Are American Kids Spolied?

Last summer an article in The New Yorker entitled "Spoiled Rotten" got me thinking about my own parenting style and skills.

Since my kids are now 24 and 21 (both college graduates and both gainfully employed), it’s easier for me from this distance to reflect on what I did right and wrong as a parent.

The article focuses on how families in different countries with different cultures raise their children.

For the most part, children in the United States have the least responsibility/chores asked of them, yet they were the beneficiaries of the most material objects and attention from their parents. This all too commonly results in “parents wanting their kids approval, a reversal of the past ideal of children striving for their parents’ approval.”

 Two thirds of American parents feel their children are spoiled.

This is vastly different from child-rearing in a country like France, where the “French believe ignoring children is good for them. French parents don’t worry that they’re going to damage their kids by frustrating them. To the contrary, they think their kids will be damaged if they can’t cope with frustration…They view learning to cope with ‘no’ as a crucial step in a child’s evolution. It forces them to understand that there are other people in the world, with needs as powerful as their own.”

I’ve heard respected psychologist Robert Evans say that in America today parents want school to prepare the path for the child rather than prepare the child for the path.

I’ve heard Dr. David Walsh talk about how today we live in a "yes culture" with its resulting characteristics of impatience, instant gratification, and sense of entitlement.

I’ve written before about the how parents and teachers need to stress the importance of motivation, hard work, effort, determination, and perseverance as well as the benefit striving against obstacles and dealing with disappointment.

As parents, we need to help and support our children but also give them more responsibility and the latitude to make mistakes and solve their own problems.

While I regret not assigning more chores to my kids when they were young, my wife and I did place the responsibility for schoolwork on them. Before they each went off to college, we told them that we would cover reasonable college costs for no more than four years: if they didn’t graduate in four, they had to pay.

Had they not graduated in four years, I believe we would have followed through on our threat and made them take out college loans, but like most American parents, we would have struggled with this decision.

Raising Resilient Children

Robert Evans is one of my favorite educational presenters; he is a clinical and organizational psychologist who has provided schools and parents, especially those is independent schools, with guidance and advice for more than 30 years.

Here is a link to his website.

Earlier this week Dr. Evans gave a webcast entitled "Raising Resilient Children in Challenging Times".

Here is the link to the webinar (which lasts about a hour). Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Raising Resilient Children 12/5/2012. The password is onion.

If you don't have time to listen to the recording of his webcast, below is a summary of it (taken almost verbatim from the PowerPoint of his presentation).

Evans believes that all kids in order to become resilient need the following:

• Nurture: To function as a member of a community, one needs to have been nurtured. Why? Because being nurtured helps one develop faith, confidence, and experience in reciprocity. No matter how old one is, she/he never outgrows the need to be nurtured (as my kids in their mid 20s remind me constantly). For children, both home and school need to provide appropriate amounts of nurture, which does not have to be as Evans states "a super fabulous" amount of nurture.

• Structure: Evans uses the metaphor of a box: inside the box is what we do--and are allowed to do--and outside the box is what we don't do and aren't allowed to do. Structure for kids needs to be clear but not hard or rigid. Structure helps kids develop important qualities like perseverance and empathy

• Latitude: Appropriate latitude to Evans is not freedom for a child to do what he/she wants, but the opportunity to learn from experience, especially errors, mistakes, and the unfairness of others.  For us to become adept at work and relationships (the twin essentials of a healthy adult life), we all need practice as kids in working through our problems and challenges; learning (and character) come from overcoming obstacles. 

Evans then outlined the challenges to nurture, structure, and latitude in today's world:

• Challenge to Nurture: To nurture children, you need to be with them, yet over the past 20 years there has been a 20 hour decline in time a parent typically spends with his/he child. To Evans, kids don't need "scads of our time to be appropriately nurtured, but they do need enough time." Evans also states that while we live in a competitive world, competition at too young an age leads to child stress. He advises parents to focus not just on achievement and outcome but character and effort as well.

