Immeasurable Need

I was talking to a friend and fellow teacher today.  We were noting the process of inanition, or lack of intellectual life or vigor, that it seems that most of our young seem to be experiencing.  This can be seen by the abysmal lack of curiostiy,  the absence of understanding, and almost complete lack of connection between a student and the content they study.  I see the latter all the time as a history teacher.  The lives of the past that we study are only so many words on a page, rather than actual people's lives.

As a new teacher, I took note that it seemed that the light of intellectual life went out in the eyes of many students between the 6th and 8th grades.  My friend, who teaches sixth grade, noted that it seemed that it is happening earlier.  We both noted that the process must start much sooner.  Minds do not starve to death overnight.

We also both noted that things do not show much chance of improvement.  Our current course has us only spending time on that which can be quantified and measured, which means we are becoming more and more fixated on what information our kids can regurgitate to us.

This is only part of the gradual slide toward an eventual disconnect between our stated goals and how we achieve them.  We say we want to educate, but this is problematic when one realizes that true education only comes when the mind is fed, and that the only food for the mind is ideas.  But how does one quantify the inspiration a child receives when they digest a great idea?

We run into another problem when we understand that education is the science of relations.  A teacher must be capable of modelling respect for the student.  The ability to relate to a student is, perhaps, more important than knowledge of the subject matter.  A good teacher is able to relate to the student as a person, not as a product.  Yet how is this ability to relate, or its benefits, measured?

Yet the obsession with standardized tests, "accountability," and measurability all start at a younger and younger age.  Kindergarten is now what first grade was when I was a child.  Yet our children are still starving.  And they will continue to starve as long as we keep them on a daily diet of information, which is to the mind what sawdust is for the stomach.

Then we will wring our hands and write books called Why Johnny Can't Think.

We must start our children on a liberal dose and variety of good ideas as soon as possible.