Today was the D.A.R.E. Graduation for
my fifth graders. For those unfamiliar with the program, it's a drug and alcohol abuse
education program. The program's core teaching is that kids need to be
aware of the dangers and educated and empowered to make smart and safe choices.
DARE stands for Drug Abuse Resistance
Education. But it also stands for Define. Assess. Respond. Evaluate.
While the efficacy of the program in preventing drug and alcohol abuse
could be argued, the intent of the program does have merits. This morning, while
sitting through the hour and a half long program filled with speeches and
awards, I couldn't help thinking how valuable this program could be if it was
adapted and required for teachers.
For example: You are told to do
something that makes no sense. How do you respond?
Because I live and teach in New York
State, the math curriculum provided by the State colloquially labeled
"Engage Math" comes immediately to mind. (Anyone who wants to
take a look at it can go to the curriculum materials at engageny.org. The
materials are free.) If you spend any time with the lessons posted there,
you will quickly see they are overly complex and often make no sense.
You as the teacher see the impact this has on the vulnerable learners in
your classroom. But you were told to use these lessons, so you dutifully teach them
as outlined in the lesson plans. And you pass out the Sprints for fluency
practice and have the students complete the Problem Sets in class and the
Homework Sheets at home, and then frequently assess student learning by way of
Exit tickets.
But you see a lot of frustration. Tears even. And students
who previously loved math and succeeded in math, are suddenly demonstrating
avoidance behaviors, "losing" their homework, and crying over
unsolved problems.
But you persist. Because
you were told to do so.
You are neglecting to think critically though.
You are neglecting to Define the
problem. (These lessons make no
sense and are not developmentally appropriate for my students.)
You have neglected to Assess what the
problem is. (Your teaching has to
make sense and be developmentally appropriate in order for students to learn. These lessons often are
not.)
You have neglected to Respond to the
problem. (Your students are
confused and unhappy and aren’t learning the required material. You have to change what you’re doing so
that you can help your students succeed.)
And most importantly, you have failed to Evaluate
the impact of your teaching. (What changes can you make so that
you’re teaching the standards in a way that your students can succeed and
learn?)
Okay, maybe this is also sounding a lot like that Intelligent Disobedience I keep mentioning. It seems to come up all over the
place. Because it is called for in
so many ways, large and small, for all of us, and most especially for those of
us teaching in American public school classrooms in 2016.
As long as we keep following directives that make no sense for our
students, as long as we keep perpetuating the myth that learning is a business,
and as long as we keep following the “CEO’s” directives that our product will
improve with their leadership, then we are complicit in the failures of our
students.
It’s not easy. But every
day we are responsible for helping kids make sense of the world. We cannot contribute to the
confusion. We cannot contribute to
the frustration and tears that too often accompany learning under “education
reform” directives.
Take the lessons from DARE and try them for yourself. Define. Assess. Respond. Evaluate.
And if you find that your teaching is looking more like a worker
following orders, and less like a teacher who designs lessons to help students
make sense of their world, (and maybe occasionally even inspire them,) then I hope you will find your inner Intelligent
Disobedient self, and make a change.
Please.
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