Don’t Call it a Comeback

Posted in Standards and EvaluationDemEd in Real LifePhilosophy of EducationTeaching on Dec 21, 2009 - 10:47 PM

I've been gone a while--I know. But such is the nature of democratic education. Let me explain.

If you've read my previous entries, I hope it was clear that I had a vision for my classroom and I was going to strive to make this vision a reality. The path had been set and the last time we communicated, I believed that I needed to condition my students to be unconditionable. I quoted Audre Lorde and questioned her belief that we could not use the master's tools to dismantle the master's home.

So several weeks later and after lots of reflecting, I'm totally retracting my statements. As adamant as I was that my students needed to be conditioned through the use of grades and external rewards, I now say with the same conviction, that this is pointless and will yield temporary high performance and only superficial learning/memorization. Darnit! Audre Lorde was right! Never mess with the Lorde.

I will not use this post to explain what I believe now and why I believe it, but I would rather reflect on how fluid truth or what we believe to be truth is. I believed every single word I typed out in my last post, and I would have gone all over the world preaching this new gospel truth to every educator who would listen. But life and learning are forever fluid, and we need to acknowledge this as teachers -- imparters of said knowledge. Democratic education allows me the room to take back my words and start over. More traditional types of education would leave no room for such a fallible teacher.

This post is not a comeback. A comeback would somehow lead one to believe I wish to start at the same point I left off. But this would erase my errors, and I want to embrace them. This is just a continuation of my learning curve as a teacher and as a student in my classroom.

I will leave you with the video that forced me to rethink all that I was already rethinking. Replace the word "business" with the word "education." Take notes -- a quiz will follow.

Tags for this entry:
grades, video, rewards, experimenting, audre lorde, daniel pink, revision

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