• Challenge to Structure: To Evans, kids today live in a world where negotiating is the norm.  Evans laments that American society today has lost of the "you can't do this and must do that" structure from previous generations. We need to be clearer defining the box of what is and isn't permitted. To Evans, parents need to be  especially clearer about non-negotiables, even if child won't like it: he says "the key is not whether kids like you but whether they will be like you."(He tells a great story of a mother who nightly tells her kids at dinner time "Who's having lasagna, and who's going hungry?" rather than offering to make multiple meals for picky eaters. I can't imagine many parents today--myself included--saying this.)

• Challenge to Latitude: For Evans, this is the hardest "need" for parents to provide: most of us over protect our kids. We are too lenient with our kids and also come to our kids rescue much too frequently and quickly. Adults need to recognize that if a child's path is too easy (often because we ensure it's easy for him/her), the child won't have the opportunity to develop resilience and become a well-adjusted adult. Evans advises parents to not race to fix their kids' problems before they have a chance to try to fix it themselves.

Evans closes his webinar by advising parents to "take a grandparent pill": in other words, be more relaxed, broaden your perspective, and recognize that every event in you child's life is not urgent. 

Love your kids, give them your time, and provide them the latitude to be kids and to make mistakes within a box of clear and consistent "have to's".

Are There Benefits to Homework?

Homework. It's a controversial subject in most schools. Some parents want more; others want less. Some teachers see its value; others don't.

The Orchard community recently watched the documentary Race to Nowhere, the result of which not surprisingly led to the Orchard community evaluating the pros and cons of homework.

But what does the research actually tell us about the value of homework?

For high school students there is a slight positive correlation between time spent on homework and grades on tests in class.

There is no correlation between homework and academic performance for elementary school and middle school students, except there are some benefits for elementary school students on understanding of math skills/concepts, e.g., place value.

And not surprisingly students who voluntarily read for pleasure at home score higher on the English sections of standardized tests.

A sobering fact is the negative correlation for middle school students between amount of time spent on homework and classroom academic performance (overall grades and test scores) when they spend more than 50 minutes a day on homework.

Alfie Kohn, the guru of progressive education and gadfly of traditional educaiton, in his book The Homework Myth, highlights the deleterious effects of homework on students.

He points out that most of the research studies show inconclusive results. "Their results ranged from homework having positive effects, no effects, or complex effects to the suggestion that the research was too sparse or poorly conducted to allow trustworthy conclusions."

Kohn brings up a number of reasons why research on homework is inconclusive,

First, he points out that "correlation doesn't prove causation."The fact that a student spends more time on homework, then receives an A in class or scores higher on standardized tests might be more indicative of the student's work ethic and effort than the benefits of homework.

In fact, when homework is compared with other variables in a classroom, like quality of instruction and student motivation, homework's influence is almost negligible.

Another issue with determining the value of homework is defining what student achievement is. In studies this usually falls into three categories: scores on a classroom teacher's test, grades in classrooms, scores on standardized tests.

Not surprisingly, when students were given homework that directly connected to the content and questions on a classroom test, students did better on the tests. But this leads to the question of how deep a student's understanding of the material was: was the student simply answering questions by rote?

Regarding an overall class grade, teachers may reward a student who completes all homework assignments: is a student's grade therefore a reflection of better understanding material by completing homework or pleasing the teacher? (I won't get into the subjectivity of grading in this blog, but parents need to keep in mind that grading in class is subjective, and not just in humanities courses.)

Kohn also explains that equating standardized test results with homework is a slippery slope. He points out that high standardized test scores are more an indication of "how skillful a student is at taking a standardized test" than "intellectual proficiency." Most standardized tests use multiple-choice format, and while these questions can measure deeper thinking and understanding (see Grant Wiggins Why We Should Stop Bashing State Tests), they don't allow for student creatively or explanation.

Another challenge of standardized tests is they typically are timed, meaning they put a "premium not on thoughtfulness but speed".

Kohn also points out that younger students can be easily confused by the format of standardized tests; hence, their scores are not reflective of their ability.

Finally, most standardized tests are norm-referenced, meaning their purpose is to distinguish and separate students. What's the best question on a standardized test: the one that about 50% answer correctly and 50% answer incorrectly.

