--John Holt
My students are currently working on their ePortfolios for the second semester. They are creating evidence to show they know and own their knowledge, fixing what they don't know based on their progress checks, and extending themselves to show me they can use that knowledge in new and different ways.
Or, at least, most of them are.
There are still some students that think I want them to put as much memorized (or copied) science stuff on their portfolios as possible, listing out answers to I can statements and repeating digital definitions gathered from Google with the rationale of "more is better" as far as learning goes.
Where do they get this idea that more is better? I think it's because that's what they've been taught school is all about. Unfortunately, I also think some teachers perpetuate this idea. Not intentionally; it's the purpose of education that was emphasized to those teachers when they were in school. We can't forget that almost all of us teachers were subject to the factory model system that seems to value content acquisition (and compliance) above all else. This system says that being "smart" means being able to repeat the most stuff. And I've seen teachers who think that students repeating stuff is the ultimate purpose of school, hoping students walk away with lots of information crammed into their heads, with a side-order of "you must get the right answer because school is about getting right answers and if you don't you're a failure because you were wrong" to go with that.
That's not what I want my students to walk out of my room, or even the building, with. Why? Because most of them will barely remember any of my science stuff if they don't go into a field where they can apply all that content that's been forced into their heads. It will be dumped to make room for new, useful, more relevant information, in favor of new neural pathways that will be used more often.
I don't delude myself anymore into thinking that most of my content is of any importance to them at this stage in their learning. It may be important to me, but it's not that important to them. Sure, some of my content may pique their interest; however, if I don't take the time to allow them to explore those interests and have them make meaning of it all and instead blaze a 9-month trail of state-mandated content, then that interest will fade quickly. And so will their memory of it.
Because I saw some students falling into the "more is better" trap with their portfolios, I stopped the class and told them a little story about a former student of mine, who now happens to be one of the technology coordinators in our district. I had the privilege of having this young man in my Biology class about 9 years ago. I told them all to go ask him how much he remembered from my class--and I told them he would probably say, "Not much." (I know this because I asked him.)
The class was a little shocked at this. But I told them this answer wasn't surprising--because he didn't use any of the information I had taught him on a daily basis. If you don't make sense of and use content over a period of time, you lose it. And that's exactly what I pointed out to them--that I would rather have a few pieces of evidence that demonstrated real learning, thinking, and meaning-making rather than a lot of science stuff they wouldn't ever remember.
I said the last thing I wanted to see was a bunch of science stuff that I knew wasn't really theirs. What I wanted to see was that they knew how to think, which is a skill that they would need more than any bit of science minutiae they might retain.
I got a lot of thoughtful looks, some relieved faces, and the sound of many a "delete" key being pressed repeatedly. I'm sure I'll still get lists of science stuff. But maybe now not as many.
All students can learn and think on their own, yet for the time we have them in school, we teach these abilities right out of them--or suppress them altogether. We need to teach students the skills that are truly important for them to remember. This is one way we can stop making kids stupid--by remembering that we teach kids, not content.
Let's focus on what they'll really need to know.