Sour milk, moldy cheese, stale crackers, rotten apples...when products go bad, there's no denying the time has come to dispose of them. Sometimes though, before obvious signs appear, food has spoiled. There's little worse than unwittingly taking a swig of sour milk. Expiration dates help, and so as the printed date on the milk carton approaches we might give a little sniff before pouring in order to test the waters. We heed dates, dump the old and replace with new. How wonderful it would be if certain aspects of teaching had an expiration date, a way to easily know it was time to dispose of them. You know, those outdated teaching practices that have been revisited year after year; those things we do because everyone else does and we always have.
This is the question up for discussion: Is the expiration date on certain school-items and systems approaching? This post is in no way presented as a challenge to our jobs as teachers of curriculum. I am not suggesting that the academics we currently teach are in danger of becoming obsolete. However, as much as I am afraid to suggest replacing teaching practices and curriculum, I am equally concerned for my safety if I were to suggest that we need to add to our menu of what we already offer in school. You see, we have been doing so many things for so long, that the thought of eliminating them makes us feel vulnerable, but the thought of adding to them makes us feel overwhelmed. It is in the vein of simply bringing an idea to the forefront of our attention that I meekly present the suggestion that times are changing, and like it or not, some of the items we are teaching might be approaching their expiration date, while other items are quickly becoming the seeds of a new school direction.
As is my way, I will first put my own practices out here as fodder. I confess that I might be the last holdout to own and methodically utilize a bound thesaurus. I am a woman of tradition and therefore I refuse to give up my volume of printed vocabulary in exchange for the online sites that are willing to give me synonyms at the touch of a button. In fact, my thesaurus is cracked and worn to the point of needing replacement, but I am afraid to do the research to see if there are any new such books available. My fear is that the general public's need for such voluminous books has expired and I will no longer be able to feed my vocabulary appetite with the printed page. And so, I hold fast to my traditional methods, neglecting the newer, faster and likely more thorough ways to locate just the right word for the job.
In much the same way, I've heard it argued that it is no longer imperative to teach and expect students to remember factual information that can just as easily be researched on computers and phones. We have become a society that relies on technology to answer every bit of minutia that we used to spend days pondering...you know, talking to each other, trying to noodle it out, making our brains work. We now hardly wait thirty seconds before picking up our devices to find the actor who was in a movie, the age of a famous hero or the operating hours of our favorite restaurant. We immediately go to our phones to answer questions that used to spark memory retrieval, heated discussion and provide practice in the art of argument. It is easy, quick, and immediately satisfying to simply look information up. But at what price are we becoming this culture of immediacy? In the end, by not utilizing our brains in the practice of memorization and memory-file retrieval, are we losing much more than information retention? Are we neglecting to learn how to disagree, listen to other's arguments and manipulate information to formulate a conclusion?
I wonder whether or not our curriculum will need to change and grow with the times. There are only so many hours in the school-day. Think about it, schools came about because children were not able to be academically educated at home by parents who instead spent time teaching their children to care for the home, be responsible for younger siblings, run the family business, etc...But today, while children might be able to find any answer at the click of a button, they are challenged to communicate effectively with the counter clerk at the store. With immediacy of information, our children are losing that very ability to function with patience, delayed gratification and social interaction. Might this necessitate that the explicit teaching of these skills be added to our daily school routine and curriculum? What else can you think of that we are losing as we gain? Reading a map...a real printed map, counting in time..."one elephant, two elephants, three elephants", setting up solitaire or a board game before being allowed to enjoy the game...cleaning up the pieces after play, you get the idea. There are skills in those actions, skills that are not replaceable by using a device to inform or "play". Skills that, if not learned, will make for adults who cannot effectively communicate, wait their turn or spend time on the mundane in order to appreciate the fun.
In essence, parents and teachers might need to step up to fill in the missing information gained by this new way of life. It is always the right time to re-evaluate. We must not be afraid to take inventory on the nearly expired items we revisit year after year, just because we always have. We also must accept the challenge of embracing new items that need to be taught to our children. It can be frightening and overwhelming for sure. But more alarming is the image of our future as a society that lacks social skill-sets, human interaction and general etiquette. Taking inventory can help us all provide the best of what our children need as they navigate life at the click of a button.
