from 2011...
Two different stacks of paperwork wait for me. I have a list of things to do for myself today that's typical for a Sunday. And yet here I sit, staring at the computer screen, listening to the clocks in the house ticking and the wind whistling through tree branches and around the corner of the house. I'm a lump of inactivity today because I have the pre-Monday blues. I'm not talking about music. I'm talking about being down in the dumps.
I've suffered from this affliction most of my adult life, but I didn't give it a name until about a dozen years ago when I finally realized what made me cranky 40 Sundays out of 52 in the year. (40 weeks = one school year) It's almost like my personality rather than my body feels sluggish, like being hung over, and I just do NOT want to do what I know needs to be done.
"Blah blah blah.... okay so get over yourself. Suck it up and get going, you silly goose."
Yeah....well, no. I'm going to wallow in it for a while before I grumpily do what needs to be done. Bah humbug!
Monday, July 30, 2012
Why reward mediocrity?
One reason I know it's time for a change is that my philosophy of acknowledgement and reward no longer fits the tone where I work. From the perspective of most adults, they realize that if you put in some effort to do a good job at whatever your task, you'll only have to do it once and then you can move on to the next challenge. Time and energy aren't wasted, and you can savor the accomplishment as you move forward. That's no longer the view at my workplace.
The current plan is to provide instruction, to present a means (or a variety of means) by which to discover whether each participant understands and can use the skills and content introduced and practiced, and if a participant isn't successful for any reason at all, that participant can request private tutoring and another, personally designed means of assessing his/her understanding and ability to use those skills and content. The participant who makes the request and completes the second assessment earns the higher of the two grades. If the participant simply does nothing, the participant is given a grade of 50%.
Given.
A participant can earn a grade of 0% if he or she does no work whatsoever during a quarter or fails to appear to take one of the two cumulative exams. Otherwise, if a participant puts forth minimal effort - like attempting an answer or two on an assessment, even if the responses are clearly wrong - the grade of 50% is required to be awarded.
What has this policy taught? That there is no need to pay attention the first time or to put in effort at the time requested because there will always be another chance with no penalty. That, as with sports teams for very young children, if there's even a hint of effort to show skill, everyone will be rewarded. That the burden is on the instructor to personalize the teaching rather than on the student to learn. Until very recently, a student was encouraged to develop the skills of advocating for him/herself by asking for extra help before an assessment, and of becoming aware of his/her own learning style and tailoring the effort toward learning to be done on his/her part. Do flashcards work? Does conversation with a peer or the instructor individually help? Will recopying notes or extra practice be beneficial? That policy has changed.
There are learners who do enjoy learning, who do strive, who recognize that their efforts toward achieving goals DO matter, and I've been fortunate to have many of them around me in these past few years. However, many more learners have developed what I would call a dangerous laziness from our current mandated practices. Mediocrity is good enough for them, in fact a low enough bar, an easy enough goal to be widely achieved and one that's not only truly possible in our current environment, but also the only one for a large portion of our populace.
Years ago we had a day-long training with a man named Todd Johnson who verified for us that in the balance of teaching and learning, the teachers shouldn't be working harder than the students. He offered a few very simple classroom guidelines, clear expectations, and firmness (and fairness) in adhering to them. Excuses were acknowledged but they didn't eliminate the responsibility of the students to do the work. We have finally moved 180 degrees away from that philosophy. Since this platform reflects my belief about training adolescents to become resourceful, intelligent, and reliable adults, I no longer fit in where I've spent my whole career.
I don't understand the rewarding of mediocrity. "Well, you tried...or you made it look like you tried. That's good enough," just doesn't fly with me, and I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of employers and heads of organizations feel the way I do. I will be watching - in fascination or in horror - from afar to see how this current school of thought plays out and for how long. My hope is that the pendulum swings far, and soon.
The current plan is to provide instruction, to present a means (or a variety of means) by which to discover whether each participant understands and can use the skills and content introduced and practiced, and if a participant isn't successful for any reason at all, that participant can request private tutoring and another, personally designed means of assessing his/her understanding and ability to use those skills and content. The participant who makes the request and completes the second assessment earns the higher of the two grades. If the participant simply does nothing, the participant is given a grade of 50%.
Given.
A participant can earn a grade of 0% if he or she does no work whatsoever during a quarter or fails to appear to take one of the two cumulative exams. Otherwise, if a participant puts forth minimal effort - like attempting an answer or two on an assessment, even if the responses are clearly wrong - the grade of 50% is required to be awarded.
What has this policy taught? That there is no need to pay attention the first time or to put in effort at the time requested because there will always be another chance with no penalty. That, as with sports teams for very young children, if there's even a hint of effort to show skill, everyone will be rewarded. That the burden is on the instructor to personalize the teaching rather than on the student to learn. Until very recently, a student was encouraged to develop the skills of advocating for him/herself by asking for extra help before an assessment, and of becoming aware of his/her own learning style and tailoring the effort toward learning to be done on his/her part. Do flashcards work? Does conversation with a peer or the instructor individually help? Will recopying notes or extra practice be beneficial? That policy has changed.
There are learners who do enjoy learning, who do strive, who recognize that their efforts toward achieving goals DO matter, and I've been fortunate to have many of them around me in these past few years. However, many more learners have developed what I would call a dangerous laziness from our current mandated practices. Mediocrity is good enough for them, in fact a low enough bar, an easy enough goal to be widely achieved and one that's not only truly possible in our current environment, but also the only one for a large portion of our populace.
