\u201cEverybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole live believing that it is stupid.\u201d<\/span>
\n
\nThis quote is frequently attributed to Einstein, though there is no evidence he ever said it.\u00a0 It appears to have emerged from an old allegorical tale.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Nonetheless, for me, it is slightly reminiscent (not in a physics way!) of Einstein\u2019s \u2018thought experiments\u2019 and I think pondering the metaphor can be just as thought-provoking and enlightening. The quote effectively highlights one of the many areas that makes public education so incredibly complex.<\/span><\/p>\n

Our schools interact with millions of children every year.\u00a0 We meet them as adorable youngsters in a Kindergarten equivalent, and over a decade later, we graduate them from high school as young adults moving into the next phases of their lives.\u00a0 At issue then, is this: What happens to them, and for them, during those formative years while they are in our classrooms?<\/span><\/p>\n

For educators \u2013 for all of us, really \u2013 this translates into at least two other questions.\u00a0 How do we most effectively educate all students when every student is different, when many students learn in different ways and styles, and when some of those students have special gifts and\/or special needs? \u00a0Even trickier, how do we provide every student the opportunity to discover what they do best, where their interests (and therefore gifts?) lie, and what unique guidance they will need?<\/span><\/p>\n

These are formidable goals to uniformly achieve for all our students.\u00a0 The tasks are made more difficult by the nature and limitations of \u2018the system\u2019.\u00a0 Over the decades, out of unfortunate near-necessity, we have typically used a one-size-fits-all approach.\u00a0 This has worked relatively well for many, maybe most, of our students, and it has allowed the system to do many things more efficiently for the majority.\u00a0 \u00a0But it has also worked to the detriment of individual students who don\u2019t navigate well within the system.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the spirit and context of the opening quote, then, we can re-ask those questions: \u00a0How do we keep from evaluating the metaphorical fish on its ability to climb trees? \u00a0And, how do we locate the fish and help them discover they were never meant to climb trees, but have another destiny instead?<\/span><\/p>\n

Consider one of many examples:\u00a0 Currently sitting in our elementary classes (or learning online!) we have a perhaps-sizeable contingent of budding artists, poets, musicians, mystics, and the like.\u00a0 In two or three decades, they could be reminding society of the value of making a life while we also make a living.\u00a0 How do we help these students find their voice, awaken their gifts?\u00a0 And how do we keep from labeling them as inattentive (or \u2018slow\u2019 or \u2018stupid\u2019) when they are squirming in, say, a math or social studies class?\u00a0 \u00a0(As a practical matter, this gets tougher still when many schools are trimming, even eliminating art, music, and more from their curricula!)<\/span><\/p>\n

And in passing, we note that history is full of geniuses who did not do well in school.\u00a0 Folks like Michelangelo, Beethoven, Edison \u2013 even Einstein – were essentially \u2018fish out of water\u2019 in their school years.\u00a0 Some of them were labeled dull, or even incorrigible. Would they have achieved their genius today?<\/span>
\n\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/p>\n

We know there are no good \u2018right answers\u2019 to these questions, but educators continue to ask them, as we all must.\u00a0 Perhaps a deeper dive into these issues will follow.\u00a0 In the meantime, the perspective for today is the ongoing reminder (sound familiar?) that that education is an incredibly complex endeavor and the simple act of constantly remembering that can help work miracles.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cEverybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole live believing that it is stupid.\u201d This quote is frequently attributed to Einstein, though there is no evidence he ever said it.\u00a0 It appears to have emerged from an old allegorical tale.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Nonetheless, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7361","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7361"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9347,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7361\/revisions\/9347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7361"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7361"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/larryncampbell.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7361"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}