Wendell Berry

The complexity of our present trouble suggests as never before that we need to change our present concept of education. Education is not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to serve industries, either by job-training or by industry-subsidized research. It's proper use is to enable citizens to live lives that are economically, politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This cannot be done by gathering or "accessing" what we now call "information" - which is to say facts without context and therefore without priority. A proper education enables young people to put their lives in order, which means knowing what things are more important than other things; it means putting first things first.”

And done rightly--according to this approach, it is very difficult to numerate, measure, count and standardize teaching and learning, at least not in the way we endeavor to do with the Common Core and the attendant testing process.

Flies, Redux

It's that time again.  I've written before about how my colleague and I let our classes elect a chief, as the boys do in Lord of the Flies.  It's an interesting, if somewhat frustrating, pedagogical "moment."  Every year--indeed, every class period--is different, but we have always found benefit in doing this exercise.

It replicates some of the aspects of youngters living unsupervised, bringing some of the themes of the book more obviously to life.  This happens most clearly when you try to look at the story through a thematic lens of human nature--what people are like in difficult circumstances.

It's satisfying when you see confirmed before you your expectations of which students will hum along just fine without any real supervision...about as much as it is strangely compelling when those students you think will completely exploit the system and do absolutely nothing confirm your worst fears.

I admit, it's also pleasantly affirming when the student chief stands before the class and explains his/her frustrations with what the students are doing.  We've heard more than one, "I have a new found respect for the teachers."

And then sometimes it's just fun.  Today, one class had a sit-in protest.  (We just did a unit on civil rights, and I think they got the idea from that.)  They succeeded in removing their interim chief (the regular chief is absent) for the remaining 9 minutes of the period.

I've lost track of how many coups we (my colleague and I) have had, sponsored or fomented.  Almost no classes make it more than 3 days without some sort of distress.  One year, one class finally got so annoyed with all that was happening that they held a new election...and I won, even though I wasn't running.  Like Sally Field, "I have to admit it...you like me.  Right now, you really really like me."

Ultimately, the exercise and the book are particularly worthwhile...and I'm sure they meet some Common Core Standard or other.

Spelling and Proofreading Matter!

I hope this student has a permit for that!

Our leadership class made encouraging/inspirational balloons for every locker in school.  I think they meant "I am caring," but you can see where they missed.  

New Year, Same Result

For about about 7 or 8 years now, I've been doing a week on Brains and Electronics with my 8th graders.  We cover material about how we really don't multitask...we sequentially task (Brain Rules), how blue light (smart phones, computer screens, LED lights, etc.) is bad for your health, how too much screen time is bad for your brain, and more.

Then we take an attention test, to which I add increasing electronic distraction.  Each year, the result is the same--their Baseline performance (before any distractions, like iPods, or other personal listening devices) was better than all the Distracted scores (and this year, the first test with multiple distractions was particularly bad).  Further, one last test, after one minute of a breathing and relaxation exercise (Relaxation), was demonstrably better than all other tests.  (Try the test.)

Here are the most significant findings:

• ALL Relaxation Scores went up, to the highest level of all tests in the sequence.
• iPods Plus (the first test with multiple distractions at the same time) all showed significant drop off.
• All “Distracted” scores were lower than the best Baseline score.

For more details, go here.

Ray Bradbury would worry about smart phones...?

Ray Bradbury on technology...an important technology issue today.

An uphill battle for schools....

On Thursday, October 20, I sent this email to a Mr. Marc Kaye, some sort of manager at the firm that runs Warm 106.9 in Seattle.

Mr. Kaye,

This morning I was surfing through stations and landed for a moment on 106.9.  I arrived in the middle of Allen and Ashley talking--apparently--about Ashley's child taking Ashley's cell phone to Ashley while she was in the shower.  The phone was--I gathered--in some sort of video chat mode, so Allen saw Ashley in the shower.  

Allen proceeded to make all manner of jokes--innuendo, nothing direct--about having gotten to see Ashley in some measure of undress.  The one comment I remember is that "the Sono Bello really worked."  

I'm a teacher at a middle school, where we routinely deal with the emotional, psychological and intellectual consequences of children digitally trading in inappropriate pictures of themselves and each other.  Let me assure you, those consequences are not pleasant.   And too often, the social ramifications for the children involved--primarily the girls--can be significant and enduring.

Since the fascination with their electronics is so great, though, we fight an uphill battle on this issue.  And to have a media figure make such lighthearted sport of digital voyeurism--even if unintentional--makes that hill even steeper.

In trying to coach and model self-discipline and respectful regard for their peers, we are working against substantial obstacles.  The satisfying pull of the digital life--especially its prurient elements-- is enticing to teenagers, so encouraging them to avoid that involves working against their very primal impulses.  It is very easy to imagine, for instance, a teenage boy--if he were to find himself in Allen's situation-- taking a screen shot and sending it to his friends.  (But one story about such episodes.)