To Kohn, there is a benefit to teaching to the test if the goal is to get higher test scores, yet this type of teaching does not help students "become critical, curious, creative thinkers".

While my position is not as strong as Kohn's, I always try to help parents see that more homework is not the solution. At Orchard we try to follow the 10 minute per grade rule. 10 minutes of homework in 1st grade, adding 10 minutes per year until getting to about 80 minutes in 8th grade (which includes reading time). I see homework as a time for students to become more confident and independent by practicing skills and concepts. Student also develop personal responsibility and time management. There's been a lot of talk about "flipped classrooms" where students use homework time to be exposed to content with classtime then devoted to deeper understanding via groups work and projects.

It's important for parents and teachers to work toergehter. It is not right for students to become overly stressed about homework or to spend inordinate amounts of time on homework.

Children in elementary and middle school still need time to be kids, to have free time, and to be able to explore their  other interests.

In addition to Kohn's book, another interesting read is Cathy Vatterott's book Rethinking Homework

Education: East Versus West

This week there was a story on NPR (Click for article) about how Asia (specifically China and Japan) and the United States approach student learning differently.

Jim Stigler, a UCLA psychology professor who has extensively studied this topic, identifies the key difference between Asia and United States as to what extent students are expected to struggle in school.

“I think that from the very early ages we in America see struggle as an indicator that you’re just not very smart. It’s a sign of low ability. People who are smart don’t struggle. They just naturally get it; that’s our folk theory. Asian cultures tend to see struggle more as an opportunity. In Eastern cultures, it’s just assumed that struggle is a predictable part of the learning process. Everyone is expected to struggle in the process of learning, and so struggling becomes a chance to show that the student has what it takes emotionally to resolve the problem by persisting through that struggle. They’ve taught them that suffering can be a good thing.” 

There has been much research and recommendations, e.g., Carol Dweck and Paul Tough, about the benefits of teachers and parents in the United States emphasizing work ethic over innate intelligence.  

It does seem that the pendulum of American education is slowly moving from its emphasis on achievement (product) to include more room for effort (process).

Still, more can and should occur. 

The over-arching goals of education are the development of a student's intellect, character, and social skills, yet these can be broken down into more specific needs, including students:

• Learning and mastering a core set of knowledge, skills, concepts, and procedures

• Developing a sense of self confidence and assurance even when facing hardships and challenges

• Developing habits that will help them be better students and eventually effective, contributory members of the workforce

• Developing communication (oral and written), problem solving (creative and analytical), and collaboration skills

The question for American education is whether or not these goals are best developed in students through a supportive, nurturing system that minimizes student difficulty and maximizes student self-esteem or one that pushes kids more, letting them learn through struggles and even frustration.

A number of year ago, I was observing a classroom in Ghana, Africa. Students were assessed by one-at-a time answering basic information they were asked to memorize at home. Whenever a student answered incorrectly, the teacher would berate—even humiliate—the student. As an American educator, I was shocked at how poorly he was treating his students. I felt he was destroying their self-confidence and self-esteem. Later when we talked about this, he told me that unlike American kids, Ghanaian students had scant opportunities to continue their studies in high school--let alone college. They couldn’t afford any missteps. When I also asked him why he was requiring only basic rote memorization answers and was not allowing his students to be more creative and imaginative, he responded that if they did not pass the high school entrance exam, which consisted of basic factual recall questions he was asking them in class, his students would not have the opportunity to attend high school. That day I learned that my (and his) beliefs as a teacher were shaped by the culture I had been educated, lived, and now taught in.

While changing a country’s culture is exceedingly difficult, the research does indicate that we in America need to give students more opportunities to struggle in academics. 

Countries like China and Japan recognize that their schools are not succeeding in developing creative, imaginative, and individualistic students, and they are looking to the Western educational system for guidance. 

In the same way, we need to look to the Chinese and Japanese educational system as an example of how we can give our students more chances to learn through failure. 

Video Games in the Classroom?

In the past two weeks there have been a number of articles that tout the benefits of using video/computer games in the classroom as effective learning tools.

