| Week 8 | Dear Friends & Colleagues:
Here are some thoughts from Riane Eisler's new book Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century. Peacefully, Prologue: Education for the 2lst Century The partnership framework outlined in this book offers the basic design for a new integrated primary and secondary education for the 21st century. This framework draws from my research over three decades, from my own teaching experiences, and from the work of educators at many levels. Partnership education has three core interconnected components: partnership process, partnership content, and partnership structure. Partnership process is about how we learn and teach. It applies the guiding template of the partnership model to educational methods and techniques. Are each child's intelligences and capabilities treated as unique gifts to be nurtured and developed? Do students have a real stake in their education so that their innate enthusiasm for learning is not dampened? Do teachers act primarily as lesson-dispensers and controllers, or as mentors and facilitators? Is caring an integral part of teaching and learning? Are young people learning the teamwork needed for the post-industrial economy or must they continuously compete with each other? Are students offered the opportunity for both self-directed learning and peer teaching? In short, is educating children merely a matter of filling an "empty vessel," or are students and teachers partners in the adventure of learning? Partnership content is what we learn and teach. It is the educational curriculum. Does the curriculum not only effectively teach students basic skills such as the three R's of reading, writing, and arithmetic but also model the life-skills they need to be competent and caring citizens, workers, parents, and community members? Are we telling young people to be responsible, kind, and nonviolent at the same time that the curriculum content celebrates male violence and conveys environmentally unsustainable and socially irresponsible messages? Does it present science in holistic, relevant ways? Does what is taught as important knowledge and truth include not just as an add-on but as integral to what is learned - both the female and male halves of humanity as well as children of various races and ethnicities? Does it teach young people the difference between the partnership and dominator models as two basic human possibilities and the feasibility of creating a partnership way of life? Or, both overtly and covertly, is this presented as unrealistic in "the real world"? Does what young people are learning about "human nature" limit or expand human possibilities? In short, what view of ourselves, our world, and our roles and responsibilities in it are children taking away from their schooling? Partnership structure is about where learning and teaching take place: what kind of learning environment we construct if we follow the partnership model. Is the structure of a school, classroom, and/or home school one of top-down authoritarian rankings, or is a more democratic one? If it were diagramed as an organizational chart, would decisions flow only from the top down and accountability only from the bottom up, or would there be interactive feedback loops? Are management structures flexible, so that leadership is encouraged at all organizational levels? Are there ways of involving parents and other community members? Do students, teachers, and other staff participate in school decision making and rule setting? In short, is the learning environment organized in terms of domination ultimately backed up by fear, or is it a combination of horizontal linkings and hierarchies of actualization where power is used not to disempower others but, rather, to empower them? |
| Week 7 | Dear Friends & Colleagues:
Here is the latest from Dr. Mel Levine's educational research at www.allkindsofminds.org. For an easy to access web version of all of the information available below, click on to www.allkindsofminds.org/library/press/newsletters/Nljanuary02.htm: Learning new procedures for a science lab, remembering a question while searching for the answer, recalling math facts for solving equations, and holding onto the ending of a story while writing the beginning all require students to use their memory. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses when it comes to memory. Some students can remember every detail of a field trip to the zoo they took three years ago but struggle to remember the main points from a reading assignment the night before. Others can easily remember new Spanish vocabulary but can't remember where they put their homework and books each day. "From the moment that initial classroom bell or buzzer sounds off jarringly in the morning until their homework is finally completed, children and adolescents are stressing and straining their memory muscles. So much of schoolwork is memory work." - Dr. Mel Levine Explore the Learning Base to find ideas for strengthening memory. Click on a link from the list below to read ideas for helping students with the memory demands of school. Thinking with Numbers - Learning and Recalling Math Facts akomdev.cdl.unc.edu/library/Challenges/TWNMathFacts.htm Reading Comprehension - The Memory Components akomdev.cdl.unc.edu/library/Challenges/MCR_MemoryComponents.htm Producing and Communicating Ideas - Accessing Information from Mind akomdev.cdl.unc.edu/library/Challenges/PCIAccessingInfofromMind.htm Understanding Ideas BB Holding Information in Mind akomdev.cdl.unc.edu/library/Challenges/UIHoldingInformation.htm Peacefully, |
| Week 6 | Dear Friends & Colleagues:
Most of you are familiar with Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. This is a much more "ecologically valid" means of observing your child and helping her develop confidence at learning than the traditional IQ testing alone. A big problem with testing intelligence has been a lack of knowing what to do with the scores. Here is an example of a way of teaching a task for children with multiple intelligences.
