AUGUST TO JUNE Excerpts for "Teach Your Children Well" presentation
August To June, Empathy And Education; The Union
As Presented at Temple Beth El, Boca Raton. Community Forum on Education; ”Teach Your Children Well”
I wish to thank Rabbi Brockman, Debbie Block, and each of you, for this opportunity. May I also offer my sincere gratitude to my mentors, Amy and Tom Valens, the makers of August To June.
You have just seen a lesson the two illustrate so well. “One Class” plus “One Year” equals more than the sum of these parts. Through twenty-six eight to ten year olds, and a Teacher, the Whole Child concept is understood.
Other persons who offered this lesson are here among us. In spirit my very, very, very young cousin, at the age of 93 is with us, as are you. I will share Alvin’s wisdom as I go on. I experience that yours is ever-present in our travel together this evening. For now, I will merely say; Alvin does, as I trust you will tonight; teach me. I have faith that your every word and deed will inform my own.
That is what human interaction does for each of us; it edifies.
Even an encounter with our own thoughts teaches. Thus, I suspect this evening, you will teach yourself.
Let us begin to learn as we look beyond the limits and the labels.
What we saw on the screen only moments ago were the words, “One Class” and “One Year.” We also glimpsed into the lives of an extraordinary Teacher and her exceptional students. Parents too, while less prominent in this particular clip, are everywhere in the full-length feature film.
There is much that makes up a Whole Child, a Whole Classroom, and a Whole Life. I think of Alvin, his 93 years on this planet. There is not a day that goes by without Alvin discovering a new fact or fiction. The same is true for me, and you! Yet, others wish to reduce each of us to descriptors.
You are a professional person, a parent, a Mom, or Dad. He or she is an “At Risk” Student, a “Highly Qualified Teacher,” or a “High Performing Pupil.” “Dropouts” too abound or did before they were left behind. Each spends most of their days in a “Failed School.”
That is what people do; we categorize, characterize, and calculate the numbers.
We place labels on all that we see. Rarely do we ponder as Danish Philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard did near two hundred years ago.
“Once you label me, you negate me.”
Thankfully, my cousin Alvin had thought that notion through. Alvin taught me decades ago . . .
“No two people, places, experiences or emotions are ever the same. They are similar, but never the same.”
Let us consider this thought as it equates to education. If you are not as I, and he is not as she, why would we think any of our children are identical or that they learn in identical ways? Is it even possible that two students might interpret a test question in the exactly the same manner? I doubt it.
We see the similarities and differences in children. We heard and felt these while in Amy Valens’ classroom. I saw vast variances in students I have worked with. You too may have caught a glimpse of this veracity in your own lives.
As we looked and listened, we learned. Ultimately, as Alvin also frequently articulates, much of what we discern was not taught in a formal lesson. Alvin says on education . . .
“More is caught than taught.”
I invite you to reflect on your reality as it relates to this thought. Who was or were your best Teachers?
Did you encounter your mentor, your Muse in a classroom between the months of August To June?
Was he or she; were these Teachers, the embodiment of Empathy And Education?
If so, was it an understanding relationship that truly helped advance your knowledge?
Were you as Amy’s students obviously were, happy to have a caring Educator at and on your side?
Please ponder the Instructors you have had, be these classroom Teachers, Moms, Dads, siblings, Grandparents, and or a person you merely encountered in your journeys.
How did each affect your learning?
Did a grade or a test determine how much or how little you learned?
Could any of what you gained be calculated in a single moment or on a particular exam?
Could a supposedly “objective” observer have understood who you are, what wisdom you acquired in school, or in your life?
Perchance, we might assess as our current system does. The structure that we the adults, Administrators, and policymakers put in place looks only at the labels.
Assumptions are made. Too often your child is viewed as the sum total of test questions. “One Class?” “One Year?” We define a Whole Child by his or her test scores secured in a single week. Then, sage as we are, call that a comprehensive assessment.
Statisticians conclude that the results of high-stakes assessment tests taken over the course of a few days, correctly characterize the complexity that is your child. Someone who has never seen or spoken with your tot, teen, or tween determines the wealth of knowledge he, or she, has acquired.
This person will not consider that perhaps, on the occasion of his or her testing, the young one was ill. Nor will a group of examiners be made aware of his or her circumstances.
It might be that little John or Jane just discovered plans of an impending divorce, a death in the family, or Juanita and José learned that a friend had moved to parts unknown. Will these events be reflected in the final test scores? Absolutely! Labels do not distinguish.
All are created equal, even when they are not. Indeed, as Alvin expounds . . .
“No two people, places, experiences or emotions are ever the same. They are similar, but never the same.”
This is why I say to you, what you saw on the screen minutes ago was not “One Class,” “One Year,” or an extraordinary Teacher with her exceptional students.
August To June shows us the many who learn daily in our schools. It also bears witness to the countless ways in which each discovers new knowledge. On the screen we observed you and me . . . all learners, unique beings that we each are.
This film is not a prescription for a standardized proposal.
In August To June you heard Amy reflect a more real profundity . . .
I don't know what will become of the children in my classroom. I may think I have glimpses of their futures, but there are so many influences that I can't see, can't imagine. What I can offer is a solid beginning, giving them tools they can use in many situations, and opportunities to use them.
Just as my cousin Alvin, Amy does not pretend to know which pearls of wisdom thrown will be caught. Instead, Educator Amy Valens speaks to the similarities that are never the same. In the vernacular of today she reflects on the reality, we are all “Whole Children,” Teachers, and Students too. We are more than “One” Score in “One Class” in the course of “One Year.
Every one of us, regardless of our age looks, listens, learns, teaches, and then learns anew.
We are never authentically “One.” We are a collection of emotions, experiences, lessons learned and the effects of these. We do not discover the wealth of our knowledge in ”One Year.” Nay express all that we unearthed in a single examination. Teacher Amy Valens stated as she strolled through the backyard . . .
There isn’t one right way to teach, but whatever the method, the “whole child” is there, waiting, and needs to be addressed. If we stay mindful of that, and are not constrained by one size-fits-all solutions, we can create joyful, respectful environments that fit the children we’re teaching.
Let us Bring Life to Schools. It is time that we more authentically assess and teach. Rather than repeat the problems as Administrators, policymakers and parents do, let us do other than adopt unsubstantiated solutions or accept statements proven false. Think of your own life and your child’s. Students held accountable do not necessarily succeed.
Teachers paid more for higher students’ test scores fare no better.
Measurements do not move minds Nay Mountains.
Test scores are not the best determinates for future successes.
Failure is not only an option; it is what these practices yield.
It is these narrow approaches, the labels we purposely impose, that have led us to be “A Nation At Risk!” We never were or will be “One Class,” “One Year,” or achieve “One Standard” that truly serves our students well. We are more than the sum of these parts.
I offer a thought Malcolm Gladwell articulates in an article titled Teachers and Quarterbacks . . .
You discover that the psychological situation facing gatekeepers…is identical: that confronted with a prediction deficit, the human impulse is to tighten standards, when it fact it should be to loosen standards.
Let us invest in The State of the Union, Empathy and Education. Let us embrace the “Whole Child.” After all, Education and Empathy affect us all. From August To June, and in the Summer, Winter, Spring and Fall we learn, grow, and can glow greater if we choose.
Let us Bring Love Back to Learning and Life Back To Our Schools.
I thank you my mentors.
Resources . . .