Although most baby-boomers view video games as primarily a leisure activity that's for the most part frivolous, these articles from Phi Delta Kappan and Teaching Exceptional Children point to the positive ways in which video/computer games can help students learn.

The games they reference are ones that have been or are being developed for use in the classroom, not video games like Halo.

Video/computer games can offer the following for all students:

• They personalize learning
• They build conceptual understanding and motivation
• They can provide teachers with diagnostic information on stundets' learning needs
• They cultivate student persistence (in that one needs to demonstrate quantitative mastery before moving to the next level)

One game highlighted was called Refraction which helps students learn about fractions. I played it and liked it; you should try it too.

The Gates Foundation recently initiated GLASS (Games, Learning, and Assessment) to develop classroom games that "can serve as assessment tools, develop complex skills, and help transfer learning to different contexts."

Another article focused on the how teachers can use blogs to improve students' writing.

When I was a student, writing was rarely relevant for me. I wrote essays for a teacher who then read, commented on, graded, and gave them back to me. (I typically looked at the grade and ignored the teacher's written comments, but that's a topic for another blog.) The teacher would occasionally read to the class an example of an exemplary piece of writing, yet for most part writing was a more solitary exercise for my classmates and me. (It never occurred to me until I was in a small liberal arts college--where most assessments required writing--that writing could be fun, personal and a liberating way for me to express my ideas, thoughts, opinions and feelings.)

Blogs can provide relevance (in that students have an audience of more than one teacher), peer commentary and modeling, and a greater sense of egalitarianism (kids have a voice equal to the teacher).

Many of you have heard that classroom activities, assignments, and assessments need to be "authentic" for kids, and with blogging kids see the purpose and relevance of writing; after all, they are writing in real time for an audience that can add comments.

Teachers use sites like Edublogs that provide students with more--and enjoyable--opportunities to write with purpose and relevance. Sites like Glogster and Storybird use videos and photes to complement student writing.

Another article listed a number of sites where students can practice writing, enter writing contests, and publish their work for a larger audience.

In one of my blogs last year, I talked about how many educators remain skeptical of technology in the classroom. Although we need to help students be digitally literate and develop a sense of self beyond the digital world, the benefits far outweigh the negatives to me.

School, Whole Child Education, and Abraham Maslow

Tom Hoerr, Head of New City School in St. Louis and the team leader for Orchard's 2006 ISACS accreditation visit, recently wrote an article for ASCD entitled "The Whole Child and Maslow".

Tom is a great friend--and admirer--of Orchard.  He has said many times many times that the only school that matches New City School in terms of mission, program, practice, and outcomes is Orchard.

Here's the link to his article: Tom's article

His article reminded parents and teachers that a school must ensure certain needs (Maslow's hierarchy) for students to optimize their academic learning.

If you are unfamiliar with the work of psychologist Abraham Maslow, here's the link to the Wikipedia write-up on Maslow

Maslow believed that all humans must have a hierarchy of five basic needs satisfied before they can fully focus on, attend to, and succeed at academics.

1. Physiological--basic needs like eating and sleeping. Paul Tough in his new book, How Children Succeed, explains that children from low-income families all too commonly struggle in school not because of low cognitive ability but because they come to school without their most basic physiological needs being met.

2. Safety--This includes both physical and emotional safety. This is why Orchard devotes time through Responsive Classroom, conflict mediation, anti-bullying efforts to create a classroom environment where all students are known, valued, and respected as a unique individual.

3. Love/Belonging--While the previous need provides physical and emotional safety, this need ensures children know they are a part of a larger family, group, community. They see how they need to be supported by others and how they need to support others. For students in a school this includes having at least one adult advocate whom they can trust.

4. Esteem--With the first three needs met (one physical and the other two interpersonal), students can then focus on the next two needs, which are more intrapersonal. Schools strive to have students develop  true sense of intrinsic motivation beyond extrinsic rewards because  they want students to learn to push and challenge themselves and to see that success takes time, effort, perseverance, and patience. If this need is being fulfilled, students become adept at assessing their performance and recognizing what they must do to get better. They also will naturally challenge themselves and work assiduously.

