Actor Educator Psychologist Historian

So I have been keeping tabs on the gay marriage debates that have been happening all over the country. However I have been keeping a particularly close eye on the debate in my home state of New Hampshire. 

As of 12:30 today the needed amendment passed the state Senate and is now going to the House of Representatives where it failed last time by two votes. If this amendment passes the governor has promised to sign it into law. 

Now in keeping up with this I have been keeping tabs on WMUR’s coverage of the story. 

This brings me to what is really eating at me: user comments. Please do not get me wrong, I think that the average reader with a computer, keyboard, and a few extra moments in their day should be able to join in on the discussion. This is one of the great advances of our modern age, it is opening up our big social debates to everyone, not just a few select officials.

However I think it is starting to expose our educational system’s failures.  From what I have read it leads me to think that very few people know how our government is supposed to work. We, as voters, elect people to represent us in the house and senate, these people vote on issues so that the rest of us can go about our daily lives. We also have a president on the national level, and governors on the state level, as well as court systems. These are all in place to make sure that no one branch gets too much power and to enforce and interpret the laws. 

Sounds like 6th grade doesn’t it? Well I think a few people skipped some history and civics lessons. This democracy that we have is NOT mob rule, it is not a simple majority of voters gets to decide every issue. We vote for/hire people to do these things for us and every few years we get to rethink this choice. There are mechanisms in place for the people to kick out officials, to get their voices heard, and in some cases they can call for a referendum.

What is going on on WMUR’s website is an example of people’s ignorance showing: there are people calling for the voters to decide on the issue, that this is not what the people want, and that the legislature is wasting their time with this when we have bigger issues. 50 years ago Brown v. Board is not what the majority wanted, women’s suffrage was not what the majority wanted, interracial marriage is not what the majority wanted. These were all civil rights issues, and as the past has shown us the majority is very bad at civil rights issues. 

There is a reason we have a government, that government is elected by the people, it is of the people, and it is for ALL of the people. Whether or not you voted for the candidate who won, that person still represents you. These elected bodies are there to look out for the rights and liberties of all the citizens, not just the majority. 

This is something that I assumed was taught in our school system, that the government is for EVERYONE not just the majority, not just the minority, but everyone. To see these people debate with so little understanding of the function and purpose of our government makes me want to scream.

I have been spending some time lately watching TED: Ideas worth spreading, talks and thinking about them. First off for those who don’t know TED is : TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader. (from TED)

It is a conference and now a website where there are talks and discussions about different topics. I have been watching several on the uses of statistics, education, creativity, the AIDS epidemic, and a few other topics.

If nothing else these are thought provoking talks that one should listen to and grapple with even if it not one’s topic area. I am not a mathy person but I found the talks on statistics wonderful.

First off the speakers are very talented speakers and in way each one of these talks is a performance which I highly respect them on that level. Every one I have watched has been from someone who was able to make a heady and difficult subject interesting and accessible.

Now I am wondering how some of these talks and ideas could be brought into the classroom as a teacher. Some of the obiovus uses I can think of is to show this video or this video to those students who are being ill served by the traditional school system. (I am thinking artists and writers… or anyone who has talents outside of the traditional school subjects.)

But why limit it there? Why not challenge students to watch some talks on subjects that interest them and then to create a talk of their own? Just because a high school student is “just” a student doesn’t mean that they cannot come up with their own ideas and present them in a talk format. I would love to hear from any teachers  who have done this or a similar activity, or one who would like to try, and hear how that goes. A project such as that would combine many different talents, first off research, critical thinking, public speaking, and writing skills to name a few. Why aren’t we challenging students to do this already?

If we expect our children/students to be the future and come up with new ideas to save and change the world we need to equip them to do so. We need to give them practice at coming up with these kinds of ideas, we need to give them experience at this type of thinking. We cannot expect our students to think outside the box (though even thinking outside the box has become a buzzword that has lost it’s meaning…) if we don’t challenge them to do so?

First off here is the link to the CNN video about segregated school assemblies in a couple of cases.

http://tinyurl.com/rc8o98
This is an example of the misuse of the data being gathered by No Child Left Behind (I have accepted that NCLB is a fact of life at this point). As the teacher in the clip said this data is being gathered and aggregated along racial lines and is used in racial terms to help highlight the issue of the achievement gap between white students and minority students. (Asian students buck the trend and do as well or better than white students)

This data should not be used to hold seperate racially segregated assemblies to “motivate them” to do better. I know the principal was trying to do some good, however he failed. I know he was trying to do something good for the students however this is not the way to do it.

The other case where the African American and Latino students were brought in separately because two girls had a fight was so wrong on so many levels. First off if it is an isolated incident between two students: talk to THOSE students. The rest of the school that was uninvolved in the incident and were pulled into an assembly because they shared skin color with the offenders is just wrong. It also sends a message that the entire group is at fault for a single person’s misdoing.

I feel the need to articulate some of my educational thoughts.

For example: There has been a huge swing into standardized testing and “accountability.” Now I believe that standardized tests (ST) test only how well one takes a standardized test. I agree that there needs to be “accountability” in education but I think that out way of going about this is wrong. Teaching to the test and by extension cutting other programs (or telling a music teacher that they must teaching reading skills as well as music) is not doing our students any services.

To expand further: A standardized test is at this time not a fair test. It asks many questions that are based upon experiences that assume a upper-middle class upbringing (things such as asking 2nd graders to do a math word problem based on the price of vegetables… some students may not know what a vegetable is) or have other biases.

Second thought: “Accountability” in education has turned into looking at one student cohort (say the 2008-9 5th graders) of ST scores and saying the next cohort of 2009-10 5th graders have to do 10% better. On the surface that sounds fine, we have to improve the performance of our 5th graders.  However one group of 5th graders is not directly comparable to the next group of 5th graders. Cohorts are inherently different. A more accurate measure would be to track a single group of students over time, such as taking the 09-10 group of 5th graders and tracking how they do throughout middle and high school and see if they improve over time. That would be a more accurate indicator of effective teaching that comparing two totally separate groups of students.

Third Thought: Teaching to the test is a hot button phrase and is greatly hated among educators. Unfortunately many educators are forced to do so. My roommate who is a music teacher to be was told that he will HAVE to teach reading in his class. Not reading music… but basic reading skills. This is not his job. Math teachers are being told they will need to teach reading in their classes. This type of forcing a teacher to teach things that aer A) not their subject and B) not their job is taking away from learning the subject at hand. That is of course if there is a music program left at the school.

This axing of “unnecessary” programs is harmful to students. First off the psychologist in me is screaming multiple intelligences and different people learn in different ways. Secondly studies have shown (I will try to find them and post links) that adding in music or art education into the school day increases ST math and reading scores more than an equal amount of math and reading instruction. With evidence like this it still amazes me that schools are cutting these programs and screaming for higher scores.

So those are three quick thoughts on education please comment and let’s discuss.

Cheers!

Lucas

Hello folks. This is Lucas Cook’s first blog post. I am an Actor, Educator, Psychologist, and Historian. Surprise right? I know! This is my attempt to try and combine all of these different identities of mine into one coherent person and to try and combine these aspects into everything that I do.

Feel free to follow me on Twitter @Ldcook