Please feel free to comment on your thoughts from this article in the 1970's. Ideas you agree with or disagree...
YOU MEAN A RABBIT CAN BE TAUGHT TO FLY?
As an individual you must not be satisfied with just becoming like everybody else.
By Leo Buscaglia, Ph.D.
Busscaglia: "I teach seminars in graduate school. It's amazing how people have learned to parrot by then."
A rabbit, bird, fish, squirrel, duck and so on, all decided to start a school. The rabbit insisted that running had to be in the curriculum. The bird insisted that flying be in the curriculum. The fish insisted that swimming be in the curriculum. The squirrel insisted that perpendicular trees climbing be in the curriculum.
All the other animals wanted their specialty to be in the curriculum, too, so they put everything in and then made the glorious mistake of insisting that all the animals take all of the courses. The rabbit was magnificent in running; nobody could run like the rabbit. But they insisted that it was good intellectual and emotional discipline to teach the rabbit flying. So they insisted that the rabbit learned to fly and they put her on this branch and said, "Fly, rabbit!" And the poor old thing jumped off, broke her leg and fractured her skull. She became brain-damaged and then she couldn't run very well, either.
The same way with the bird -- she could fly like a freak all over the place, do loops and loops, and she was making an A. But they insisted that this bird burrow holes in the ground like a gopher. Of course she broke her wings and everything else, and then she couldn't fly.
We know this is wrong, yet nobody does anything about it. You may be a genius. You may be one of the greatest writers in the world, but you can't get into a university unless you can pass trigonometry. For what? Look at the list of drop outs: William Faulkner, John F. Kennedy, Thomas Edison. They couldn't face school. "I don't want to learn perpendicular tree climbing. I'm never going to climb perpendicularly. I'm a bird. I can fly to the top of the tree without having to do that."
"Never mind, it's good discipline."
As an individual, you must not be satisfied with just becoming like everybody else. You must think for yourself. For example, art supervisors. I can remember when they used to come to my classroom in elementary school, and I'm sure you can remember it, too. You were given a paper, and the teacher would put up the drawing in front of you and you were really excited. It was going to be art time. You had all the crayolas in front of you, and you folded your hands and you waited. And soon the art teacher would come running in, because she had been to fourteen other classrooms that day teaching art. She ran in, and she'd huff and puff and she'd say, "Good morning girls and boys. Today we are going to draw a tree." And all the kids would say, "Goody, we're going to draw a tree!" And then she'd get up there with a green crayola and she'd draw this great big green thing. And then she put a brown base on it and a few blades of grass. And she'd say, "There is a tree." And all the kids would look at it and they'd say, "That isn't a tree. That's a lollipop." But she said that was a tree, and then she's pass out these papers and say, "Now, draw a tree." She didn't really say, "Draw a tree" -- she said, "Draw my tree." And the sooner you found out that's what she meant and could reproduce this lollipop and hand it to her, the sooner you would get an A.
But here was little Janie who knew that wasn't a tree, because she'd seen a tree such as this art teacher had never experienced! So she got magenta, and orange, and blue, and purple, and green, and she scribbled all over her page and happily brought it up and gave it to the teacher. She looked at it and said, "Oh my God...."
How long does it take somebody to realize that what they're really saying is, "To pass, I want you to reproduce my tree." And so it goes through the first grade, second, third and right on into seminars in graduate school. I teach seminars in graduate school. It's amazing how people have learned to parrot by then. Think? Don't be ridiculous. They can give you the facts, verbatim, just as you've given it to them. And you can't blame those students, because that's what they've been taught. You say to them, "Be creative," and they're fearful. And so what happens to our uniqueness; what happens to our tree? All this beautiful uniqueness has gone right down the drain. Everybody is like everybody else, and everybody is happy. R.D. Laing says, "we are satisfied when we've made people like ourselves out of our children.
