Often as teachers we follow this movie lawyer cliché in our classrooms: We ask questions that we have seen lead our students through a lesson like a well-rehearsed play. While the actors may change, the roles and the conclusion remain the same. It allows us to avoid surprises and the distractions, disruptions, and conflict that comes with them. The problem with this classroom is that is a poor reflection of how learning actually happens. Learning never proceeds forward like a predictable comedy or drama, it is often surprising, and it is filled with distraction, disruption, and conflict.
Once students exit our schools, they will only learn through asking their own questions. They will need to look at their own lives and develop questions whose answers will deal with the critical issues in their world. The ability to ask these critical questions is something that needs to be taught. Schools are the safe space where questions can be asked and answered and the inquiry process can be practiced. With this need to practice how to ask questions based within their own experience and pursue their own answers, the education students need will shift to a more individualized model.
In this model, school will no longer be the source of all knowledge and information. Instead of moving students through the same questions, they must be encouraged to ask their own questions. It is a model of
2-4-14 The Whole Child Blog - Connecting the Classroom to the Capitol — Whole Child Education
Connecting the Classroom to the Capitol — Whole Child Education: THE WHOLE CHILD BLOGConnecting the Classroom to the CapitolFebruary 4, 2014 by Melanie OlmsteadEducators throughout the United States convened in Washington, D.C., last week to attend ASCD's legislative conference. Attendees gathered to tell their elected officials that it is time to shift from a narrow reliance on high-stakes testin