Education Home Page
Beyond Report Cards
by Ellen Weber ©
A column published monthly by the Wellsville Daily
Reporter
On this
page you will find:
Compassion,
Change and Corn Crops
Why Do Older Faculty Block Education Renewal?
Beyond Tradition toward Changing Landscapes and Back
Facing Personal Violence
Framed for Compassion
Chile Reforms through Caring Communities
Why Some Girls Hate Math
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Compassion, Change and Corn
Crops
By Ellen Weber ©
Published in Wellsville Daily Reporter,
January, 2001
Our 43rd President claimed in his inaugural speech
that compassion is the work of nations, not just governments. Some people
questioned Bush’s “not just” clause, saying that governments
and compassion had not yet connected in their lifetime. Others responded
that care starts with leaders in both governments and nations. I’m
not sure I agree with either, though I do see that compassion creates
amazing possibilities.
If President Bush made one point which most affirm,
it’s that compassion creates change. To illustrate, I’d
like to suggest a case for compassion, change and corn crops, that improves
learning opportunities for underrepresented kids.
“Concern” for Bush, flows from seeking
a common good beyond personal comfort. Few could disagree with that.
He spoke of defending needed reforms against easy attacks, and serving
the nation by starting with each other. Yes! He promised to restore
civility to Washington. Another cheer. Can you imagine leaders who extend
words into consensus? Or leaders who prosper more than a few protectors
of their turf? My question is, can we wait for leaders to sprinkle care
beyond personal comforts? Jim Baker’s kids reminded us in a new
book written by Jay, his son, that church leaders turned him and his
sister away when they begged for grace as teens. A few exchanged judgment
for mercy extended to the Baker family. Most simply could not, though.
Change requires risk, and risk takes self-awareness. Interestingly,
Billy Graham rushed to the phone and extended amazing grace. He risked
personal popularity for compassion, and created change.
Change moves even our natural worlds. I recently
learned that the Canadian robin no longer can be called harbinger of
spring in Rochester parks. Apparently, the robin now remains in Western
New York, and survives the cold. In the last few months I have worked
on secondary school and higher education renewal projects with faculty
who constantly exchange cynicism for compassion. Their concern brings
success to students left behind, and I learn from changes they make
in class. What a privilege! Many of these faculty lead their fields,
because rather than leave some behind, they risk new growth for all.
Like robins and lush corn fields in fall, they savor nutrition for winter
months.
James Bender, in his 1994 book, “How to
Talk Well” shares the story of a farmer who grew award-winning
corn. Each year he entered his corn in the state fair where it won a
blue ribbon. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned
something interesting about compassion and change and corn crops.
The reporter discovered that the farmer shared
precious seed corn with many neighbors. "How can you afford to
share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering
corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked.
"Why sir," said the farmer, "didn't
you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls
it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination
will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. In order to grow good
corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn."
The reformers I work with integrate life and
learning with these three. School systems, like corn crops cannot improve
systemically unless our neighbor's corn improves.
Consider compassion at school. For students to
live peacefully we help neighbors to enjoy peace through prosperity
and well-being. If change can create success, and learning improvement
is measured by lives touched compassionately, welfare for each of us
is bound up in nutritional crops for all.
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Why Do Older
Faculty Block Education Renewal?
Ellen Weber@
P ublished January 2, 2001, Wellsville Daily Reporter
Since last month’s column, I addressed
education renewal across every discipline in two international conferences.
After one talk, a young professor asked, “Why do older, tenured
professors criticize or kill every innovation introduced?” That
question bothered me during time overseas, partly because I often hear
similar laments, and partly because I am “older faculty.”
When I discussed this with colleagues, we listened for cynicism, and
discovered terribly broken systems called education.
A few faculty admitted to feeling threatened
by new ideas about brains. Others questioned human potential to learn
at deeper levels. Some worried about watered down knowledge. A few,
however, named apathy that feeds worn paradigms embraced by a system
stuck in outmoded practices. In fact to simply patch broken education
cisterns, one man said, would be equal to mending methods of slavery,
in past. Just as we had to rid society of slavery, we abolish faulty
school systems and create classes based on how human minds operate.
Without opportunity or motivation to renew education from roots upward,
we agreed that we risk faulty myths that stall learning and create cynicism.
More questions flew around our tables than water-tight
answers. “How can we flatten fixed hierarchies?” “Is
education power related, rather than learning centered?” “Should
learning be fun?” “How will students grasp facts, unless
we lecture?” “Can renewed strategies fit all discipline?”
“Where will faculty find time and resources to renew learning
in class?” “Do students require special skills to learn
within renewed models?”