Excerpted from the book, LIVING, LOVING & LEARNING by Leo Buscaglia
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13 comments:
I started teaching in the mid seventies. My students had an art teacher just like the one in the article: “YOU MEAN A RABBIT CAN BE TAUGHT TO FLY?” Through the study of multiple intelligences teachers have worked very hard to get away from teaching like that. They have learned to understand children as unique individuals. However I feel with “No Child Left Behind”, we are regressing back to make MY tree. I teach in a Reading First School. Reading First is a government grant to improve reading. The theory is wonderful but the guidelines are archaic. We have a reading program that we must follow. If someone from the state comes into our classroom, which they do, and it is Wednesday we must be on day three of the program. We are written up as insubordinate if the observer sees that we are doing something different. If a child wants to write a play or a child needs a few more days reading the story, this can’t be accommodated during that 90 minute reading block. The next day comes and we must move on to the lesson for day four. The new program has a lot of great components but it does not allow time for the creativity and uniqueness of the children. The fun in learning to read that comes from being creative and unique has been taken away. The week ends with the children being asked to write about how they feel about the story. They always have trouble with this because all week they have to give the book answer. Education has gone through many different trends during the past thirty years. The good news is that teachers know that each child is a unique individual. They adapt so that children are having fun and are successful learners. When the children aren’t having fun the teacher isn’t having fun. We learn more from the children on how to teach and have fun then from anywhere else.
One of the courses I teach is a high school computer class in which students learn how to use Microsoft Powerpoint, Word, Excel and Access. As this is my first year teaching the course, I have made a lot of changes to the curriculum in order to provide students with the opportunity to be creative and incorporatde their own unique skills and interests. Instead of following step-by-step instructions to create identical projects, students are now using higher-level thinking skills to produce unique and exciting projects that they are excited to share with others. Providing students with this freedom has resulted in higher quality work, better work ethic, and an overall positive attitude towards the class. As a teacher, I find it amazing how quickly and effectively young people can learn and utilize technology. I've also tried to be flexible in my teaching style to accomodated for students who enjoy learning the technology through different techniques. This article reinforced what any good teacher should already know, students are unique and their differences need to be recognized and accommodated for.
I agree with Jesse in that I see technology being a great tool to teach to a diverse range of students. I still feel as if we're lacking creativity in school. Even in my English class, we teach a pretty formulaic style of writing, completely devoid of creativity. Students need to be able to express themselves and be free thinkers. I do encourage creativity and fun in my classroom through a program called "Select Points." Students select what they want to do to earn points for this program. They are free to do many things that they're interested in to experess themselves. It's a great program, but I'd still like to do more so my students aren't turning out just like each other.
I love this article about requiring everyone to be proficient at everything. Although I don't think everyone has the ability to be proficient at everything, I do think everyone should at least be exposed to different subjects, so they can find out their strengths.
Lindal's experiences with Reading First are interesting. It is sad teaching seems to be going backwards as far as allowing students to be creative individuals.
What a great reminder that our students are not puppets! One of the things I really try to do for my students is to provide choices. I recently finished a class on the Love and Logic philosophy of teaching, and it gave good affirmation that students will try a lot harder if they have some ownership in what they're doing. I am fortunate in my teaching position that I am free to teach a number of different topics without the pressure of meeting certain state standards (I'm sure that will change someday...). I think this would be a great story to share at our beginning of the year in-services...
for skarolous
I liked what David G. had to say about the immune system and would also have to agree with what he says. I believe that people who enjoy life do have less stressful lives. "Don't sweat the little stuff...or the big stuff either."
I think that woman actually do make a point of spending more time with friends and doing the "fun" stuff. It is maybe more socially acceptable to do that, where a man may be given a difficult time if he tends to hang with friends and has fun all the time.
The fact is, there is a healthy balance for everyone. One must find it so that s/he can lead a stress free life and stay healthy.
My faith and family are the most important factors in my life, I find that God has a great sense of humor. He keeps me balanced.
for skarolus
An interesting article. My thinking on this is divided, his point is true. Limiting people to their full potential can be dangerous in development yet there are some basics that students should have learned...not necessarily mastered.
This reminds me of the car commerical, "A girl is in school and all the other children in the classroom are coloring very neatly in the lines but not her. She is drawing lines everywhere outside of the lines." She was expressing herself. =o)
As a teacher, I want to help children do their best in everything that I teach. Help them to discover what they enjoy doing and have fun doing it.
