Why do so many kids come to school as Kindergartners loving school, and end up disliking school by the time they are finishing high school? Why does this happen and what can we do about it?

I have an idea…an idea shared by many:

When we gradually takeaway a teachers ability and license to teach in creative and interesting ways, our kids gradually lose interest. They recognize what is happening. Teachers are under immense pressure to cover all of the material within a finite amount of time and, as a result, are not able to utilize all of the creative tools in their toolboxes. As Howard Gardner said, “Coverage is the enemy of understanding.” The more there is to cover, the stronger the enemy becomes. In spite of what we know about the problem of teaching in “chunks”, covering quickly, and over-memorization, states continue to add standards. They continue to enlarge the problem.

Coverage is common because high stakes assessments are typically designed with an emphasis on the memorization of facts. The more facts there are to cover, the more pressure to cover all of them. The number of standards in Virginia continues to grow, which means there is more to memorize.

There is nothing wrong with standards. We need them, but we have too many of them and too many that require simple recall and nothing else. Problem solving, collaboration, synthesizing and summarizing information, and analyzing information fall victim to the need to digest short chunks of info and keep moving.  This is a real problem.