5. Self-Actualization--To Maslow, this is the goal not just for students but for adults as well. This is about finding your passion/purpose in life and embracing personal responsibility for yourself (and, as a student, for your learning). This is why schools like Orchard and New City School provide a well-rounded education of academic disciplines, visual and performing arts, physical education, and outdoor education. Schools need to provide children with opportunities to find their passion and interest.

For Maslow to perform at one's best and to find meaning and purpose in life, all of the above needs must be provided for, especially the first three. To me, that's why schools like Orchard and New City are so successful: they strive to make sure the vital needs of a child are attended to and supported.

And that's not the case with all schools.

Orchard School in 1926

Right before Fall Break, an Orchard parent gave me an old newspaper article from 1926 that highlighted on the unique attributes of Orchard School, which had been founded only four years earlier in 1922.

At that time, Orchard was located at 5050 N. Meridian—an old orchard on those grounds gave the school its name.

In 1926, Orchard had 80 students—15 to a class.

“(Orchard School) owes its existence to the desire of a small group of men and women to provide what they conceive to be a superior type of education.”

According to the article Orchard in 1926 had four main educational precepts:

• It “believes that the same teacher must inevitably impart stimulus and instruction more effectively to a small group than to a large one.”
• It “believes that the children need light, air, and room for play as much as they need instruction."
• It “believes that children, like adults, work to bets advantage when their interest in the task at hand has been fully aroused.”
• It “believes that teaching the student to think is a greater accomplishment than the imparting of information.”

The main reason Orchard was founded as--and has remained--an elementary-middle school is that the founders believed that by emphasizing the above precepts to children at a younger age, they would be prepared for a high school experience that would inevitably provide a more conventional, traditional way of learning.

In 1926, though, there were questions about Orchard’s program and teaching philosophy. Two misconceptions from the article follow:

“The first is represented by the very natural fear that pupils leaving this school might find themselves badly prepared for taking up the work of the public or other schools…It is now seems apparent, however, from the observation of such pupils as have changed schools, that they are more than able to hold their own (in other schools)…and that no misgivings need be felt on this score.”

“More widespread is the impression that pupils in schools of this type are not properly disciplined—that they are allowed to do as they please.”

“It is not physically possible to conduct a school of eighty children who are allowed to do as they please—the only result could be early and violent madness...Due, however, to smaller classes it is possible to permit and encourage a much wider range of interest and initiative…As interest grows, the necessity for the more obvious manifestations of discipline diminishes…There was headshaking enough when the birch rod was banished from the public schools, but there has appeared no necessity to recall it.”

The article goes on to explain Orchard’s belief in a well-rounded education that included physical exercise, recess, and music.

The article—written nearly 90 years ago—illustrates that Orchard’s founding precepts are still alive at Orchard and that people today can still have misconceptions and doubts about an child-centered education that strives to engage the child at his/her developmental level rather than be focused on the needs and desires of adults.

Although a lot has changed since 1926--Calvin Coolidge was president, the average car cost $380, and the average annual wage was a little over $1,000--the debate over education then is eerily similar to today.

Thank you, Kristy Sherman, for giving me the article!

The Homework Dilemma

This week I read an interesting article entitled  “Tackling the Homework Dilemma” in the most recent issue of Middle Ground.

The author posed the provocative question “Is homework a subject or a method”, asking what is the actual purpose of homework.

Many believe homework helps students learn self-discipline and personal organization while others feel its purpose is to help students increase their knowledge and understanding. If it’s the latter (as I believe it is), then homework should be used to help students better learn and understand the material rather than to be a daily, have-to chore.

In the article one teacher in Minnesota assigns but does not collect or grade daily homework. Instead, he gives a short daily quiz at the beginning of every class over the concepts and skills covered in the previous night’s homework. This teacher finds that his daily quiz does the following for his students:

• Students who know the content can skip the burden of doing redundant homework since the focus is on mastery, whether it comes from completing the homework assignment, paying attention in class, or background knowledge.
• Nothing is gained by copying another student’s homework or having a parent do the assignment. (Copying homework is a rampant problem in any middle and high school.)
• Lots of teacher time that would be used for correcting homework is freed up to do more effective, creative things for students

Homework remains a very controversial and divisive topic among and between parents and teachers. (I’ve written in other blogs of the lack of correlation between amount of homework and student performance.) When I shared this article with my wife (a high school math teacher), she dismissed the effectiveness of giving a daily quiz, which illustrates that two experienced educators can have drastically different feelings on this topic.