Wonderful discussions lit every table, as we
melded ideas, probed problems, and shared stories, we unleashed amazing
solutions together. While younger professors jumped in to add complaints
of apathy, cynicism, negativity, and fatalism, they also expressed keen
desire to work with mature faculty. Some older professors, on the other
hand, admittedly clung to myths rooted in ancient paradigms, not in
reflective practices for optimum learning. We were all refreshed to
hear stories of older master teachers who let go of traditional turf
for fresh renewal rivers that transformed rote memory into vibrant dialogues.
Stories of students’ success, debunked myths about renewal possibilities
and challenges. One table agreed to dig up one new fact about the brain
each month, and then build related practices. They’d share curriculum
created over banks stored on the internet.
Concerns were raised about walking the talk,
“We preach renewal theory, but then practice outmoded lectures
only,” one man said. Excuses ranged from, “Renewal doesn’t
fit my discipline,” to “There isn’t enough time.”
In response, one department head asked, “Time for what?”
To lecture facts, may look like time spent efficiently. But research
shows that only five per cent facts lectured stick with students, whereas
ninety per cent retention follows when they teach peers, apply, and
probe well formed questions.
Why can’t education embrace new insights
the way medicine experiences change with every new breakthrough in science?
“Not every brain breakthrough arrives fully developed,”
one faculty member argued. “Rather than consider facts as fads,
let’s build on what we know and test new hypothesis scientifically,”
another added.
Discussions heated. One math professor complained,
“We have to cover too much content,” to which a younger
faculty member shot back, “Even cats cover their material.”
Since I introduced a practical model for renewal, based on brain breakthroughs,
I was thrilled to see negativity and threat evolve into willingness
to consider students’ best interests in our information age. To
faculty who feared “losing control” one leading historian
said that the best teachers hand controls to students anyway. Rather
than control, she suggested, we should consider instead, “How
can motivation and curiosity control more students’ success?”
Renewed ideas crisscrossed tables, about how
to activate more human brains’ and ideas for encouraging optimum
capacity flew, but some strategies clearly clashed with faculty reward
systems. Again and again, we were reminded that old paradigms created
comfortable peaks and protected salaries. Have systems once created
to assure free speech, over time reduced some, instead, to free loading
off broken and tired systems?
One outspoken English professor protested, “These
fads too shall pass.” Can you imagine brain surgeons ignoring
new information about neuron activity the way faculty run from neuroscience.
No way. Medical science changes practice regularly. Surgeons who refuse
breakthroughs, lose patients and run out of business. Yet professors
who refuse change or who attribute facts about the brain, mere fads,
can hide in tenured caverns.
At renewal roundtables in Singapore and Central
America, we celebrated and valued gifts, abilities and interests of
all who shared. Old and young united, lowered barriers and built new
launching pads for renewal. Some changes suggested will work well, and
others need further honing. In the meantime, we enjoyed satisfaction
a brain surgeon must find when brain breakthroughs provide answers for
more people served.
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Beyond Tradition
toward Changing Landscapes and Back
Ellen Weber ©
P ublished July 17, 2000, Wellsville Daily Reporter
Over dinner near the water at Virginia Beach,
an experienced high school principal from New York rural communities
told me faculty fought back when asked to change outmoded practices.
Senior teachers argued for Century-old traditions, and refused to prepare
teens differently. In this school’s changing landscapes, many
kids failed state exams, but teachers taught tradition and held their
ground.
Admittedly, this principal didn’t get it,
and neither do I. One minute he wanted to quit, and in the next he stayed
storms without making waves. New approaches in old high schools threaten
middle-agers like myself. Why? Fact is, we sometimes cling to cherished
traditions like a child clings to favorite blankets. Wisdom invites
us to investigate new treasure chests, but we resist.
Don’t get me wrong, tradition is not the
bad guy. Just the opposite. We attend traditional churches, sing by-gone
songs, visit Victorian museums and flock to family reunions. We love
to reminisce and salvage scenes from early eras. Traditions create treasures
chests at children’s birthdays that unite ages and tap into wonderlands
past. Customs hand our grandparents rosy glasses of yesteryear to remember
and relive picnics in youth’s park.
Yet when tradition holds us back in time, trapped
in stagnant eddies, life passes by in streams just beyond our reach.
We feel threatened by others who appear free. So while tradition isn’t
bad, neither is ritual all good. Scripture reminds us to reconsider
truth and remain free of empty philosophies. It’s not easy though.
Even children face fear in uncharted waters.
As a toddler, my daughter retreated from sudden shifts or strange noises.
