This cartoon regularly makes its way around educational circles. It depicts a pendulum that seems to have swung from one extreme to the other. Neither of these two depict a healthy approach to learning. Learning needs to be a partnership between a child, his/her teacher and the child's parents. Neither of these two images represents a partnership, both represent power, influence, misplaced responsibility and blame. Both represent a win-lose situation. In the first, the teacher is the winner as the child is blamed for lack of success. In the second, the child is the winner as his parents blame the teacher for the lack of success. Neither represents a healthy approach to learning.
It is the year 2016 and learning is about so much more than the grade that a child receives on a test, assignment or report card. School is about so much more than delivering specific content expectations and then measuring the success of each student. The job that we have as parents and teachers is awesome and at times overwhelming because we are charged with the responsibility of preparing our children for a future that we cannot really define. Success will be defined by the degree to which our children can be:
- creative,
- global citizens,
- effective collaborators,
- effective communicators,
- of good character
- critical thinkers.
It is time to change the cartoon above to reflect the current practices and realities of our schools, empowered learners who know exactly why a specific assessment result was obtained and who know exactly what they need to work on for improvement.
Parents play an important role in the partnership and can greatly assist by developing an understanding of their children as learners. For some great questions to assist in establishing communication focused on learning for your child, visit the link below.
19 Meaningful Questions to Ask Your Child's Teacher (This is an American site therefore some of the information might not be relevant to the Ontario education system)
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