So to have a media figure make light of something so similar as what we coach them to avoid is, frankly speaking, irresponsible.

I wish that this were the only instance of such public (mis)conduct.  Alas, it is not, but I heard this one, and I feel compelled to address it.  

I'd like to think that the station might reconsider such conduct, even perhaps undertake a concerted effort to raise awareness about the dangers of such digital conduct, and work to support children in refraining from participating in this.  Short of that, though, I'll "unselect" 106.9 from my saved stations.

Sincerely,

Andrew Milton

Two minutes later, I got this reply.

Thank you for your thoughts and comments.

This gives us another perspective and one we will need to consider.

-----

I doubt they will.

[Insert Clever "Something's Rotten in Denmark" Cliche Here]

First it was the Finns’ highly exalted and top-ranked education system.  Now it’s the Danes’ happiness-making empathy curriculum.  What have those Scandinavians figured out? 

In their new book, The Danish Way of Parenting; What the Happiest People in the World Know About Raising Confident, Capable Kids, Jessica Alexander and Iben Sandahl highlight Danish schools’ weekly hour of empathy training--including a collective cake baking activity-- and how that contributes to making the happiest society in the world.  

They offer an elegant case for seeing the world from someone else’s perspective.  As an 8th grade teacher (in the United States), I can indeed see the need for greater empathy among teenagers, and people.  

I’m just not sure it’s as easy as the “piece of cake” pun that Alexander’s Salon.com summary of her book makes out.  And when we think it is--easy--we imbibe a trope that seriously distorts our expectations of education in our own society.  

Consider this.  Empathy for others isn’t the same in Denmark as in the US.  Indeed, Denmark is 90% ethnically Danish.  The vast majority of its citizens are of the same “people,” and this may actually work against Alexander and Sandahl’s reasoning.  

They argue for an institutionalized program of empathy building--the idea of which will certainly have its moment in the cacophonous education reform debate in the US.  But fundamental psychology ideas explain how in-group affiliations are deep and enduring, and how such intra-group identifying can make life in the out-group more difficult.  

In other words, a homogenous group getting trained to see the world through the eyes of somebody else--in the same homogenous group--really isn’t all that helpful, or unusual.  Indeed, empathy training among the in-group might just as likely reinforce the natural tendencies of the frail and self-centered psyche.

So consider how things are for the other 10% of Denmark’s citizens, and there, things aren’t quite as happy.

Web searches of “racism in Denmark” return not only anecdotes about Danes’ racism against Asians or Turks or Middle Easterners, but also the UN’s Committee for Racial Discrimination (read here) concerns about Denmark’s “deep institutional discrimination...in the labor and property markets, and in the process of applying for citizenship.”

Moreover, Special Advisor for Equal Treatment in The Danish Institute for Human Rights, Nanna Margrethe Krusaa, acknowledges “There may be a tendency for employers to hire people who they think look like themselves.”  She goes on, “We have, of course, a discrimination law that says that one [may not] rule out candidates because of their ethnic background, but we have not yet reached the point where all employers comply with the law.” (here)

Apparently, the cake-making empathy curriculum hasn’t yet caught up with these 10% of the population. 

But Denmark’s number one ranking in income equality (among OECD countries) reflects a kind of fairness and generosity, right?  Perhaps, but again, in-group dynamics make it psychologically easier for people to accept wealth-redistribution to others in their own group, but less so to the out-group.

In short, maybe the “piece of cake” curriculum is cheerfully embraced by Danes because it’s the consequence of deep and enduring demographic realities, rather than the cause of empathy and happiness.

Contrast the United States.  Clearly, we struggle mightily with race problems, and we are notorious for both our high income inequality and lack of social safety net.  

Accept these observations, for the sake of discussion.  But also accept that the Americans are significantly more generous in private giving than Denmark.  In the Charities Aid Foundation (a UK organization) 2015 world ranking of giving, the US is number 2; Denmark is number 39.  

Tellingly, for the claims about an empathy curriculum, in the “help a stranger” index, the US ranks 3rd; Denmark 61st.

Undoubtedly, American society is a confusing melange of socio-economic circumstances.  Income inequality is high, but we give more money and help strangers more often than the supposedly empathic Danes.  Further, Americans transfer and donate substantial wealth--indeed, economists are projecting an inter-generational transfer of dozens of trillions of dollars in the next 30 years, but not by way of the government. 

Given all this, it would be unwise to hope that simply adopting Denmark’s cake-making empathy program would turn our society around.  We need to stop thinking that a school program or the right new curriculum will solve the deep and divisive problems we have in the United States.  Schools can’t bear burdens that heavy.