What's the Point? The Joy of Being Alive

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I recently posted a video clip of Ken Robinson, in which he tried to persuade us that perhaps our time is better spent teaching grade schoolers such things as Art, Music, Theatre and Dance than mathematics, language, and social studies. I found it hard to disagree, since I held the opinion that all of elementary school and middle school mathematics could be learned over a single summer (by a suitably motivated and intelligent student), to get ready for Grade 9.

Just today, I read an article on the Web that described how Finland decided in 1979 to make changes to their curriculum, because their students were lagging behind in mathematics and science. And how did they do this? By, among other things, planning playtime for their grade schoolers, up to an average of 75 minutes a day (compared with about a third of that for US schools).

Ken Robinson conjectured that young kids are far more gifted than we can understand, looking at the same kids once they've grown up. (We might not agree entirely with that; after all, our youngsters have brought home some singularly stupid classmates over the years.  And sometimes we wonder whether Junior is entirely all home, himself.  Even the lights seem to be off.)  However, we must grudgingly concede that kids at least have an almost miraculous capacity for enthusiasm.

Most kids. Some of them have had that enthusiasm thumped out of them early, and they settle down to a more mature grim bored-ness that can be so satisfying to us adults. What is the point?  This is the question they begin to ask; and though it is comforting to know that one's children are finally appreciating (or rather, deploring) the universe from one's own jaded point of view, one wonders whether all that immature enthusiasm might not have been good to keep around just a little longer.

A story I often tell is about a 9th-Grade teacher of mine who refused to teach us Physics late in the afternoon. Instead he read aloud from books (A Tale of Two Cities) in the late afternoon Physics periods, but taught us physics when the periods happened to fall in the mornings. The experiment was a stunning success. How did we manage to learn all the physics we were intended to learn in half the contact-hours?

In times gone by, children did not have to be convinced about the sheer joy of life. Today the situation is different; they too often equate the good life to material amenities, such as computers or sport vehicles. Why do they need to persuaded about the intrinsic value of existence?  Is it necessary to resort to filling them with religious propaganda to convince them of it?  Will we have to tell them that the main reason for living is that Jesus wants them to live?  Why are they so jaded so soon?  Could it be that giving more structured leisure time to the kids could offset this lack?  Must we think of kids as being in school to do a job, and an hour of play is an hour wasted?

Art, Music, Dance and Drama are actually kinds of organized social playing. (Art teachers will hasten to reassure us that it is serious business, but perhaps they are not the best judges of this.)  I think the most important lesson kids can learn in grade school is of the richness of experience that is available to them.
 
All the experiences out there, just for the taking!  Art, music, dance and drama are just the beginning!

We must begin to grow adults who share in this vision! Young teachers are certainly enthusiastic, but many more mature teachers have the capacity for fun that I believe is valuable in a teacher at the elementary level.  I have found that the older I get, the more I delight in simple things: the sight of little people on their way to school, the arguments of young adults trying to establish some obscure point; pets in the house of a friend; a bunch of sparrows hunkered down in a hedge. A few years ago I would have just yawned and said, yeah, right. Just stay out of my way.  But now, as my time on Earth draws to a close, everything seems delightful and precious. Why do we need to wait until we're almost dead to appreciate the delights of simple things?

Now, I must hasten to make it clear that I do think arithmetic and spelling have their place. But the sheer joy of existence is now an important subject to teach little people, before we forget its truth ourselves.  The pleasure of physical movement, interacting with each other in games and goofy play: what better time to do it than when you're in elementary school?

A word of warning, though. Some teachers have the knack of destroying the fun of anything. You can teach kids that even a jig-saw puzzle is not fun, but work.  The same goes for making a woodworking project, or a sewing project.  Some people cannot stand the thought that some other people can make everything into fun. I don't mind anything being fun, as long as, at the end of the day, the students can solve a problem in that subject area.

Obviously, though, even the best plans for educating the very young can be held hostage by the unenlightened citizens in a School Board.  School Boards in the USA are more often the jealous guardians of mediocrity than advocates for excellence.  The more I think about this, the more I'm becoming convinced that elementary education should be delivered in two separate layers: the more traditional curriculum by one team, and a more diversified, less regimented layer by a team of volunteers, involving parent participation, and participation from ordinary citizens (in contrast to teachers).  ---I almost forgot:  the point is that the second layer of "school" can be kept out of the clutches of the School Board.

This idea has drawbacks; mainly that students will begin to compare the two sets of experiences to the detriment of the former, causing yet more bitterness among the teachers of traditional skills.


Well.  Let's keep thinking.  Education is everybody's problem; that's the main thing to keep in mind.  We've got to stop thinking about it as free babysitting while we work.


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