IDEA Blog

Freire’s “True Word” Conclusion—Or Beginning…

"You're the worst teacher ever!" The last words of a ninth grader I had kicked out during final presentations.

This same day, a student handed me a card in which she wrote, "Thanks for giving me the freedom to speak my mind."

The next day, two students threw me a little farewell party to end the semester--two students who hated my class a month ago.

The last day of class, a student thanked God he never had to have me again. "Now I can FINALLY get an 'A'!"

A semester of mixed reviews.

As part of their final project, my students had to identify a community problem and design an intervention to combat said problem. A majority of the students rose to the occasion and shined...

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The Tyranny of Report Cards

I want to teach in a classroom where children will learn important things without a lot of well-meaning intervention. I want a classroom in which students have choice, and can pursue their own projects that involve clay and blocks and paint and weaving and cooking and hammer and nailing. But I don't think I know how. I've been teaching for 10 years and I think all I know how to do is control children. I've been "in the system" long enough to know about "behavior management" and allotting equal time for Math time and Reading time, Writing time and Science time, etc.

How does one become a teacher who is comfortable enough with the chaos of learning to let students study bridges or snowy...

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Howard Zinn: One of the Great Democratic Educators

"The interchange between student and teacher, the free inquiry that is promulgated in the classroom, a spirit of equality in the classroom, to me that is part of a democratic education." - Howard Zinn

This week, the world said goodbye to Howard Zinn, an award-winning writer, activist, professor, and role model for democratic educators. He was 87.

Zinn dedicated his life to promoting true democracy and social justice through education and action. Although he spoke and wrote extensively on the injustices that humans have inflicted upon each other, throughout history and in the present, he never lost hope for a more peaceful world.

In one of his last interviews, Zinn said that he wanted...

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The Freedom to Do It Wrong

As a child, I developed a "Type A" personality pretty quickly.

It's funny; I can remember how it all started. I was a super quiet kid around those I don't know--my daughter is, too. People were constantly telling me to talk, to speak up, to be louder. And when I finally started to do that--to make them happy, as I was perfectly happy being quiet--I was told to be quiet, to not talk in class, to stay in silence. It was the first punishment I ever received in school, a humiliating sentence of corner-banishment in front of all of my peers, and it was enough motivation to get me to shut up once again.

The expectations set in front of me were quite obvious--succeed or be met with disapproval....

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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: What Children Get in Democratic Schools

The root ideas of a democratic education are as simple as they are radical: children should be accorded the same human rights and freedoms as adults; they should be granted responsibility for the conduct of their affairs; and they should be full participants in the life of their community. Democratic schools provide an environment where children can live their formative years in exactly the same manner as they will live out their mature years—as free citizens of a society devoted to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The world these children will inhabit as adults will be a familiar one, a world that has been part and parcel of their childhood.

Like the old colonial towns that nurtured our country’s political traditions, democratic schools are self-governing. Children of all ages are entitled to participate in all decisions affecting the school, without exception. They have a full and equal vote in deciding expenditures, in hiring and firing all employees (including teachers), and in making and enforcing the rules of the community. In democratic schools, there is no residual authority vested in adults, no veto power lurking in the background.

In practice, democratic schools look more like a cross-section of real life, more like a vibrant town or village, than like traditional schools. There are no assigned groups or rooms, no specified activities or time periods, no preferred curriculum or dress code, no agenda for pressuring children into endless compromise and compliance. Here children decide for themselves how to spend their time, what to do, and when and with whom to do it.

Play is a big part of daily life, and it is the prime factor in learning. Nothing compares to play as an instrument of learning, least of all courses given by a teacher. Most of the students, especially the younger ones, are too busy playing all the time to rest or even to eat. By late afternoon, they’re ready for a huge meal and a good night’s sleep. They’ve worked long and hard.

Lessons learned here become tools for a lifetime. What is mastered is the ability to concentrate and focus attention unsparingly on the task at hand, without regard for limitations—no tiredness, no rushing, no need to abandon a hot idea in the middle to go on to something else. This “lesson” is retained for life.

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Teacherken on Linda Darling-Hammond’s New Book

I've followed Teacherken's writings on education for a couple of years now. Teacherken (Kenneth J. Bernstein, a teacher in the DC metro area) is one of the most outspoken voices advocating for more personalized and democratic education, writing on the popular Daily Kos blog. In a post written this past weekend, he reviews educator and author Linda Darling-Hammond's new book, The Flat World and Education: How America's Commitment to Equity Will Determine Our Future, a great book I just picked up last week. As Teacherken explains, Darling-Hammond provides us with a strong argument to significantly change the direction of education in this country away from more tests and standardization...

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Nobody Told Me I Was Unschooling

Have I really been doing it all along?

I first heard about unschooling when I was doing research on homeschooling my daughter. I received The Unschooling Handbook for Christmas (yes, I ordered it myself) and as I make my way through it, I'm quickly realizing that I've been pretty much unschooling my little girl since...well, birth.

Don't we all use our kids' cues to play what they want to play with, talk about what they want to talk about, and that sort of thing? How many times have you switched a toy when your ten-month-old refused to play with the one you've given her? How many times have you let your child pick out his or her own books, or craft projects to work on, or games to play,...

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Test Stress

EEEK! Finals!

Finals…I type ‘em, they take ‘em. They stress, I correct.

No, it is much more than that. I sit down and try to create a test that is fair and relevant. I pull from the most important Spanish grammar concepts, the most used (or useful) vocabulary I have taught, and the most interesting stories we have read, and create questions that get to the heart of the matter.

I am required by my school to provide a culminating task that is relevant to the class. I am required by my department to provide a written test. I have nearly two hundred students. To maintain any sanity at all, I give a multiple guess final. Oh, make that multiple choice…

Supposedly, if students do well on...

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Quadrant Spelling

In my last posting, I wrote about the day I taught my students about quadrant graphs. The fact that I did so while not talking, using only hand signals and finger pointing, is what I mentioned in the post. I neglected to mention why I chose to introduce the graphs.

From what I can tell, the California State Standards first mention quadrant graphs in seventh grade. I choose to teach them now, in fourth grade, not as a math component, but as part of my spelling program. Rather than posting the spelling words on a chart, or writing them in a composition book, or simply reading them from their workbook, I place them on a quadrant graph that is superimposed over a pocket chart. The result...

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Thoughts on Bullying

Recently I listened to a discussion on the Diane Rehm show that centered on bullying in school and showcased some of Carl Pickhardt's theory on why bullying takes place and how it is possible. It was fascinating. You can listen to this segment here.

In public school, it is wrong to bully. Often times when a bully is discovered in a class of children, there will be some sort of sit-down talk. The bully might be told that it is not okay to do what he or she is doing to other children, and that if bullying is being used to achieve some goal, then there are surely other ways one can go about meeting that goal without harming others. Most times some sort of further repercussion is dealt to the...

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