Cecere Blog
Chapter 2 was interesting. I like what what was said about parenting our children. As teachers we always see these students that just stand out from the rest and we ask ourselves Why are they so awesome? What did the parents to to make them this way? Reading what the parents did for Kirk and his siblings I am actually very relieved. My wife and I have always questioned if we are doing this parenting thing right. We have 3 girls and we try to fill them up with self confidence. We expose them to new things,food, culture, sports, music, etc. I agree that these things make children more well rounded.
I disagree with Kirks parents letting their son drop out of HS. I have a different philosophy in this respect. It worked for them and that is great. I say quitters never win, winners never quit. Finish what you start and then move on. There are things to learn in every situation. But that's my opinion.
His teacher at Stanford seems pretty amazing. I think with a class like the one he teaches is very hands on which in itself makes a more interesting class. What I like about PBL is that you can make the class more hands on. You just have to be creative in how you want the students to learn.
I would never have let my son drop out of high school either! I think that throwing in the towel on something as important as a diploma or a college degree is just plain wrong. I never would have had the confidence in my own son to allow him to make such a life-altering decision for himself. I think those parents really took a great risk and gamble, however well it all tunred out. I think that Kirk is one of those kinds of people who would be successful no matter what area of education he wanted to major in. I think some kids are just like that. The goal is to teach them all how to excell given whatever ability they present to us with. Reading that section of the book and then your blog reminded me of when the AJ Whittenberg gifted and talented program in Greenville County just got underway, how the area neighbors complained that their chlldren needed to be taught how to be gifted and talented along with outsider children that would be driven into the school from the suburbs. Gifted and talented students coming from homes like Kirk's may always have a leg up though.
ReplyDeleteI would never have let my son drop out of high school either! I think that throwing in the towel on something as important as a diploma or a college degree is just plain wrong. I never would have had the confidence in my own son to allow him to make such a life-altering decision for himself. I think those parents really took a great risk and gamble, however well it all tunred out. I think that Kirk is one of those kinds of people who would be successful no matter what area of education he wanted to major in. I think some kids are just like that. The goal is to teach them all how to excell given whatever ability they present to us with. Reading that section of the book and then your blog reminded me of when the AJ Whittenberg gifted and talented program in Greenville County just got underway, how the area neighbors complained that their chlldren needed to be taught how to be gifted and talented along with outsider children that would be driven into the school from the suburbs. Gifted and talented students coming from homes like Kirk's may always have a leg up though.
ReplyDeleteHi Richard,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thoughts about Chapter 2. I agree with you that I appreciated the insight that Wagner offers into each of his chapter profiles of real world innovators and how they became that way. In looking into their lives, specifically their formative years and the decisions that their parents made and the teachers that really impacted their growth helps us to see what practices we can learn and apply to foster that same sense of inquiry into our students.
While I agree with you that I cringed too when I read that Kirk dropped out just shy of finishing his degree at Stanford I've thought about why he did it. College education was such a luxury for our family that I knew that I wanted to achieve graduating with a diploma, not just for me but to help my parents know that the sacrifices they made for my brother and I were not in vain. My parents didn't have the opportunities to go to college but they impressed upon us the value of it at a very early age and my dad let us know all the time that he was working two jobs so that we would be able to have more opportunities than he did. Here's the thing I've thought about with Kirk. He made a calculated risk with dropping out. To do what he really loved and to be successful at it, he realized he didn't need to finish that degree. He had been tapped by apple to work with their design team and knew that the path he chose was right for him and wouldn't necessarily require the finished formal education. For my path, I knew that teaching required a degree and I also knew that what the college degree represented for me and for my family was the opportunity to be able to have that choice.
I believe our students choose to disengage with final papers and with pushing back against grades not necessarily because they can't but because they don't see the value in it. If they are not extrinsically motivated by grades or by the product, then I argue that we have to motivate them to want to engage in the process. I want to challenge us as educators to design units of study where the value isn't all wrapped up in the end grade, but in the daily immersion of thinking and learning and doing. I know many of your students are going to get totally immersed in the math videos you are getting ready to present to them as your next pbl because of the opportunities they will have to create and to integrate their technical knowledge with multi-media and this will motivate them to learn the math content so that their video is effective. This helps build intrinsic motivation. Thanks, Dawn