I feel so fortunate to be teaching kindergarten since I have the flexibility to teach what I want and how I want to teach. I feel children, not just at this age but all children need the opportunity to explore and create how they need to learn. (learning styles) In kindergarten we use all our senses when we explore a new concept. When learning about the alphabet, we can sing and dance, then with bread dough make the letters, finally bake them and eat them. Now this may not be possible for all levels but there are "hands on" activities for all ages (I love the ideas with technology!). We need to offer more creative, fun ways for children of all ages to learn. This is something that as a kindergarten teacher that is important to me because I hear every year how fun kindergarten is (or was) and they wish they could come back.
I also have a special needs child in high school. It's been very difficult throughout his school years getting alternative projects. I feel there are many children who should have projects. Not many children learn through lecture and papers. I bet school hasn't been fun for many of these children and it hasn't been for my son.
I teach math and I think it is a little more difficult for kids to be creative in math and not draw "MY TREE" (solving an equation using order of operations is pretty straight forward). However, I think you can still allow the kids to creative and solve problems their own way. I tell my students all the time that the way I solve a problem is not the only way. If they have another way, and can show me it works for that type of problem, I let them use their method to find the solutions.
Teaching Trig (by the way it's Algebra II kids need to go to a four year Wisconsin school-it recently switched from Geometry), I'm not feeling all gushy about this ariticle. I would never fail a kid who honestly put forth 100% effort even in a subject that was incredibly challenging to him. I don't have a problem requiring students to take this class as it is a fairly good predictor as to whether a student can finish a four year degree. While I'm sure many don't agree with that, that's life. If a student can't handle that level math class, how will they handle the "weeder" classes in college? I've known many people who were going to go into "Business" only to be stopped by Business Stats or Business Calc. If they aren't willing to put in the time and effort to pass those classes, then they don't have the "go getter" attitude to want a four year degree. I'm sure they can still be successful, but they will have to find another avenue. My job is to prepare students for college. I try to bring variety to my classroom, but I don't take time to identify all the different types of learners that I might have and try to accommodate them. For bringing out their individuality, that's what the post-secondary school they're paying for is for. They can be as creative as they want wherever they want. I don't think public schools are designed to house all the different animals. That's what zoos are for.
I would have to agree with Bill and Rachel. I teach Algebra and a lot of times their are very exact steps to solve a problem. Creativity sometimes gets lost in the math curriculum. I do tell students that their are multiple ways to simplify or solve some problems, they just need to show me their logic to get credit for their solution.
In Algebra we show a variety of ways to solve equations, like quadratics. When it's time for the tests, the students get to choose the method that best suites the situation and them to solve the problem.
I like what Lindal wrote about the "No Child Left Behind" situation. However, I also agree with what Rachel said about preparing students for college - especially with the class that she is teaching. That was interesting to learn about William Faulkner, John F. Kennedy, and Thomas Edison. I think it is true that college isn't for everyone. I know people that didn't go to college and make more money than I do. Keeping that in mind, we need to be aware of all the different intelligences that are in our classroom and place value on them. They may not be able to excel in our particular class, but we can still encourage them that they can excel in other ways. I can accommodate to a certain point (teaching delivery, assessments, etc), but it still comes down to the fact of them meeting the state standards. At least on what I have to follow through on.
I found this article to be very fun to read. I hope in our classrooms we are able to expose our students to a variety of things. Sometimes our classrooms are the only place where the student can try something new. The "sports minded" child might like needle point. The "piano/musically minded student" might like get messy to create and blow up a volcano. I try to provide a variety of hands on learning to our textbooks. Sometimes, we make a mess, sometimes it may boring, sometimes it goes great other times it is not. But usually we find a way to enjoy it and laugh. Afterwards, we evaluate and wrap up. IF we do this they have to share their feelings. It is ok to like or not like something, it's the process the counts:)
Fortunately, at my school we don't have many restrictions on how we teach. If I had to be in a strict school setting like lindal it would drive me crazy--just wouldn't fit my personality. I like the flexibility of spreading a lesson of two days if needed (letting the students take the lead).
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