Pushing Forward

I read an interesting article today and I think, as an educator, I was offended. The author talked about all of these “unteachable” lessons that we some how learn in life and implied that these were things he never learned in school but some how still learned. Well, maybe HE didn’t learn them in school but I would suggest that our kids ARE learning them…or at least learning the tools to develop the necessary skills. Okay, this seems out of context, have a look at the article for some reference. He sites six different examples and I would like to point out (for his benefit, of course you already see this!) how our students are learning, IN SCHOOL, the necessary skills to achieve these lessons. “Get involved”…it’s not clear what he exactly means; but our kids are involved in project-based learning, interactive projects, community service, house activities, etc. “Talk to people…” We teach our kids to work with their peers, people from different cultures, overcome language barriers, and we explicitly teach relationships and conversation skills in advisory. “Try new things and be bold” Ugh, I’m getting frustrated just thinking about it…our kids are asked to take risks daily, not to mention things like China Trips; plus they even have a risk taking goal that they are working toward! Okay, I’m going to leave it at that. Maybe I shouldn’t be frustrated by this guy’s view of it, perhaps I should feel sorry for him that he wasn’t fortunate enough to learn these things in school! Am I too proud of the work we’re doing, am I missing something? Of course there are things that we can’t ‘teach’ but his examples certainly didn’t convince me…Have a look at the article and let me know what you think; these are really just my two cents!!

Also published in SCIS MS Headlines on November 22, 2013.