Jane
Lankford and Charlene Herrala‘s English 10 class sent me a wonderful gift just
before the holidays. I was observing
classrooms at Windsor High School and their class was in the middle of a novel
study on the book, The Ultimate Gift by
Jim Stovall. They asked me if I had read
the book and I answered, “No; most of my reading lately has been about
education.” To my great surprise, right
before the holiday I received a copy of the book from the class with comments
and reflections written in the book from the teachers and students. Mrs. Herrala wrote, “I hope you take a little
time to read something for yourself, and enjoy and are touched by this book as
much as I am.” What a wonderful and
caring thought to share.
I did take
the opportunity to read the novel. It
was a brilliant story about a young man’s journey to discover the ultimate
gift. In particular, Chapter Six: The
Gift of Learning, provided me the chance for much reflection on my own life, my
children, and the opportunities we have to give as educators. Mrs. Lankford
underlined, “Education is a lifelong journey,” and wrote, “Hopefully, our
students will never stop learning!”
Learning is
a process that does not end upon graduation.
The book discusses that commencement is when the process of learning
begins and that all the years of schooling should have provided the tools and
framework for the real lessons to come.
How true is this? As lifelong learners ourselves, what we need to
remember is the tools and framework have changed over time. Our students are using technology every day
in so many different ways. The jobs that they will have are not even created. For
example, jobs related to the Apple i-phone did not exist before 2007. The
skills needed to succeed in this type of work environment are collaboration,
communication (both oral and written), creativity, and critical thinking.
Unfortunately
politicians, in an attempt to improve education, have imposed multiple choice
SOL tests to hold students and schools accountable for learning. The unintended consequence of these
cookie-cutter tests has been the stifling of creativity of educators and
children alike. We must create an environment in which our
students can learn the skills that will be utilized throughout their life and
to allow our teachers to teach in such an environment.
I believe
that together we can create a culture in which SOL tests are just something we
do in June, and not something that consumes our thoughts and words every day in
the classroom. I believe that we can
create an environment in which students collaborate together and discuss their
thoughts on the topics being studied, communicate their ideas to others to
demonstrate their learning, utilize their collective creativity to produce
products or benefits for their community, and critically analyze information
and make decisions for themselves. These
experiences and opportunities should be “The Ultimate Gift” we give to our
students.
