Two Approaches to Education

08/13/2007

Teaching is the highest form of understanding.
Aristotle

Nancy Ginsburg Gill visited two kindergartens in the same city and described her visits in an article, “Goodbye, Mr. & Ms. Chips,” in Education Week (July 18, 2007; www.edweek.org):

“I walked into the kindergarten classroom with the school superintendent and the principal. The well-behaved children in their plaid uniforms were discussing butterflies with their teacher. Then, as we left the room ... the teacher rushed after us with a panicked look on her face and apologized: ‘I’m sorry. We had finished our lesson early, and one of the children asked if he could bring his caterpillar to school, which led us to a discussion of how caterpillars turn into butterflies.

“At first, I couldn’t figure out why the teacher was apologizing and why her supervisors looked displeased. And then I understood: This young teacher was worried because she had committed what is considered taboo at this particular private school. She had gone off script. In seizing what she saw as a teachable moment ... the teacher knew she was in danger of receiving a negative evaluation and perhaps losing her job.

“The next week, I visited a very different kind of private school. In this kindergarten class, the teacher was relaxed and energetic. As the admission director took me into the classroom, I saw that many of the children were building structures in the sandbox. The teacher smiled and explained to us that the children had acted out the story of Billy Goats Gruff the day before, and that one child had wondered how bridges are built so they don’t fall down before they are completed. That night, the teacher said, she had phoned one of the fathers, a structural engineer, to invite him to come to the class to explain how bridges are built. He was coming the following day and bringing some models with him; in preparation for his visit, the 5- and 6-year-olds were using their own structures to guess what they would learn.

“As we left the room, the admissions director beamed as he explained, ‘We have a school full of teachers like her — people who constantly think of new ways to get our students excited about the world around them.’ Obviously, bridge building was not part of any scripted curriculum, and it would not appear on any high-stakes test. But when the subject came up, the teacher knew she was free to allow her students to use class time to explore a mystery that interested them, and she had the freedom to invite someone in who could answer her students’ questions....

“The idea of using high-stakes testing to improve schools may stem from a genuine desire to offer all children a high-quality education. But if higher test scores are achieved by mandating that teachers follow a script and eschew spontaneity and passion, we will find few great teachers left in the classroom. In fact, we might as well save money on salaries and benefits and employ robots to run the drills.”

Creating Environments that Foster Spontaneity and Passion

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