« scope and sequence | Home | Comment Goodness »
why we blog and why we don’t
By audhill | July 31, 2007
Miguel Guhlin asks us to think about why we blog. Well…okay. Here it is. I’m finding blogging scary. I took down my blog in the Spring, and although this is it now resurrected, I’m not really writing on it much. I think I’m having a little problem.
The educational system is just rife with granola encrusted, post-la leche influenced, born again let the children lead us crap… Oh….The children are digital natives; we just have to get out of their 13 year old way and let them take us where they need to go. It’s garbage and it’s the same garbage that has been making the circuit since the babyboomer generation decided it knew better than every other generation about every little thing, and anyone who didn’t agree with them “just didn’t get it.”
Reality check: your average 13 year old has no idea where she needs to go; your average 3 year old has no idea what he needs to eat. That’s why they have you. You know something they don’t. Of course, teachers also learn from their students. Teaching wouldn’t be teaching if it wasn’t responsive and reciprocal. But it is not equal. Technology hasn’t changed the essential landscape between adult and child. Adults aren’t all dumb asses because they didn’t grow up with an iPod and cell phone; in fact, the only adult dumb asses I know are the ones who genuflect in front of teens because they text message their bff Jills.
All of that needs to be outed for the “soft bigotry of low expectations” it is. (I know I seem to be quoting Bush, but it’s a good phrase. And besides, we all know he never wrote it… he just said it. Someone way smarter wrote it for him) The fact is that children raised like weeds survive. But, they do have to play catch up. Adult ambivalence about being adults shouldn’t cost children opportunities.
Concern for being hip or relevant is wasteful. Children, just like the adults we are now, will seek out and make their own relevance. What we need to do is provide them with foundation and vistas. Some of that will be fun and wonderful. Some of that will be arduous and frustrating.
Heretical comment no. 1: Children don’t always have to love every moment of their learning… anymore than a musician has to love playing scales and long tones. Sometimes, you do things you don’t enjoy because without them, you’ll never get to those you do. It’s called delayed gratification: teach the children in your care that little nugget of truth if you’re so interested in their futures.
So, there it is. I’m not a cheerleader. Problemo uno. Who wants to read a cranky blogger who spends so much time decrying the lack of standards? Even I need a break from me. It’s a temperment issue.
ps. All of that notwithstanding…. My tech director finally gave me the greenlight for wikis in the classroom and she extended my students’ blogging privileges. I can’t wait. Hopefully I’ll see some really good work and some great use of technology this year. (Watch for a paradigm shift; just don’t tell me that now I “get it”. )