The end is near. No, not the end of
the world, but the end of the school year, and what a year it has been. Eldest is graduating this month and this past
year has been a busy one for her. She decided to skip lunch periods in favor of
filling her schedule with classes. Of the eight classes she took, seven were
Advanced Placement (AP). She capped off a week filled with AP tests with my
sister’s wedding, where she was the pianist, and her last piano recital of her
High School career, where she played a concert version of chopsticks that had
major classical themes woven throughout. The piece was fun, yet technically
challenging. She also is involved in a Bible Quizzing program through church
that is quite competitive (http://rdistaffen.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-exactly-is-bible-quizzing.html).
This past weekend was the final tournament for the local area, and at the end
of the month is the National tournament at Seattle Pacific University in
Seattle, WA.
I say all this, not only to brag,
but also to point out that my daughter has elected to take on this heavy load.
My wife and I did not force her to take this heavy load. She wanted to. We
thought she was taking on too much and counseled her against it, but she did it
anyway, because she was curious and wanted to learn.
The actions of my daughter
illustrate that people are naturally curious; they want to explore and to learn
and to grow. This natural desire to learn is evidenced in everything from the
two year old who constantly asks, “Why?” to the popularity of the Google search
engine. Google did not become the default search engine for so many people
because of slick marketing and sweepstake contests. Google has grown because it
met the basic need of curious people everywhere to answer the questions, who, what,
where, when, why and how.
A few weeks ago Littlest came home
from school a grumpy. She, along with thousands of other 8th grade
students across New York State, were in the midst of taking standardized tests.
The same test with the infamous talking pineapple, which challenges a hare to a
race, loses, and gets eaten by the other animals. These tests are administered
to gauge how well teachers are teaching. Consequently, teachers spend valuable
classroom time teaching students to take the test.
Littlest summed it up this way,
“School is so boring. All we do is prepare to take tests. Like who is going to
hire me to take tests? That is just what I want to be when I grow up, a
professional test taker. And what is up with the talking pineapple? I mean the story
was funny, but it was dumb!”
The Sudbury Model of Education is
the exact polar opposite of the way we assume education should be done (http://sudburyschool.com/articles/sudbury-model-education).
It supports young people's curiousity by allowng their own interests and thirst
for knowledge to guide the learning process.
Exploring, asking questions, and solving problems are how we
learn and grow. Standardized mandatory tests did not inspire Edison to invent
the light bulb, the Wright brothers to invent the airplane, Chester Carlson to
invent the copier, or the French to invent the french fry.
Perhaps someday the pineapples who mandate layer upon layer
of bureaucratic testing for children will realize they have lost the race and
promptly be eaten by an angry horde of 8th graders.
Until then, congratulations to all who are finishing up
another year of education, and to those who are celebrating graduation and
moving on to something new. Stay curious my friend, stay curious.
The end.
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