The class will do one of these activities each day during math class (the emphasized intelligence appears in brackets: -- Count to 70, standing up and clapping on every seventh number, [Bodily-Kinesthetic] -- Sing the Multiplication Rock song for the 7's. [Musical] -- Complete a "hundreds chart," coloring in every seventh number. [Spatial] -- Form circles of ten students, each student wearing a number from 0 to 9. Starting with the 0, participants count off as they go around the circle (the second time around the circle, the 0 becomes a 10, the 1 an 11, and so on; the third time around, the 0 becomes a 20, the 1 a 21, and so on). As they count, participants pass a ball of yarn around the circle, unrolling it as they do so. The first person grasps the end of the yarn, and every seventh person after that also grasps a section before passing the ball of yarn on. On reaching the count of 70, students will see that the yarn creates a geometric design. [Spatial, Bodily-Kinesthetic, Interpersonal]. -- Create their own geometric designs for the 7's on a geoboard or in a drawing using the strategy described above (e.g., use a circle numbered 0 to 9 and then connect with string or a line every seventh number up to 70). [Spatial] -- Listen to a story about "The As Much Brothers" (who can touch things and see them multiply; for instance, when Seven Times As Much touches 3 golden hens, 21 golden hens appear). [Linguistic] -- Create "before" and "after" drawings based on The As Much Brothers Story (for instance, Seven Times As Much just before touching 3 golden hens and just after touching them). [Spatial] -- Practicing multiplication table rehearsal orally [Mathematics, Linguistic} or in written form {Mathematics, Spatial, Kinesthetic]. -- Discuss among each other what it feels like to practrice these tasks [Intrapersonal, Interpersona] Most of these ideas come from a wonderful book by an educator, Dr. Thomas Armstrong, who has many ideas for all grades in Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom. The effort to identify a task and conceptualize at least seven different ways to teach it will invariably pay off with the joy of learning on EACH child's face as he or she learns in the style that is her or his natural intellectual strength. Parents, if you can give your child's teacher examples of seven different ways to teach a task I bet you would get a big smile! By the way, don't forget that these seven intelligences are only the beginning. Dr. Gardner has indicated there are many other types that meet his theoretical standard, e.g., spirituality, moral sensibility, humor, intuition, creativity, etc. Remember, if Einstein thought he only used 10% of his brain's potential, we've all got a lot of room to grow.
Peace to you and those you touch, |
| Week 5 | Dear Friends & Colleagues:
The recent controversy over the rap singer Eminem's lyrics has me reviewing my own beliefs about the effects of violence, whether heard or seen, on the developing personality of my child. Neuropsychological research is becoming more supportive of those who argue that exposure to violent images shapes the beliefs and behaviors of each of us. The collected body of research demonstrates that there are three main effects of viewing media violence: aggression, desensitization, and fear. One study, using 3-minute clips from Rocky IV, found the children=s brains were activated in the same manner as an individual who experienced significant trauma such as rape. Scientists are not in agreement yet with the implications of such research but there is an increased concern that we need better control over what our children are exposed to. One last bit of research that is agreed upon, start creating the patterns of control while your child is young. The window of greatest opportunity is between the ages of 2 and 10, preferably at the early end. Don't attempt to change your adolescents patterns radically. The pattern is entrenched and you are going to have a no-win conflict. Do engage your adolescent in dialogue about these issues and concerns. Remember, no one has the one-true-way of parenting. The challenge is to think and communicate about such challenging issues. Let me know what you know. Peacefully, |
| Week 4 | Dear Friends & Colleagues:
This week's hot tip is again looking at children who have difficulty with attention control. Teachers and parents may need to alert such children when something especially important is about to be stated. For example, looking right at the child you could say, "Now listen very carefully. I'm about to give you important instructions about tomorrow's field trip." Another useful approach is to give fair warning to the daydreamer when you are going to call on her or him. It's as simple as saying, "In two minutes I am going to ask you to answer a question about what we are talking about." These approaches are based on the understanding that children with weak mental energy control become exhausted during a day at school. Rather than assuming they "should" pay attention, this approach accepts the weakness and finds alternative bypass strategies and ways to strengthen mental control. Peacefully, |
| Week 3 | The need to pay attention in school, as well as in other areas of our lives, is a foundational skill that often is not taught. When we tell the child to Apay attention@ we are probably not helping her to know how to do that. The neurodevelopmental pediatrician Dr. Mel Levine says, AAttention is a system of controls that can help students with such things as working consistently each day, focusing on the right details when reading, and thinking ahead about what to say.@ The next time your student or child loses focus, ask him to tell you at what point his attention shifted from the topic to something else (probably something that is more interesting and fun!). If you can identify the Abreakdown point@ in this system you can start to solve the problem. For example, some children are not neurologically wired to sustain attention for more than a few minutes when the topic is not interesting to them. The Amental effort@ this requires actually drains their attention and concentration fuel tank. They start to fidget and move because the body is trying to get the blood flow to increase circulation which feeds increased oxygen to the brain, thereby refueling their empty tank. This gives new insight why some people think better on their feet! Is it possible to arrange more frequent opportunities to move around without disturbing others? The effort to change classroom patterns could reward you with increased student attentiveness. At home, study times may be arranged with shorter, focused study sessions with movement breaks in between. Let me know what happens. |
| Week 2 | Dear Friends:
It is apparent that the challenges of parenting and educating adolescents is not unique to our day. The developmental theory of Margaret Mahler suggested that adolescents live with an inherent anxiety as a result of the separation?individuation process that is preparing them to leave the nest. That anxiety manifests in a variety of behaviors, many of which are experienced by others in a negative manner. Try interpreting the behavior as a symptom of anxiety rather than oppositionality. The question may be "what's troubling you" rather than "what's wrong with you?". Let me know what you think. Peacefully, |
| Week 1 | Did you know that neuropsychological research has identified at least one-third of all school children exhibit specific learning disorders that can be effectively treated? Rather than thinking of learning disabilities, a permanent condition that can be expected to limit the child and adult she or he will become, a learning disorder is considered a problem in the brain's processing that can be corrected. Unfortunately, most are neither identified or treated. An example is the frequent interference of poor organizational skills, technically known as a deficit of spatial ordering. For one week, try taking the last five minutes of the school day and have each member of the class list the materials and books needed for that night's homework assignment. You might use a buddy system to make sure each child has everything needed. While a few students may suffer the specific disorder, it is probable that many of the other students will benefit from this simple but essential organizational skill. |