Remember The “Good Old Days?”

Remember The “Good Old Days?”

Remember the "good old days" as educators? You know...the days when we taught our content and assumed students could read, write, think, and calculate well enough to master whatever we had to say.

You don't? I don't either. I've been an educator longer than most of you, and there has never been a time when I didn't have to use techniques that enabled my diverse students to master my content. The lingo will change, but the reality is the same: whatever our content, we have a responsibility to our students to develop them into literate, lifelong learners. Always have; always will.

A few years ago an article caught national attention:  “Why can’t Johnny read?”  Lockett Learning's key question is not, "Why can't Johnny read?" It is "What must we do so Johnny can read?"  Or...”How can we teach so Johnny will want to read?”

Aristotle said, “The mark of an educated mind is to be able to
entertain a thought without accepting it.”

Perhaps a more frightening question is...how will we handle it when we teach students to think only to find that they think differently than we do? It is frightening to think that they, like Aristotle, might entertain our thoughts without accepting them.

May your students challenge your thinking this year. May they cause you to rethink your premises. May they inspire you to hone your skills. May you model for them what it is to be a lifelong learner.