Back in the days when we used to write checks, it was pretty common to get the year wrong in January. Force of habit. What amazes me is the way so many education leaders and thinkers seem to be stuck in a time warp and have trouble understanding that this isn’t 1970. We aren’t still writing checks by hand like we used to. Let me give you an example . . .
The headline “Rural Students” in the Report Roundup section of the January 6, 2010 edition of Education Week carries this pull quote immediately under it: “Students in Rural Schools Have Limited Access to Advanced Mathematics Courses.” Are you kidding? I mean, really, are you kidding? In the U.S. today there is ‘virtually’ no limit to access to any course.
What makes me angry is the real problem in 2010; namely, the unwillingness of teachers, schools, and districts to encourage and document learning when it occurs outside of their buildings or schedules. With internet access available at home, at school, at the public library, or elsewhere, the access is there! Why perpetuate the culture of dependence that has become so entrenched? Why do we hold onto the myth that the only learning that “counts” is what happens in 175 days from August to June – and only between 8 AM and 3 PM — and only from a “certified” teacher, and only when it occurs in a school building?
It is unacceptable that we continue to spread the myth that students lack access to opportunities for learning. This is 2010, not 1970, remember? It’s a bit like saying that students lack access to the latest video making the rounds on YouTube because the clip isn’t available on one of three channels that the student’s TV receives.
Students and parents need to begin demanding that schools understand that a new but important part of the educator’s role is to validate and document learning, no matter the time, the place or the source. While there may still be a few rare and isolated instances of pockets with no connection to the outside world, that is not the problem. The problem is systems that will not document learning when it occurs. We should be teaching students how to access the unbelievable learning resources available to them.
It’s 2010. The future’s ours, if we can free it!
