Paisley the Puggle and educating our children...

Well, how does one resist; she fit in the palm of my hand and had the cutest squishiest little face that I'd ever seen. Yes, both my husband and I were working, with four children, with many other extracurricular activities and not a whole lot of spare time, but a dog is an addition to any family! SO the adventure began. We got Paisley the Puggle and fell in love with the little bundle of fur immediately. The first several months were an absolute adventure every time that we'd take her out. Swarms of people would come over to see her and pet her. She loved to be outside playing, sniffing and well, being a dog. Over time, our lives continued to get busier with kids schedules and our own commitments. We'd 'aim' to take her for her walk and off leash run everyday but much to her chagrin it just didn't  happen everyday. My husband and I would both remind each other that this is unfair and we MUST walk her tomorrow, so one of us would and then a week later we'd be back to missing some walks.

Paisley began barking excessively, jumping on the kids and not listening to commands that she used to listen to. She started to 'misbehave' and as a result I would just find her to be a nuisance some days. One day I was sitting at my computer working as she nuzzled under my feet, looking up at me with those pleading eyes. "Okay" I said as I went to the door and grabbed the leash, "lets go."

We walked a few blocks to the off leash area and I set her free. She ran, and ran and ran. Every few minutes coming back to me to make sure it was okay. As I watched her run and return to the energetic playful little dog (okay not so little, several of the kids meals ended up on the floor for her enjoyment) I was reminded of my kids, especially my 8 year old daughter. My eight year old has a boundless energy, often reserved for describing little boys. We have watched her disconnect from school this year and we have struggled with ways to keep her interested.

When I volunteer in her class, the majority of the time, I watch these eight year old kids slump their shoulders and lean on the desks that they are forced to sit in most of the day, told not get up unless given permission and not permitted to eat until designated snack time. I think of this as I watch Paisley run and be, well, be a dog. She is doing what a dog NEEDS to do to be a happy and well adjusted dog. When I take this from her what happens, well she acts out and the cycle of unhappiness and disappointment between the two of us begins.

Our 'factory farm' style classrooms do not serve the best interests of our children. Our kids are not being allowed to be kids. This breaks my heart. I hear from teachers who are coming up with some unbelievable ways to engage their students and to give them the respect that they deserve. My oldest daughter has recently moved to an arts based school and I am encouraged to see how her teacher respects these kids. If they are hungry throughout the day and want to eat a healthy snack, then they eat. There is music in the classroom as they work on a science project and they are not forced to be in a desk all day.

The ancient Prussian model of our factory farm schools is not what our children, or teachers, need. Let them be kids.

As I write this the kids and my husband are out the door with Paisley going on an adventure run in the snow. The kids being kids and the dog being a dog!

John Taylor Gatto - What is the Purpose of Education?

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com

Thanks for sharing this Sue Huff! Excellent Ted Talk, Diana Laufenberg understands authentic learning and really gives her students the opportunity for experiential learning.

Diana Laufenberg: How to learn? From mistakes | Video on TED.com

Not issue by issue but understanding 'Education'..

Recently, with my CAPSC hat on, I blogged that, " a follow up to Inspiring Education, where we heard from guest speakers such as Dan Pink and Mark Milliron who clearly warned us that preparing our students for success includes more than math and science and in class learning. We must also encourage critical thinking, global citizenship, community awareness and volunteerism. How does the new Education Act framework encourage and foster this? He affirmed that Minister Hancock also felt this was important. However, I am still not clear on HOW this is reflected in the new framework. This should be part of the large vision and I believe the new Education Act is the place that this can be introduced and shared as a common value for Albertans."

There are some great opportunities right now for all of us interested in and concerned about our public education system to address some of its fundamental premises. The government, as we know, is set to revamp the Education Act. RIGHT NOW there is a window of opportunity to let our elected representatives know what we want and expect around the issues of HOW we formally educate our children and WHAT we want our public education system to look like in Alberta.

These overarching questions require our thought and energy to address. This is where the public conversation should be focused just now. Of course there are specific issues and operational concerns, there always will be; however, the opportunity of influencing legislative reform only comes about once a generation (if even that). Dollars and cents do matter. We all understand that public institutions have budgets and that the efficient and fair allocation of those scarce resources is an important part of the work of our elected officials. But the chance to offer-up our collective thinking on higher-order concerns should, FOR JUST NOW, trump preoccupation with one particular fiscal issue.

Some people are encouraging a third party investigation into the cost and processes that went into Calgary's Education building. That's fine...but there is a significant part of the conversation being missed and people are getting riled up without first discussing the bigger issues. For instance, what environment do we believe our public school board trustees and administration should work in? Because that is part of the conversation.

I also agree that whatever the process is for making decisions such as building new infrastructure needs to be transparent; the public should know WHY the decision was made to build a new site and what the costs are, up-front. They should have an opportunity, before the final decision is made, to provide feedback. And the deliberations/debate over this type of massive fiscal decision should be clearly stated in the minutes of trustees meetings which should be easily accessible to the public.

Now, having said that: my passion and focus just now is about expressing our concerns and suggestions over the proposed Education Act and to take the conversation where it really needs to go in our communities. We started this conversation after watching 'A Race to Nowhere'. This goes further than classroom size, IPP's and PAT's ( and Education building costs). Although these things are all of importance we cannot address any of them wisely without an understanding of WHY these things matter. What are we trying to protect or create?

I believe we should be working toward an education system that fosters and encourages our children to keep their sense of wonder (thank you Rachel Carson). I believe we need to rethink how we have separated 'curriculum' in our public schools into distinct disciplines like math and english, usually disconnected from one another when there is such an interconnectivity between them all. Do we understand what it means to 'learn' and to use science in our day to day lives rather than just as a class in school? I ask most kids what science is and they tell me it's dissecting things, doing experiments in labs and learning chemistry. It is all of those things but those are all processes and in the end just products. The science bit that we really need to foster in every discipline is the process that we go through to understand all things; it is a search for truth. I am just learning and appreciating the need to understand science now, at 35 years old! As I try to understand what happened in Arizona and how a society begins to deal with the things that contributed to this I am using science. I am searching for truth.

I see many of us focusing on the small details rather than the big picture (what education do we most need; to do what needs doing in this world). I think that we can make more significant changes if we focus on what we need as we move forward rather than focusing on individual pieces of a much larger puzzle.