I read a thought-provoking article in the Washington Post over the weekend--
"Schools Reform's Meager Results" by Op-Ed columnist Robert Samuelson. In the article, Samuelson argues that "since the 1960s, waves of "reform" haven't produced meaningful achievement gains." The article gives facts and figures showing that the needle has moved little over the years. Samuelson says that some gains have been made in elementary school, but are usually wiped out by high school. Over the years, he writes, student/teacher ratio has decreased and pre-school enrollment has rocketed. So why aren't things getting better?
The larger cause of failure is almost unmentionable: shrunken student motivation. Students, after all, have to do the work. If they aren't motivated, even capable teachers may fail.
Motivation comes from many sources: curiosity and ambition; parental expectations; the desire to get into a "good" college; inspiring or intimidating teachers; peer pressure. The unstated assumption of much school "reform" is that if students aren't motivated, it's mainly the fault of schools and teachers. The reality is that, as high schools have become more inclusive (in 1950, 40 percent of 17-year-olds had dropped out, compared with about 25 percent today) and adolescent culture has strengthened, the authority of teachers and schools has eroded. That applies more to high schools than to elementary schools, helping explain why early achievement gains evaporate.
Motivation is weak because more students (of all races and economic classes, let it be added) don't like school, don't work hard and don't do well. In a 2008 survey of public high school teachers, 21 percent judged student absenteeism a serious problem; 29 percent cited "student apathy." The goal of expanding "access" -- giving more students more years of schooling -- tends to lower educational standards. Michael Kirst, an emeritus education professor at Stanford, estimates that 60 percent of incoming community college students and 30 percent of freshmen at four-year colleges need remedial reading and math courses.
Against these realities, school "reform" rhetoric is blissfully evasive. It is often an exercise in extravagant expectations. Even if George W. Bush's No Child Left Behind program had been phenomenally successful (it wasn't), many thousands of children would have been left behind. Now Duncan routinely urges "a great teacher" in every classroom. That would be about 3.7 million "great" teachers -- a feat akin to having every college football team composed of all-Americans. With this sort of intellectual rigor, what school "reform" promises is more disillusion.
I'm curious: Have veteran teachers seen a decline in student motivation over the years? As a parent, what do you do to motivate your children to do well in school? Is motivation something that we can, in fact, pass on to our kids ?
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Monia, my dear, your on to something.
ReplyDeleteSomething "really, reaaalllly big", as Ed Sullivan was akin to repeat in his introductions.
Yes, Monia, the golden key.
S=M=I
Stimulation leads to motivation and inspiration.
It is, really, all that simple.
Shhhh. Dont tell anyone, need trademark.
We humans, we love to complicate everything.
This post won't get much attention, as one can deduce by the lonely posting above. Why? Because it is much easier to blame central office, teachers, etc......Our 'favorite' person who waits for any reason to blame HR or the AS can't post here.... yawn....guess he is waiting for the next topic.
ReplyDeleteHuh????? What's with the persecution complex?
ReplyDelete7:15, what's with the attack?
ReplyDelete6:15 said "Our 'favorite' person who waits for any reason to blame HR or the AS. . .." I didn't attack. I asked about that comment.
ReplyDelete12:52, go get a drink and calm down...
ReplyDeleteFor many of us who have volunteered in our kids' classrooms, or just helped our kids with homework, we see a strange dichotomy--- children are expected to know more at each grade level, but aren't expected to evidence the same work ethic that was expected of us.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, we want kids ready for algebra by grade 7, but don't (or fear to) require that homework be done neatly and completely.
We give middleschoolers more hours of academic classes but less breadth in art, music and industrial arts-- so, the bright kids feel as if what they learn in books is all that matters, and the less bookish kids learn that if they can't master academics, there is no place for them in school.
It's almost as if everything we know about education we learned from olympic training-- you know, where we start culling kids at a very young age and tell those not chosen that their really isn't a place fof them on the teams.
Now, you have large swaths of kids who don't feel that school is for them-- and, they have lots of easy distractions when they're home (and easy means of communicaitons so grounding them isn't an issue). So what do we do?
First, it doesn't matter who you blame (regrettably Rutolo isn't the cause of this malaise)--but what we need are more teachers who are passionate about helping kids love learning. Second, we need to give out fewer effort awards and more awards for improvement (that way everyone is judged on how they advance and not just for showing up). And, third, we need to be willing to emphasize some basics-- things like grading children on the fundamentals of English grammar (which includes rules) and being willing to give consequences when assignments aren't done neatly.
So, whether kids are more or less motivated now than they were 30 years is much less important than figuring out how to encourage them to act as if they are.
What no one is saying is that many students who come from low income families appear not to be motivated. In many cases, these students do not have parents pushing them to do well in school. Some of these parents do not even give their children sufficient vocabulary to do well in kindergarten. Perhaps these children are put in front of a television and have no conversations at home? These children are always playing 'catch up' as early as kindergarten...Sad circumstances for these innocent children. Sad that even some middle class and upper class families now do the same thing. At present, it might be the many nannies who sit children in front of a tv all day long.
ReplyDeleteFortunately there are still parents from all classes who read to their children and who take an active part in their children's learning.Make no mistake, that is where a love for learning and the motivation to learn starts. Read to your children. Check on their homework! Find out what interests them and expand on the classroom learning, parents.