Years ago we had a day-long training with a man named Todd Johnson who verified for us that in the balance of teaching and learning, the teachers shouldn't be working harder than the students. He offered a few very simple classroom guidelines, clear expectations, and firmness (and fairness) in adhering to them. Excuses were acknowledged but they didn't eliminate the responsibility of the students to do the work. We have finally moved 180 degrees away from that philosophy. Since this platform reflects my belief about training adolescents to become resourceful, intelligent, and reliable adults, I no longer fit in where I've spent my whole career.
I don't understand the rewarding of mediocrity. "Well, you tried...or you made it look like you tried. That's good enough," just doesn't fly with me, and I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of employers and heads of organizations feel the way I do. I will be watching - in fascination or in horror - from afar to see how this current school of thought plays out and for how long. My hope is that the pendulum swings far, and soon.
Freshmen?
A former colleague of mine and her husband will be blessed with twins, probably in late August, to join their three other children, making a large and happy family. She will be on child-bearing leave for all of the first term of the upcoming school year. This much is true. Unfortunately, the educator who was signed up to be her substitute for term 1 has backed out due to the success of a business that she and her mother started earlier in the year. I know you can see what's coming.
The phone rang while I was out on my back deck, and the answering machine picked up before I could get to it. Floating through the air came the voice of my esteemed department chair, explaining that he had some very sad news. Thinking that it might be about one of the others in the department or another former colleague, I picked up and listened to his news (above) and his plea for me to consider taking the position.
My heart didn't sink to my toes, but I didn't jump for joy either. It's been more than a decade - in fact it's been two decades - since I last taught freshmen, and then only one class of them. At the time, I told anyone who would listen, "Never again," and was promised that would be the case. And now I'm being asked to consider a full schedule of them? Hmm.
Pros: As jobs go, I'm someone who wouldn't need training in classroom management, chain of command, daily routines, or anything that a newbie would need, so I wouldn't need to attend those pre-pre-student days in August being brought up to speed. Normal sub pay applies during the first week, but after that a larger stipend as long-term sub would add to my little stash of funds for travel and, I'm pretty sure, not exceed what I could earn as a retired educator drawing teacher retirement. It would probably remind me viscerally, on a daily basis, why I retired, so it would make me overjoyed at the start of November when the term ends and the liberation resumes. I'd get to schmooze with my former colleagues for a while longer. The freshmen would certainly begin their high school careers with a steady educator with some clear, strong, and fair expectations. I could participate in STAPLES' Teacher Appreciation Day in early August. Wooo hoo!
Cons: Freshmen? Really?? This is the group that was described to me two days ago as "half dream, half nightmare," in which there are several "high profile" students who will be part of the new discipline protocol from day 1. There are no honors students among the five classes to be taught, those students going to another more fortunate teacher. Classes will meet in the smallest of the English classrooms, right beside the noisy, dynamic science teacher. I haven't read any of the material in the freshman literature book. As much as I appreciate my former department chair's confidence in me, I'm not so happy about giving up September and October of my first year of retirement.
I'm going to have to ponder this and bounce it off my husband, even though he'll probably respond with, "You do what you think best."
Freshmen?
--------------------------
Follow-up: Back in 1992, eight years after I'd quit coaching basketball cheerleading, the newly hired coach quit and I agreed to coach for one more year. A week into the season I knew I'd made a mistake. The next three months were long and unhappy for me. Today's proposal feels way too much like that, so in the name of learning from past experience, I've declined, and I feel fine about that. : )
The phone rang while I was out on my back deck, and the answering machine picked up before I could get to it. Floating through the air came the voice of my esteemed department chair, explaining that he had some very sad news. Thinking that it might be about one of the others in the department or another former colleague, I picked up and listened to his news (above) and his plea for me to consider taking the position.
My heart didn't sink to my toes, but I didn't jump for joy either. It's been more than a decade - in fact it's been two decades - since I last taught freshmen, and then only one class of them. At the time, I told anyone who would listen, "Never again," and was promised that would be the case. And now I'm being asked to consider a full schedule of them? Hmm.
Pros: As jobs go, I'm someone who wouldn't need training in classroom management, chain of command, daily routines, or anything that a newbie would need, so I wouldn't need to attend those pre-pre-student days in August being brought up to speed. Normal sub pay applies during the first week, but after that a larger stipend as long-term sub would add to my little stash of funds for travel and, I'm pretty sure, not exceed what I could earn as a retired educator drawing teacher retirement. It would probably remind me viscerally, on a daily basis, why I retired, so it would make me overjoyed at the start of November when the term ends and the liberation resumes. I'd get to schmooze with my former colleagues for a while longer. The freshmen would certainly begin their high school careers with a steady educator with some clear, strong, and fair expectations. I could participate in STAPLES' Teacher Appreciation Day in early August. Wooo hoo!
Cons: Freshmen? Really?? This is the group that was described to me two days ago as "half dream, half nightmare," in which there are several "high profile" students who will be part of the new discipline protocol from day 1. There are no honors students among the five classes to be taught, those students going to another more fortunate teacher. Classes will meet in the smallest of the English classrooms, right beside the noisy, dynamic science teacher. I haven't read any of the material in the freshman literature book. As much as I appreciate my former department chair's confidence in me, I'm not so happy about giving up September and October of my first year of retirement.
I'm going to have to ponder this and bounce it off my husband, even though he'll probably respond with, "You do what you think best."
Freshmen?
--------------------------
Follow-up: Back in 1992, eight years after I'd quit coaching basketball cheerleading, the newly hired coach quit and I agreed to coach for one more year. A week into the season I knew I'd made a mistake. The next three months were long and unhappy for me. Today's proposal feels way too much like that, so in the name of learning from past experience, I've declined, and I feel fine about that. : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
