Faith Meets Life: Each to their own when it comes to education
Some years ago when I was a student at
seminary (a graduate school for people aspiring
to be leaders in churches) I was also at the
beginning of my parenting journey. I'm
thinking back to a time when my wife's and
my two sons were, I think, two-years and six
months old. I was bragging to one of my
teachers, Dr. Snapper, about the boys. A
crusty sort, a professor of education, he had
the air of someone who had been around a
few blocks and wasn't about cave in to every
new demand or theory.
He told me that each one of his children grew up according to the nature, with emerged at a very early age. When I first heard this, I wanted to object. What, do you mean that my parenting is not, after all, going to be a major influence?
I often think of Dr. Snapper's remark — and how true I have found it to be. It's not that the parenting my wife and I have given our sons has had no influence. In fact, their teachers always tell us what great parents we must be! How many parents do you think hear that on parent-teacher night?
The thing is that our sons are much the same way as they were when they were very young. The older of the two has always made up games and liked to be in control, while simultaneously loving to learn.
By the age of two, the younger loved making people laugh. He was more stubborn and enjoyed recess as his favourite school activity. In these and other ways, neither has changed. Our oldest went on to be a great student, less good at relationships. His brother has never been a stellar student, but excels at friendship.
The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente would have enjoyed talking with Dr. Snapper. In a recent Globe article (Sept. 6) Wente wrote about “educational romanticism.” According to this romanticism, Wente said, every student can become a much-improved student. However, the reality most teachers notice is something different. Generally students who start out as C's finish as C's and A's, A's.
Wente questions the tendency of guidance counselors to steer as many students as possible into university, as if a B. A. is everyone's ticket to success. Similarly, imposing the same national standards on all Canadian students, no matter whether they are from woodlot owning families in New Brunswick or from professorial families in Vancouver, threatens to be an exercise in frustration.
She wrote that “[student] ability varies, and it varies a lot.” And, for most students, that ability remains fairly constant through the school years.
Thus, if, like me, you have sometimes dreamed of getting a Ph. D. and it never happens, you (and I) are not abnormal. If one of my sons becomes a doctor and the other finds fulfillment on a construction site and as his kids' hockey coach, that will likely be for the best (both very likely as it turns out).
You may not become a star in your field. You may even enter a field different from the one your guidance counselor or someone else steered you toward. Not all of us are made to spend 20 plus years in a classroom.
Take some time to gain a greater appreciation for what your abilities really are in case you are not very sure about them (the student counseling centre can help). Your abilities may not be the ones you want, but you may find that it is better to love the ones you have than to want the ones you don't.
And if you teach and not every one of your students is a B or an A, maybe that's ok. C's and D's are no more and no less normal than B's and A's. There is something to be said, if Snapper and Wente are correct, for allowing students to be what they already are. Which takes a little pressure off everyone.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
He told me that each one of his children grew up according to the nature, with emerged at a very early age. When I first heard this, I wanted to object. What, do you mean that my parenting is not, after all, going to be a major influence?
I often think of Dr. Snapper's remark — and how true I have found it to be. It's not that the parenting my wife and I have given our sons has had no influence. In fact, their teachers always tell us what great parents we must be! How many parents do you think hear that on parent-teacher night?
The thing is that our sons are much the same way as they were when they were very young. The older of the two has always made up games and liked to be in control, while simultaneously loving to learn.
By the age of two, the younger loved making people laugh. He was more stubborn and enjoyed recess as his favourite school activity. In these and other ways, neither has changed. Our oldest went on to be a great student, less good at relationships. His brother has never been a stellar student, but excels at friendship.
The Globe and Mail's Margaret Wente would have enjoyed talking with Dr. Snapper. In a recent Globe article (Sept. 6) Wente wrote about “educational romanticism.” According to this romanticism, Wente said, every student can become a much-improved student. However, the reality most teachers notice is something different. Generally students who start out as C's finish as C's and A's, A's.
Wente questions the tendency of guidance counselors to steer as many students as possible into university, as if a B. A. is everyone's ticket to success. Similarly, imposing the same national standards on all Canadian students, no matter whether they are from woodlot owning families in New Brunswick or from professorial families in Vancouver, threatens to be an exercise in frustration.
She wrote that “[student] ability varies, and it varies a lot.” And, for most students, that ability remains fairly constant through the school years.
Thus, if, like me, you have sometimes dreamed of getting a Ph. D. and it never happens, you (and I) are not abnormal. If one of my sons becomes a doctor and the other finds fulfillment on a construction site and as his kids' hockey coach, that will likely be for the best (both very likely as it turns out).
You may not become a star in your field. You may even enter a field different from the one your guidance counselor or someone else steered you toward. Not all of us are made to spend 20 plus years in a classroom.
Take some time to gain a greater appreciation for what your abilities really are in case you are not very sure about them (the student counseling centre can help). Your abilities may not be the ones you want, but you may find that it is better to love the ones you have than to want the ones you don't.
And if you teach and not every one of your students is a B or an A, maybe that's ok. C's and D's are no more and no less normal than B's and A's. There is something to be said, if Snapper and Wente are correct, for allowing students to be what they already are. Which takes a little pressure off everyone.
Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.