Traditions, can hold back fear in the moment but can also spawn stagnation
in the long run. Hilary Clinton talked to teachers whose schools still
use textbooks that claim the US might put a person on the moon. I wonder
what the multiple choice questions look like? Same list of options?
Maybe answer keys only changed to reflect new answers about moon missions.
Traditions that prevent new ideas from taking
us forward, come subtly disguised. They protect one group’s interests
or empower a few at the top. Test companies salvage financial investments
in million dollar enterprises. Teachers quote Plato. If accepting new
facts about human brains means losing financial security it’s
a no-brainer. We do what’s best for those around us. Or do we?
What about rituals that stump growth in global
communities? Traditions which cling to outmoded customs at high school
and prevent kids from success in a new millenium.
At school we decide who wins by traditions we
support. An African American teacher once told me that an all-white
campus is not diverse by simply shipping in black students. When school
welcomes and celebrates black traditions and refuse to exclude underrepresented
groups we change landscapes. We take risks and face fears for truth.
Arthur Sheffenhaur may have been right, when
he said that “All truth passes through three stages. First, it
is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third it is accepted
and deemed self-evident.” So if you happen to carry bits of truth,
you can expect to face the fires that traditions burn. Whatever remains,
lives on.
In spite of the success of Freire’s model
to combat illiteracy in Brazil, he was asked by his government to leave
his country. A few feared this teacher’s new ideas might threaten
the existing social structure. Societies with oppressive governments
see renewal as possible risk to themselves and to those whose liberation
they try to minimize, through repressive traditions. Did I say change
was easy? Have you ever moved a graveyard?
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Facing Personal
Violence
Ellen Weber ©
P ublished June 19, 2000, Wellsville Daily Reporter
Violence may fill our newscasts, movie screens
and sports’ arenas but how many of us spot its action in personal
behavior? That question challenged a room full of parents and educators
recently as Dr. Barry Gan admitted to violent responses in his own everyday
communications. Most of us will never shoot or punch another human.
Yet Barry Gen suggests violence still slips into daily lives like foxes
forge at night.
The question “Does violence ever creep
into your life?” would have brought a quick decisive, “No,”
from me in past. Now I feel less sure. Violence that tragically guns
down a person, often starts with destroying another person’s worth
in subtle ways. Murder often rages in cinders over time until thought
fans into flames. If Gan is right, we heal violence when we face its
roots in ourselves rather than blame others.
My own work with brains suggests closer links
between mind and violence than once suspected . The moral center of
our brains, or intrapersonal domain, impacts a range of daily choices
from forgiveness to revenge. Rather than blame a few boys for acting
out their rage, we create nonviolence by modeling gentleness toward
those around us at the moment. It’s not easy though. We sing rather
than sulk. We bless rather than blame. We resist calls for revenge from
smoldering anger of hurt. We value ourselves and others.
With violence on the brink of destroying lives
in all our communities, nonviolent acts seem worth a try. Perhaps we
leave too much to police officers. Did you know that two armed police
officers, on duty at Columbine when violence terrorized the school,
engaged killers in a shoot out that day? Violence acts on violence to
bring bigger guns and muster more artillery. But can it arrest tragedy?
Barry said “No,” and I agree. So what do we do to face monsters
as Beowolf did? A Jewish psychologist’s perspective, Gen offered
new hope against growing violence, in what he called, “a cultural
symbol.”
Jewish by admission, Barry surprisingly prescribed
a central Christian and cultural symbol to resist violence. He shed
new light on the Christian cross and Christ’s willingness to die
for violence rather than to blame humanity. Christ, Barry suggested,
died violently to create nonviolence. Through personal suffering and
nonviolence modeled, He redeemed others. He resisted violence and forgave
perpetrators. But do we? The Gulf war showed determination to kill enemies
without risking personal losses. Are we really entitled to life without
conflict? Or have we missed powers of the cross? To resist violence
for those who did us in might not be to die for them, but it might mean
springing for lunch together or even counting to ten backwards before
we respond.
Nonviolent acts start with each of us, and spotlight
delight. Seem impossible with violence all around us? Maybe that’s
why Albert Einstein said: If at first the idea is not absurd, then there
is no hope for it. I’ll admit Barry Gen’s idea looked absurd
until I faced my own need for generosity and forgiveness daily. Can
hope spring eternal for lasting nonviolence through a few peaceful models?
Marten Luther King thought so.