There can be value to homework in terms of seeing if students have truly mastered concepts and skills presented in class and if they truly understand those concepts and skills through work that demands higher-level thinking skills and critical and creative thought.

Similarly, it does help younger students practice and develop important habits and skills like personal responsibility, organization, and discipline.

Clearly reading, especially novels, is more easily done through homework than in class. (As an English teacher, I am more skeptical of at-home writing assignments because there is too great a possibility of adult assistance—hence, almost all my writing assignments are completed in class.)

There has also been much discussion of the “flipped-classroom” where students learn content at home and then use class time to demonstrate and deepen their understanding.

With the growing ubiquity of technology, homework is also becoming more collaborative and interactive with blogs, wikis, etc.

Nevertheless, it’s vitally important for teachers and parents to ensure that homework is necessary and needed and not overly repetitive and redundant for students. What I like about the teacher who gives a daily quiz over the previous night’s homework is he is empowering students to decide to what extent they need to complete the assignment depending on their understanding. He is respecting the fact that each and every one of his students brings to the classroom a range of abilities, motivational levels, and previous knowledge. His homework is not one-size fits all.

We must remember, also, that students—even in high school—are still kids who need free time, adequate rest, and unstructured opportunities to be creative and imaginative. 

Are Kids Today Smarter Than Their Grandparents?

There was an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal the other day entitled "Are We Getting Smarter?"

Click for Article

The article's author James Flynn explains that the average IQ score has risen 3 points per decade since 1900. (I always thought I was smarter than my dad and grandfather; now I have quantitative evidence!)

To Flynn, one of the main reasons for this is back in the early 1900s, the world was simpler and required much less education. It wasn't unusual for someone to attain only an elementary school education and then either work in a factory or on a farm.

Additionally, the world back required less higher-level, abstract thought from the average person to be a productive--and gainfully employed--member of society. (If you read the article, note the difficulty people in a small town in Russia in the early 1990s had about interview questions that expected more than a literal response.)

Today's world demands much more from its citizens. We're expected to think more hypothetically, creatively, symbolically, and critically than in past generations. Jobs in today's world are not mechanical and demand we think in a much more abstract manner than in previous generations.

The rise in IQ scores (IQ test questions more often require higher-level thinking and problem-solving and pattern-recognition abilities) has resulted in schools and society in general devoting more time to developing in its students and citizens habits, skills, and attitudes that value more abstract thought.

As an example, when I compare my life as a student (45 years ago) to my career as a teacher, I provided my students much more open-ended classroom activities and assignments than I had as a student.

This goes hand in hand with the skills that are viewed as essential for success in the 21st century--skills like communication (oral and written), collaboration (the ability to work in groups with people who are different from you; the ability to peacefully resolve conflict and negotiate and compromise), critical and creative thinking (yes, we all need knowledge but today it's more what you can do with it, while before knowledge was often considered the end in itself), character (especially in a more impersonal digital age, we all need practice in developing responsibility, trustworthiness, empathy, honesty, and humility).

While the purpose of the article was not to comment on our current educational system, it made me reflect on how schools--in response to societal needs--are actually being more true to the founding principles of Orchard and the core precepts of progressive education from the early 1900s. I don't know if Dewey would be satisfied with all schools today--let alone using IQ tests as a measure of intelligence---but I think he would be pleased that schools today, especially schools like Orchard, are providing opportunities for kids to develop competencies and habits that allow for creative and innovative thought and have relevance and direct correlation with workforce needs.

Teacher Expectations and Student Performance

Back in 1964, Harvard professor, Robert Rosenthal, conducted a seminal experiment in elementary school education. He told teachers that they had a number of students in their class who, based on a “test” he administered, were on the “verge of an intense intellectual bloom”. The result of this experiment was the students—who had a normal bell curve range of IQs—saw their IQs increase.

