ready to begin school at different ages), areas of interest (different topics create different interest and excitement levels in the different sexes), and teacher interaction (boys and girls communicate with teachers in different ways and seek different types of praise and interaction). I know that this is a generalization and may not always be true. But, I think that our current curriculum and educational system treats the needs of boys and girls to be the same. We gladly change programs and teaching styles for students that are identified with special needs (ex. learning issues, ESL students, etc). So, why are we so unwilling to consider that boys and girls might need these same accommodations? Perhaps, allowing for the differences in the sexes within our curriculum would allow for more students to find their flow during the course of the school day.
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8 comments:
You speak the truth. I feel similarly - there are differences between boys and girls - how they learn, what they are interested in, how they mature, etc. No matter what people say - I feel there are differences between boys and girls.
I like how you started off by asking if we try to expose or nurture the already innate talents. If education is natural then consinder the following. When we plant the seeds for a fig tree, do we water it and give it nutrients in hopes that it will become an apple tree?
I agree with you that boys and girls learn very differently. As educators we try to make sure that our children learn to the best of their ability, but I think if we changed certain things in the curriculum more children would learn more information and then retain that information ten times better. Placing emphasis on basic subjects probably does turn off many children, you are right about that; I have witnessed it for myself before.
What is taught in school is an outgrowth of what society feels students need to be able to do to function as adults for the betterment of their world. How do schools take what students need to learn and translate it into experiences that will create "flow" in all students regardless of gender? How do schools nurture and develop islands of competence in everyone?
Well said! When I get the students in middle school, must are so turned off by even the mention of learning something new. Their experience of school is often unpleasant. But the answer is not to water it down, as you of course did not suggest, but to make it meaningful and individualist. I applaud you in saying that age does not mean readiness and that their is a wide array of characteristics in boys and girls. I wonder what do you think of the Montossori methods where curriculum is more fluid and individualized?
I don't think you were off topic at all-- you hit upon important distinctions that we need to look at when we decide if and when change is needed!
Ellen, as usual your ideas are so well thought out and true. I try to incorporate some techniques into my teaching strategies that allows the boys to develop their own skills. For example, when teaching "muscles" in biology, I have the boys flex with textbooks on their arms. You want to talk about flow...they love it.
Loved your "off topic". We treat these beautiful children as one whole group. How sad...because we parents don't think our child is like any other! Why does the NCLB believe it....are they not human?
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