"When will we ever need to know about this?
It happened again today. My students went all "piranha" on me with the same old questions. "Why do we have to do this anyway? I mean, who cares about Virgil?" I wanted to snap back with something like, "Well, you never know. He might be your guide through Hell someday," but the reference would be beyond them anyway because we haven't gotten to Dante yet. Not to mention the fact that all of them would go home and tell their parents that I said all of them were going to Hell. You can imagine the mess that would create.
Instead I spent a little bit of time explaining myself to them. I try to do that as much as I can because I was always that pesky kid who always wanted to know why. I want them to understand why we're doing what we're doing every day.
(Disclaimer: If you don't want to read all this, skip down to the embedded video at the bottom, and watch it.)
Then I thought about it some more and decided that I would tell you why I choose to get up each morning and attempt to introduce 75 semi-hostile teens to the greatness of world literature.
I love the new Common Core initiatives for education. Realistically, I feel like most of the newly revised standards are simply giving me official permission to do many of the things I've always done in my classroom in the first place. I also think they offer more common sense progression from kindergarten to twelfth grade. On the other hand, I have two specific fears.
First, I find that many "new" ideas for educational reform are fads; I've personally witnessed several pendulum swings in the last decade. It feels like the all-powerful "THEY" are sitting back somewhere playing some game that is super amusing for them but dreadful for the rest of us.
THEY: Here's what we want from you.
WEE WE (teachers): Okay, we'll get right on it.
(6 months later)
THEY: Wait! We were just kidding. Do this instead.
WEE WE (teachers): All right. Can do!
(1 year later)
THEY: We know you've been working on our most recent change, but we've found a super brilliant new idea, which we've paid an over-rated and over-paid consultant to come up with. By the way this person has never been a teacher, but she's a genius. We swear she has all the answers.
WEE WE (teachers): We feel uncomfortable with this change, but we'll try it.
(9 months later)
THEY: That consultant is crazy! Let's just go back to the way we did it two years ago.
WEE WE (teachers): Um, sure. We can do that.
...You get the picture. I'm genuinely worried that's what will happen with the new Common Core initiatives. The problem is that I really like the common sense, real -world application part of the Common Core. I want to keep that part.
My other fear is that the new emphasis on "21st Century Skills" is going to disconnect us from the wisdom of the past. Don't get me wrong. My students really need those "21st Century Skills." I'm simply concerned that many people are going to lose sight of the fact that those skills are compatible (sometimes even the same as) skills that have historically been important. I'm nervous that when some people see "21st Century Skills" they'll see "Forget everything from the last three thousand years" instead. Our mantra needs to be "Keep the old stuff that works right here alongside the new." Come on. The two can often be blended together. For example, my students need to be able to read and understand complex texts. The Aeneid is a complex text. When we read it, my students are in a position to have it all, and that's what excites me about the Common Core.
How do you think we, as human beings, have made it this far? Things like the printing press and the scientific revolution are the very things that make today's science, technology, and math possible. Sir Issac Newton himself said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." The way I see it, we have a sacred duty to offer the same opportunity Newton had to today's sons and daughters. Right? How will they even begin to solve the futures problems, not to mention the ones we've all already inherited, without the basic starting point provided by wisdom from the past?
Let me also say that we are all human beings, not robots, and being human is a tricky thing. We are all unique, yet we are also part of a larger whole. Young people need to see themselves as a part of something bigger; otherwise their individual lives will feel stiflingly small and unimportant. In past generations young people caught a sense of place, community, and identity like they would the common cold. People lived in one place for centuries. People were born into a specific identity. The very circumstances that make living today different are the things that make literature even more important. It is a primary vehicle for showing students that they, as individuals, arrived at this place because of the efforts of people from the past, and each of them also has a responsibility to the people yet to come, the inhabitants of a future none of us can see yet.
Not to mention that literature is a map helping guide us through this human experience. I remember when my heart was first broken; it was excruciating. I might have been tempted to think I was experiencing something terrible and unparallelled in the history of humanity, but I picked up Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I found my troubles in the life of young, jilted Marianne. I remember thinking, "Jane Austen knew what this was like." I also thought, "So, I just need to find my Colonel Brandon." Other people have similar stories. Why do you think The Catcher in the Rye is so beloved? Great books speak to us.
I want my students to have this stuff. I want them to have it all! So I'm going to keep right on teaching them Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Chinua Achebe, Sophocles, Marie de France, and even Virgil. I'm going to push past all the groans and complaints because I'm determined that they will have the chance to learn about the story we all share, even if they don't want it.
I could say more, but I think that's probably enough. Here's the video I promised. I'm planning to show it to my students sometime in the next few days. Their attitudes might not change. My lesson plans certainly won't. Okay guys, prepare yourselves for The Aeneid!