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Framed for
Compassion
Ellen Weber ©
P ublished May 31, 2000, Wellsville Daily Reporter
My eyeglass frames dated back to the sixties
somewhere. That’s when I bought the lightweight, pink specs on
sale in Alberta. And they seemed perfectly adequate during my first
teaching post eons ago. Over the years, and across continents, though,
friends suggested replacements. And recently I exchanged my old fashioned
eyewear for a better brand.
These plastic frames still remind me that we
often view another’s world through dated lenses and narrow rims.
In spite of his Ph.D. in Philosophy, Jean Vanier left his academic university
community to live and work among mentally handicapped adults. He found
that care and compassion comes more easily from this community than
from the rest of us. Why is this? I’m not sure. Do we criticize
more and celebrate less? Good news is that our brains actually kick
in to help us care, when we step back and take a look at another person’s
human value.
Few would deny that as we heal from life’s
bumps, we often recognize other’s frailty. The opposite is also
true. Abuse or neglect left unhealed, projects harsh judgements on others.
Through outdated frames the Pharisees thought themselves rather good
people. Elders and intellectuals in their churches, these leaders saw
personal holiness and other’s faults. Frames of personal goodness
muddied their view, and so petty rules blurred any hope of care for
those desperate for the kindness scripture calls love.
Probably I’ll be contacted by an optometrist
or two, hoping to fit me with more modern makes. And since I sometimes
judge others myself, it may be time again. But it’s also time
to come down on the side of lessons viewed from one Vancouver Christian’s
eyes 29 years ago. Describing himself as a beggar, who found Heaven’s
Bread, Dick shared amazing grace. Rather than judge faults he simply
provided food. By example, he valued others more and judged less. So,
while I accept responsibility for judgements more evident than compassion
at times in Christian circles, I also see amazing advocates like Dick
who care and give. You may have to look to find them though. Russian
writer, Dostoevsky painted characters who feigned care and hid behind
religious rules. In contrast, Mother Teresa and Jean Vanier framed lives
that modeled care. A reporter once accused Mother Teresa of wasted attention
on a dying infant when others needed her more. Mother Teresa responded:
“God creates only masterpieces.” She compared the dying
child to a Van Gogh masterpiece, worth millions, and showed how God’s
masterpieces remain priceless to an advocate.
We often value compassion most when deserved
least. Those who sport updated frames reach past cynics and beyond judges
to liberate kindness. Like opened dams free water falls, their compassion
still cascades over frail humanity. Jean Vanier captured this through
the lens of a mentally challenged athlete. At the Special Olympics,
two finalists ran neck and neck toward the finish line. Near the end,
one man fell. The other mentally challenged runner stopped, picked up
his rival, and the two athletes crashed through the ribbon, hand in
hand. Advocacy sparked compassion and gave courage to this man as wings
sometimes sprout to an inner soul. The Jewish tradition of five point
family blessings shows how this sense of wonder refreshes broken worlds.
Family members simply ask, Did I touch another person meaningfully today?
Did I encourage a person in need? Did I attach high value to all? Do
I envision a special future for each person I know? Do I try to fulfill
blessings over others’ lives?
When we see clearly, we splash care into human
hearts. Thomas Merton saw compassion as “keen awareness of the
interdependence of all things.” Within frames of kindness and
compassion we see human masterpieces created by God and find our part
in their whole.
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Chile Reforms
through Caring Communities
Ellen Weber ©
P ublished September, 1999, Wellsville Daily Reporter
Recently I spent a week in Chile to assist Education
and political leaders who are making amazing strides to reform high
school and college education. To implement change, Jose Pedro, top executive
of the largest education system in Chile, encouraged his team to build
strong community among themselves before expecting reform to germinate.
Pedro envisioned fellow workers who respect one another as a team with
one star vision for excellence. These first steps toward liberating
an entire nation's education have already produced incredible growth.
Chile's Minister of Education, Jose Pablo Arellano,
opened our conference with a challenge to embrace new ideas about the
human brain to improve Chile's quality of education. He invoked unity
among leaders to create systematic and ongoing reforms across Chilean
schools. The leadership I worked with created this unity by hiring a
team builder to create a deliberate and caring circle among them. Their
effort worked so well that top officials in Chile's largest education
system lunch together daily. Jose Pedro told me they often simply laugh
and enjoy getting to know one another's hobbies and interests. Not surprisingly,
I saw in Chile a growing care and respect among colleagues that is often
rare in Western bureaucracies. Respect that carried over to celebrating
one another's unique contributions for education reform. Colleagues
trust one another, I am told, and so people feel free to take risks
necessary for lasting change and improvement. We can learn from their
example.
Community creates a rich context for renewal
and builds bridges that connect university people and the schools, teachers
and parents, faculty across disciplines. When we build community we
lower bureaucratic barriers between colleagues so that change does not
trickle down but rises up from roundtable discussions. Since colleagues
look for consensus before implementing major changes community prospers.
