Rog Lucido: Forgiving Learning: Reform Begins in the Classroom
Guest post by Rog Lucido
It seems like education is on a never ending quest to be 'reformed'. The message continues today: 'American students are behind those of many countries. Our dominance of military and economic strength is on the decline. We are losing our competitiveness.' The root cause of this supposition is laid at the feet of our schools by the corporate world. With many studies demonstrating that 80 to 90 percent of student achievement is due to factors outside of school, how can we consider changes in our schooling as the solution to our business problems?
If we are to improve student engagement and learning, not for the sake of greater profits, but for the sake of our children, we need to start in the classroom. It is here where the rationale should be changed from other-centered to student-centered. Each student comes to us with their own unique personal history. But they all share a common humanity and are in possession of a human brain. This brain is the organ for learning -- not their liver or spleen! If we understand how the brain's neo-cortex works we will have a way of designing the classroom and school learning experiences to be brain-friendly. In schools we should not develop a learning system and then expect that all students will find learning accessible. Rather, we should seek the healthiest way to cooperate
It seems like education is on a never ending quest to be 'reformed'. The message continues today: 'American students are behind those of many countries. Our dominance of military and economic strength is on the decline. We are losing our competitiveness.' The root cause of this supposition is laid at the feet of our schools by the corporate world. With many studies demonstrating that 80 to 90 percent of student achievement is due to factors outside of school, how can we consider changes in our schooling as the solution to our business problems?
If we are to improve student engagement and learning, not for the sake of greater profits, but for the sake of our children, we need to start in the classroom. It is here where the rationale should be changed from other-centered to student-centered. Each student comes to us with their own unique personal history. But they all share a common humanity and are in possession of a human brain. This brain is the organ for learning -- not their liver or spleen! If we understand how the brain's neo-cortex works we will have a way of designing the classroom and school learning experiences to be brain-friendly. In schools we should not develop a learning system and then expect that all students will find learning accessible. Rather, we should seek the healthiest way to cooperate