Gifted Coordinator
Our schools have operated in panic mode for far too long. We can teach all children, if specific pieces are put into place. The neuroscientists must have a voice in what happens next in education. Experts in education and the science community must conbine the expertise of the two fields so that changes in American education will not follow trends or the latest product. We must know what really happens in the brain to both enrich and impede learning. Teacher must become experts in using neurological components in the classroom to best serve students.
There are too many programs out there that promise miracle cures for education, when the true cure is to create learning environments in which all children may work to their potentials. We have in the past had low expectations of certain populations and have transferred our expectations to the children. This must stop. Jonathan Kozol has been telling us for years that we need to change the learning environment in order to help our diverse populations of student succeed. Why haven’t we listened? We have chosen to apply knee-jerk solutions and apply them to vast groups of children. We have been marketed to death with snakeoil programs. It is now imperative that we begin to listen to those who have carefully researched the problem and remedies. Dr. John Ratey, Dr. Kurt Fischer,Dr. Judy Willis, Dr. Robert Sylwester, Dr. Phillippe Goldin and many other have given essential insights into how students learn and have been virtually ignored.
Our present system would rather listen to a salesperson spew slanted data or ever faulty data so that we can purchase “a cure in a box”. These “boxed” programs are costly and ineffective. They are not based on good scientific research. They are based on short-term gains at the expense of long-termed learning. Students will learn enough to pass “the test” but will not retain the learning once the test is over. Learning is not meaningful. We must make learning enjoyable and meaningful so that all our children have the opportunity to make education a lifelong journey not an endurance test.
This post was submitted by Cathy Reed.
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