Reformers in Chile, you could say are riding the bus while pushing the
bus forward at the same time.
Community welcomes new ideas and learning strategies
from each of us, and celebrates different perspectives. Classrooms,
which form vibrant communities, can help us to function less as an isolation
culture and more as a shared culture. A safe place where discussions
flourish, where inquiry replaces daily lectures or where we share decision
making to determine learning and teaching process. A place where leaders
distinguish and respect each person's roles.
Before renewal in our schools occurs, we'll have
to revisit, "What is the role of teachers in this community? What
role do students play?" Vibrant classroom communities often attempt
to do away with what Paulo Friere, one South American expert, calls
the banking idea. Friere calls on teachers to replace "banking"
views of pedagogy with liberating views. Friere's "banking view"
treats students like empty vessels. Teachers deposit ideas and information
(mostly through lectures) into students' empty heads. Liberated pedagogy,
according to Friere, treats students as in a power relationship to society.
Education, which is liberating for students must be empowering, not
oppressive. For Friere, we learn best when we are free to control our
own learning, free to take risks, to experiment with new genres, to
challenge ideas, learn from our failures and pursue inquiry.
Lasting renewal depends on our ability to create
clear visions within caring communities. First we create a circle where
people trust each other. A place with open and respectful communication,
where we value and celebrate one another. Then we involve others in
decision-making. A place where people cherish and are cherished. Business
has learned to create prosperous financial communities using these principles,
according to expert Robert Levering. Educators in Chile have now stepped
out to risk reforms needed to liberate its people through education
excellence. Could their attention to community and to learning excellence
also help us to renew learning here.
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Why Some Girls Hate Math
Ellen Weber ©
P ublished July, 1999, Wellsville Daily Reporter
I never liked math at school and for good reason.
I had to work hard for very little return. Besides, I couldn't figure
out what math had to do with real life or anything else I cared about.
Math class made me feel stupid at an age where it didn't take much.
These days we read that girls really want to
learn math but in their own way and I think that's true. In fact girls'
schools nationwide are discovering new ways to teach young women mathematics,
science and technology, according to Ann Pollina, Dean of Faculty and
Head of the Mathematics Department at Westover School in Australia.
Pollina claims that rather than assume girls
will fail math and science, we should ask, how do girls best learn math?
She coaxes educators to emphasize creative ways girls do learn rather
than measure them by ways they do not.
It's quite simple really. For instance, what
if I could have connected math, science and technology to my life and
to the lives of real people? Or if I could have explored how math contributes
to the good of the world? I'd have been hooked on the spot. Well maybe
that's pushing it a bit. But these days great math teachers choose metaphors
carefully, and have students develop their own. Fractions might be taught
using tennis averages and parabolas presented as paths of missiles and
rockets. Master teachers encourage girls as well as boys to act as experts
rather than listeners. They create learning communities in math class
where contributions are valued and rewarded.
When teachers act as storehouses for all knowledge
and answers, students rarely exhibit math-confidence that comes from
asking questions and creating solutions. When teacher dominated classes
fail to value girls' love for dialogue and teamwork strengths they miss
the paths girls follow to own and understand issues.
If a girl is so absorbed in taking down notes
and diagrams she's too preoccupied to take part in discussions or pose
problems. So she misses the chance to internalize or apply math in ways
that help her develop deeper understanding of math skills. Just ask
her. Fortunately, this loss does not have to be the case. Experts assure
us that girls really can do math.
Take the experiment at the Illinois Mathematics
and Science Academy in Aurora, where an all-girls' section on mechanics
became part of a yearlong calculus-based physics course girls loved
math. Physics teacher David Workman said he learned from young women
how to teach them so they succeeded. Workman encouraged peers to team
up, welcomed hands-on experimentation and connected abstract concepts
to practical applications. No wonder girls loved this approach! No wonder
it worked!
Interestingly when Workman introduced these
same methods into his coed classes they failed. He said boys tended
to blurt out answers to questions with predictable results. So other
students were suddenly diverted from problem solving or inquiry into
an "explain-the-answer-to-me-mode." Workman observed that
in this environment where only a few voices contribute few ask questions
or dare to take risks. What do we learn here? Old paradigms are hard
to break, as Workman's class illustrated.
Difficult as it may be to achieve at first, more
interactive approaches to math and science would benefit not only girls,
but would help many boys who struggle with traditional approaches. It
might have even helped me to leave math classes with a few more right
answers under my belt.more right answers under my belt.
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