I recently read an article about how over the past couple of decades, parents have been more and more overprotective of their children (the article is quite lengthy but very informative). Children today experience little time without parental supervision and support in their everyday lives. While being exposed to constant supervision sounds like a good thing, the author discusses some of the unintended consequences of overprotection like the lack of independence and risk taking. This article caught my attention for a couple of reasons. First, my wife and I have two children and I sometimes think that we can be a little overbearing (I think my wife is a little more than I am. She gets mad at me when I let our oldest who is 8, run by herself down to her friend’s that is three houses down the street in a neighborhood that has a police cruiser in every other driveway.) Also, as an educator, I enjoy reading about ideas and strategies that will help develop students who are risk takers and seek ways to overcome difficult situations.
While the aim of this article was to talk about differing parent styles from the 60s and 70s to the present, many parallels can be drawn to education. I would compare the increased supervision of today’s children in the article to the increased emphasis on high stakes testing that is our current reality in education. Before I continue, I want to reassure everyone that I do believe children and students need to be supervised and that there needs to be some level of accountability for schools, however, I think we may be taking each of these areas to the extreme. The article mentions how a few highly publicized tragedies really adjusted how parents parent and how playgrounds are constructed. To me, this sounds eerily to how schools have treated APR targets and how teachers engage in daily instruction. Many teachers today are more worried about each student hitting every learning target that we sometimes jump in to help and correct when we should sit back observe. I bet everyone has heard a colleague say recently that they wish students could problem solve better by themselves. Is this a problem students today have? Is this problem something that current school structures have created?
Being a parent and a teacher are arguably the two most difficult endeavors one could undertake while being the two most scrutinized jobs that anyone could ever complete. Many people have an opinion on how children should be raised and just as many people have an opinion on how children should be educated. I am trying to do neither here. I just want everyone to remember that it used to be ok to scrape your knee or miss a few problems every once in a while. Not all infants are going to walk at the same age just as all students are not going to meet learning goals at the same time. Maybe it is ok to sometimes to sit back and let children be children and let students be students.
Have a great weekend of March Madness everyone. As always if you needed anything let me know and remember to break up your OODA!!!!
While the aim of this article was to talk about differing parent styles from the 60s and 70s to the present, many parallels can be drawn to education. I would compare the increased supervision of today’s children in the article to the increased emphasis on high stakes testing that is our current reality in education. Before I continue, I want to reassure everyone that I do believe children and students need to be supervised and that there needs to be some level of accountability for schools, however, I think we may be taking each of these areas to the extreme. The article mentions how a few highly publicized tragedies really adjusted how parents parent and how playgrounds are constructed. To me, this sounds eerily to how schools have treated APR targets and how teachers engage in daily instruction. Many teachers today are more worried about each student hitting every learning target that we sometimes jump in to help and correct when we should sit back observe. I bet everyone has heard a colleague say recently that they wish students could problem solve better by themselves. Is this a problem students today have? Is this problem something that current school structures have created?
Being a parent and a teacher are arguably the two most difficult endeavors one could undertake while being the two most scrutinized jobs that anyone could ever complete. Many people have an opinion on how children should be raised and just as many people have an opinion on how children should be educated. I am trying to do neither here. I just want everyone to remember that it used to be ok to scrape your knee or miss a few problems every once in a while. Not all infants are going to walk at the same age just as all students are not going to meet learning goals at the same time. Maybe it is ok to sometimes to sit back and let children be children and let students be students.
Have a great weekend of March Madness everyone. As always if you needed anything let me know and remember to break up your OODA!!!!