I belong to the 10%. I am the product of an educational system that worked for me. All of my classes were “accelerated/intensive” classes. All of my friends were also in these classes, they too belonged to the 10%. I loved school, I lived at school. Early-bird gym to late night choir rehearsals, I was addicted to learning and surrounded myself with others who shared in my passion. As a part of the 10%, I did well in college and as a part of the 10% I was able to find a job as a high school science teacher in my home school district.
It was in my first year of teaching that I was introduced to the other 90%.
My world was rocked! Like finding out the earth is not flat, I was terrified of this revelation and intrigued to explore more. It was my ignorance to the needs of my students that kept knocking me down and it was my persistence that kept me stumbling forward. I was too stubborn to quit (although it came to mind). I made all of the rookie mistakes... and they (the students) played me like a violin.
Threaten them with their grade, they only became less compliant. My class was frequently skipped and homework was never handed in. It was a world that I did not know existed. It was a world I did not understand.
There was a detachment in my interaction with my students. They did not understand me and I most certainly did not understand them. I was teaching in my hometown and was only 4 to 5 years removed from my students, however the disconnect felt like a lifetime.
I began journaling, started jogging, and did a whole lot of praying and discovered this truth: “People need to feel validated.” My students needed to know that I cared about them. I needed to know that they cared enough to participate in class. They needed me to provide them with relevant topics of interest and they needed to be pushed beyond the Ditto Machine reserves I had been using. This is what separates the good, the bad and the great. It is what makes teaching an art.
This personal revelation would help me to conquer my 10%-90% dilemma.
Education is flawed.. and the system is broken. Catering to the 10% cannot/will not work or to be allowed if we are to prepare this and future generations to meet the pressing global demands of tomorrow. Competency based learning is in.
I want to know what students can create, what they can do-not how well or fast they can memorize random facts and copy down information-those jobs are for the telemarketers...those are the jobs that have been outsourced.
Factory model schools are reinforcing our broken factories. If we are to be truly great once again as a nation, we must provide opportunities for students and teachers to create and be innovative together. A transformational classroom, without walls, without chains to cookie-cutter/one-size assessments. These classroom experiences can be messy in an organized-chaotic sort of way, they are unscripted as are the problems of tomorrow. They are the authentic, real-world experiences that students will never forget and the type of learning that will allow students to exercise and stretch to their creative limits. They are the projects and events that will prepare us to answer the questions of tomorrow.
To get there, it is time for teachers to open up and share, time for school districts to become transparent and time for administrators to trust in the creative judgment and direction of their faculty.