--Jon Mueller
School isn't about content anymore. It's about students using and applying knowledge, as well as creating original thoughts, ideas, and opinions. That's what all the awesome professional development I've been a part of over the years has said. And I believe it. I drink all the educational kool-aid that comes my way that pushes students past what they think their limits are.
But does everyone see that school isn't fundamentally about content anymore?
When I am asked how students can study when I don't give them a textbook, or why I "lost two weeks of science" having students explore various web 2.0 tools (that would have taken the same amount of days even if I had spread it out through the school year), I start to wonder.
When students are asked to create a mindmap of terms used when scientists do real science--terms like hypothesis, conclusions, independent variable, and dependent variable--and 75% of them ask me if they should just write the definitions, and, if so, where do I keep the textbooks, I really start to be concerned.
When a student in a survey states that "memorization is good enough for me; it's gotten me As up until YOUR class," I start to panic.
When I have the thought that if I taught using the textbook worksheets and lecture notes, people would tell me I am doing an awesome job (because they used to say that when I used to teach that way), I want to leave education altogether.
But leaving won't solve the problem--the problem of education and educators moving forward while students and parents remain behind.
While it's disappointing to have all of your best-laid plans of having students reach those upper levels of thinking and learning blown to bits by one negative, content-oriented comment, you have to deal with those comments and the attitudes behind them one at a time. Some people will eventually see the methods to your madness (or at least experience the benefits later on down the road), and some people never will.
You just have to keep moving forward, knowing that you're doing what's best for kids. But bring the students and parents with you. Let them know why you do what you do. Explain why what you're doing in class will help them, now and in the future. Don't let the ones who still see content as king get you down.
Keep moving forward.