what is to be done?

somehow, reading this piece on incorporating the maker movement into schools, as a learning/problem-solving tool, makes me wonder if we should have tried harder to make it work with our local school. but we had tried for a whole year and it felt like time was running out. with unresponsive, slippery (i honestly wonder if they're part eel) leadership, that smiles and nods to your face and fills the air with fluffy spindoctor speak and then goes away and does nothing, it felt like such a daunting task, so we gave up and moved sabin to a new school. we are blown away at the difference already and it's only been a little over a week - she's motivated, she sits down and diligently does her homework every evening (and she actually HAS homework every evening) and she comes home talking about what she learned (even stuff about hitler!). she never did that at the old school, not once. getting her to tell something about school was like pulling teeth.

but some part of me thinks that the old school should have had to get their ducks in a row and shape up. they should have been required to perform and even excel. and we should have been proud and happy to be there. they owe it to the community, because little communities like this depend on having smart, motivated people to keep them going. we pay a lot of tax (don't get me started) and i wouldn't mind it if i saw results here within my community. and with a grade point average of 4.7 as opposed to the 7.1 of the school we moved to, it wasn't even a contest. and apparently the local superintendent insists that the school is ambitious and that the scores are exactly where they should be. which is the whole problem. how can, what is arguably a D+ average on a comparable american scale, possibly be deemed ambitious? even the schools which are full of the purportably problem immigrants have much higher scores than that. and these are normal, bright, middle class kids with danish parents (hmm, i wonder if the immigrants are really so bad?) so there's honestly no excuse.

but i still feel very sad about the whole thing, even while i'm sure we made the right decision. the class itself was great - socially, they functioned just fine, everyone had someone to be friends with and there was no serious bullying. the problem was the teachers and even more so leadership that tries again and again to cover up problems and doesn't welcome conversation and dialogue which could lead to solving them. frankly, our little town deserves better. it's too bad that so many of us (as of tuesday this week, 9 will have moved from the class of 26) had to choose to leave instead of continuing the dialogue. our kids deserve better and we simply couldn't wait any longer.

* * *

stupid things hard-core christians say.

hilarious, but also really, really sad.

and possibly more than a little disturbing.

letter from a school in crisis

Kære elever og forældre i 7c.

Maj-Britt måtte i dag forlade 7c, da hun ikke kunne få ro til at gennemføre den planlagte undervisning.
Jeg har været i klassen og talt med eleverne, som alle havde forstået, at de var gået over grænsen.

I enhver klasse er der forskellige roller - som på et fodboldhold, hvor der både er angribere, midtbanespillere og forsvarer. Jeg har opfordret eleverne til at spille med.
Altså hjæpe hinanden med at få ro, sige fra overfor hinanden, hvis der er nogle, der har svært ved at finde grænsen for hvilket sprog, der bliver brugt til såvel de voksne, som til andre elever.
Sige fra overfor hinanden, hvis det er for svært for nogle at sidde stille og derved forstyrrer andre. Det er lærernes ansvar, men det er nødvendligt, at alle spiller med for at det lykkes, og vi får skabe de bedste læringsrum.

Hvad skete der i dag?
Jeg gav eleverne følgende billede:
En stor beholder, hvor mange vandhaner drypper ned i beholderen. Nogle drypper voldsomt, andre knap så voldsomt, mens endnu andre er helt tætte.
På et tidspunkt løber beholderen over.
De haner, hvorfra det løber stærkest bliver lukket straks. Andre får så lige drejet en halv omgang om sig selv, så de lukker.

Jeg har talt og indgået aftaler med to stærkt dryppende haner.  
Jeg har som sagt talt med hele klassen, så alle er bekendte med hvor vigtigt, det er at tjekke egen hane.
Beholdere løber nogen gange lettere over end andre gange. Det har jeg også talt med eleverne om, og de har vist god forståelse for hele situationen og mange har været en del berørte.

Denne episoide er enkeltstående og ikke acceptabel, men nogen gange skal der episoder som disse til, for at alle kan få forståelsn af, hvd vi hver især selv kan bidrage med. 
Jeg tror, den kan være med til at styrke sammenholdet i klassen og skabe et endnu bedre læringsrum.