Here is another bit of discovered writing in my “clean out the files on the thumb drive” project. I orginally worte in 2010. Little did I know how much worse things would get in the interveneing years.
Charles Dickens begins his famous novel set during the French Revolution with what may be best opening lines in English literature. Just in case you forgot his opening, here it is:
IT was the best of time, it was the worst of times…
He may now have known it, but Dickens was also describing the state of affairs in education in the early days of the twenty-first century. We who work in education, or whose children (or grandchildren) are in education, or those of us who just believe that education brings a fuller and richer (as measured in many ways) life, are alive during what truly are the best of time and the worst of times.
The best of times are defined by the fact that we now know more about learning than we ever have. Neuroscience (brain research) has given us new understanding of what happens inside human brains when learning happens, which factors in the environment enhance learning. This understanding of how brains work has emerged in the last thirty or forty years, and it has been interpreted into new pedagogy (teaching practice) in the last ten to fifteen years. Together, the theoretical understanding of learning and the practical advice for teaching, make today’s educators aware of the best information ever available.
The worst of times are defined by the fact that the political leaders (and this is a large group from elected officials to business leaders to elected local school officials to hired administrators to parents who use their political clout) are not paying attention to our new understandings. As one observes the continued calls for expanded standardization of curriculum and use of standardized tests demonstrate their lack of understanding or their disinterest in accepting modern theory. Those educational leaders who continue to ignore what we have learned about learning and teaching are guilty of malpractice as doctors who refuse to prescribe antibiotics in the face of treatable infections.