(P.S. -- BHS friends, I've already asked Ms. Lewis to add this to FCSTube.)
Instead I spent a little bit of time explaining myself to them. I try to do that as much as I can because I was always that pesky kid who always wanted to know why. I want them to understand why we're doing what we're doing every day.
(Disclaimer: If you don't want to read all this, skip down to the embedded video at the bottom, and watch it.)
Then I thought about it some more and decided that I would tell you why I choose to get up each morning and attempt to introduce 75 semi-hostile teens to the greatness of world literature.
I love the new Common Core initiatives for education. Realistically, I feel like most of the newly revised standards are simply giving me official permission to do many of the things I've always done in my classroom in the first place. I also think they offer more common sense progression from kindergarten to twelfth grade. On the other hand, I have two specific fears.
First, I find that many "new" ideas for educational reform are fads; I've personally witnessed several pendulum swings in the last decade. It feels like the all-powerful "THEY" are sitting back somewhere playing some game that is super amusing for them but dreadful for the rest of us.
THEY: Here's what we want from you.
WEE WE (teachers): Okay, we'll get right on it.
(6 months later)
THEY: Wait! We were just kidding. Do this instead.
WEE WE (teachers): All right. Can do!
(1 year later)
THEY: We know you've been working on our most recent change, but we've found a super brilliant new idea, which we've paid an over-rated and over-paid consultant to come up with. By the way this person has never been a teacher, but she's a genius. We swear she has all the answers.
WEE WE (teachers): We feel uncomfortable with this change, but we'll try it.
(9 months later)
THEY: That consultant is crazy! Let's just go back to the way we did it two years ago.
WEE WE (teachers): Um, sure. We can do that.
...You get the picture. I'm genuinely worried that's what will happen with the new Common Core initiatives. The problem is that I really like the common sense, real -world application part of the Common Core. I want to keep that part.
My other fear is that the new emphasis on "21st Century Skills" is going to disconnect us from the wisdom of the past. Don't get me wrong. My students really need those "21st Century Skills." I'm simply concerned that many people are going to lose sight of the fact that those skills are compatible (sometimes even the same as) skills that have historically been important. I'm nervous that when some people see "21st Century Skills" they'll see "Forget everything from the last three thousand years" instead. Our mantra needs to be "Keep the old stuff that works right here alongside the new." Come on. The two can often be blended together. For example, my students need to be able to read and understand complex texts. The Aeneid is a complex text. When we read it, my students are in a position to have it all, and that's what excites me about the Common Core.
How do you think we, as human beings, have made it this far? Things like the printing press and the scientific revolution are the very things that make today's science, technology, and math possible. Sir Issac Newton himself said, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." The way I see it, we have a sacred duty to offer the same opportunity Newton had to today's sons and daughters. Right? How will they even begin to solve the futures problems, not to mention the ones we've all already inherited, without the basic starting point provided by wisdom from the past?
Let me also say that we are all human beings, not robots, and being human is a tricky thing. We are all unique, yet we are also part of a larger whole. Young people need to see themselves as a part of something bigger; otherwise their individual lives will feel stiflingly small and unimportant. In past generations young people caught a sense of place, community, and identity like they would the common cold. People lived in one place for centuries. People were born into a specific identity. The very circumstances that make living today different are the things that make literature even more important. It is a primary vehicle for showing students that they, as individuals, arrived at this place because of the efforts of people from the past, and each of them also has a responsibility to the people yet to come, the inhabitants of a future none of us can see yet.
Not to mention that literature is a map helping guide us through this human experience. I remember when my heart was first broken; it was excruciating. I might have been tempted to think I was experiencing something terrible and unparallelled in the history of humanity, but I picked up Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I found my troubles in the life of young, jilted Marianne. I remember thinking, "Jane Austen knew what this was like." I also thought, "So, I just need to find my Colonel Brandon." Other people have similar stories. Why do you think The Catcher in the Rye is so beloved? Great books speak to us.
I want my students to have this stuff. I want them to have it all! So I'm going to keep right on teaching them Shakespeare, Pablo Neruda, Chinua Achebe, Sophocles, Marie de France, and even Virgil. I'm going to push past all the groans and complaints because I'm determined that they will have the chance to learn about the story we all share, even if they don't want it.
I could say more, but I think that's probably enough. Here's the video I promised. I'm planning to show it to my students sometime in the next few days. Their attitudes might not change. My lesson plans certainly won't. Okay guys, prepare yourselves for The Aeneid!
(P.S. -- BHS friends, I've already asked Ms. Lewis to add this to FCSTube.)
We "be" the wee we!!!
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