Working Towards Debunking Education's “Big Lie”

Yong Zhao has a new book out titled “Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children” which I devoured as soon as it arrived on my doorstep.  Besides the fact that it is a relatively short book and a good read, I think why I found myself not able to put it down was the timeliness of the topic.  In my role as Curriculum Director of our district, I continue to wrestle with the challenges of how best to support teachers meeting the needs of all of our students on a daily basis.   I think Zhao does a nice job of articulating why that should happen while providing suggestions of how it can be done even though it is not an easy task to tackle.  

One thing we, as educators, need to be careful to avoid is thinking and especially stating, “my job is to get the kids ready for  X” with that “X” being ready for:  “next year’s third grade reading guarantee”, “6th grade and the middle school”, “the challenges of high school, because they won’t get the same breaks”, or “college and the real world, because they won’t get do-overs” and many other statements that are well intentioned, but cause us to lose our focus on our job.  The focus for us should be to meet our young people where they are NOW and help them to grow in one form or another.  We need to get them ready for TODAY.   

Getting students ready for “today” means meeting their needs and building on their strengths.  Zhao points out that this is counter to the current belief in education that there are a set of skills and knowledge that everyone is required to have in order to live successfully in the world and emphasizes that assumption is not true any longer for three major reasons:

“...traditional valued skills and knowledge have become obsolete, and we need new human qualities for the new world” (Zhao, 2018, p.8).  

“...each person (has) a unique, jagged profile of abilities and desires, stronger in some areas and weaker in others” (Zhao, 2018, p.9). (also see the TedTalk Myth of Average)

“...in a new world where smart technology has replaced...humans in routine tasks, we need human beings to be unique, creative, and entrepreneurial” (Zhao, 2018, p.9).

Let’s think about that for a minute.  Does the education system, as it currently stands, allow us to nurture our students’ individual passions and strengths (roots)?  One could argue that “the only passion it cares about is the passion to become a good student” (Zhao, 2018, p.17) or worse the system “actively suppresses individual talents and passions by defining what educational success means and convincing students, parents, and the public to accept the definition” (Zhao, 2018, p. 17).  That definition being: follows school rules, completes homework, sits and listens to what is taught, aces the tests, never questions the value of what they are asked to learn. (Zhao, 2018).

Fortunately, Zhao doesn’t end the discussion there, but proposes a number of actions we can take on a variety of levels including within the Government, Public (Parent’s included), Higher Education, and even educators themself.  Focusing on the educators, Zhao suggests that in order to develop a more personalizable education teachers must develop a certain set of qualities including:

The Ability to Identify Strengths and Passions  

“The child cannot be defined by prescribed standards or standardized tests”

(Zhao, 2018, p.79) and teachers should not focus on the weakness

(which leads to mediocrity), but build on each child’s strength.

The Ability to Inspire and Challenge  

This includes holding high expectations for all students and inspiring great

confidence in their strengths.  High expectations is the number one factor in

John Hattie’s research of effect sizes. (see  Confession of a Closet Data Avoider)

Empathy and Emotional Intelligence

This is looking at our young people as human beings (not just as students) with

diverse experiences and backgrounds.

(see “Raising Young People as Human Beings…”)

A Broad and Long-Term Perspective of Education

Focus on the development of human qualities more than the acquisition of

knowledge. (see “What is Your One Wish for This School Year?”)  This is more

of a focus on long term educational outcomes than short-term instructional

outcomes.

Management and Leadership

This is not classroom management, but a high reliance on our own executive

function skills to “juggle” or manage various individual projects, student learning

plans, pathways of learning, etc.that take place  in a student centered classroom

Resourcefulness and Collaboration

Supporting Teacher Collective Efficacy comes to mind here along with the fact

teachersare great at “begging, borrowing, and stealing”, a.k.a. being resourceful.  

Everything we do should point to helping our young people to learn to develop and manage their own learning.  This is especially true for our two most important resources to support that learning: Time and Money.  Unfortunately, “The majority of schools do not provide significant financial resources to support student initiated programs out of their regular budgets, nor do they provide time out of the regular school day for students to pursue their talents or passions” (Zhao, 2018, p.17).  However, we can take those steps within our classrooms by developing these qualities Zhao has mentioned as well as keeping our eyes out for George Couros' eight signs of an innovative classroom to help us to work towards debunking “Education's Big Lie” that today's schools are designed for our young people to discover themselves and reach their full potential.  

References

Zhao, Yong (2018).  Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children.

Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.