The Few Like You Are Still The Few Like You
Following up on Pam’s post, “Once Upon a Time We Put a Human on the Moon,” I have to say I agree with much of what she said. In the “olden days,” there were desks in rows, kids doing worksheets, very little choice in assignments, mostly the teacher as dictator, and teachers who taught as they had been taught. So the profession has continued to perpetuate itself, much as it ever was, and yet people cry foul–that the tests made us this way.
No, the tests didn’t. No, accountability didn’t. Our reluctance to reinvent the profession did. Our fear of change did. Our belief in the myths we grew up with as students did. So we walk into classrooms and see much of what we saw 20 or 30 years ago in many classrooms. And sometimes, even in a classroom where the desks have been traded out for tables or there are beanbags or rug areas, we still see a very traditional teacher who has simply changed the seating–but not her practices.
But, in a few classrooms all over, there have always been teachers who dared to be different. Think Steven Levy, who describes his