The reason: As Rosenthal did more and more research, he saw the strong correlation between teachers’ expectations of their students and student performance. Rosenthal found that when teachers expected their students to succeed, they provided in their classrooms more time for students to answer questions, more specific feedback, and more approval and positive reinforcement (e.g., frequently smiling at students).

Obviously, teacher expectations alone do not guarantee student success, but it is a reminder how important they are.

When I first began teaching, I played on a softball team, which included a few teachers. One teammate was also a middle school English teacher; he taught in a public school in Brooklyn and was a 15-year veteran teacher. I was just starting my career and worked in a private school. I still remember him complaining about his students, their laziness and their inability and unwillingness to perform in the classroom. At one point after I asked him about what he taught, he just laughed and said, “Nothing. A good day for me is when a fight doesn’t break out in my class or in the lunchroom.”

While I never taught in (or even visited) his Brooklyn public school, Dave to me is nevertheless an example of a teacher who had no belief in his students. Perhaps he had been hardened by a frustrating and challenging educational environment, yet his attitude and cynical view of his students precluded success for any of his students.

Recent research, particularly at the University of Virginia, is trying to help teachers improve and enhance their expectations of their students. While the traditional way to do this has been simply to talk to teachers abut the importance of believing in their students, this research reveals that helping teachers foster positive classroom behaviors in the classroom (in other words how teachers interact with students) is far more efficient.

For example, if a teacher believes that boys are by nature disruptive in the classroom, he/she needs help in how to deal with an energetic boy rather than have discussions about how to overcome his/her stereotype of boys being disruptive. (We learn through cognitive dissonance but it’s a long process to change our beliefs rather than out actions.)

So, when a boy blurts out an answer in class, the teacher allows the student to explain his answer before reminding the boy about classroom rules and the need to raise his hand, etc. In this manner the boy does not become frustrated and--in the extreme--emotionally disengaged.

In his seminal work, Rosenthal identified 7 ways teachers can change their expectations: watch, listen, engage, experiment, meet, reach out, and reflect. (For details of each, see below). I wish 25 years ago I had shared these with my softball teammate.

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Watch how each student interacts. How do they prefer to engage? What do they seem to like to do? Observe so you can understand all they are capable of.

Listen. Try to understand what motivates them, what their goals are and how they view you, their classmates and the activities you assign them.

Engage. Talk with students about their individual interests. Don’t offer advice or opinions—just listen.

Experiment. Change how you react to challenging behaviors. Rather than responding quickly in the moment, take a breath. Realize that their behavior might just be a way of reaching out to you.

Meet. Each week, spend time with students outside your role as “teacher”. Let the students choose a game or other non-academic activity they’d like to do with you. You job is to not teach but watch, listen, and narrate what you see, focusing on students’ interests ands what they do well. This type of activity is really important for student with whom you often feel in conflict or who you avoid.

Reach out. Know what your students like to do outside of school. Make it a project for them to tell you about it using some medium in which they feel comfortable with: music, video, writing, etc. Find both individual and group time for them to share this with you. Watch and listen to how skilled, motivated, and interested they can be. Now think about school through their eyes.

Reflect. Think back on your own best and worst teachers. List five words for each that describe how you felt in your interactions with them. How did the best and worst make you feel? What specifically did they do or say that made you feel that way? Now think about how your students would describe you. Write down how they might describe you and why. How do your expectations or beliefs shape how they look at you? Are there parallels in your beliefs and their responses to you?

Benefits of Responsive Classroom Approach in Schools

A recent three-year study at the University of Virginia showed that students whose school faithfully used Responsive Classroom approaches had higher math and reading standardized test scores.

The University of Virginia study further showed that, in addition to improving student academic achievement, using Responsive Classroom techniques in the classroom led to an increase in student engagement, a decrease in discipline problems in the classroom and school, and an increase in higher-quaity teaching.

The study illustrates the importance of a school dedicating time to creating a classroom climate of trust, support, care, and interdependence as a prerequisite to students pushing and challenging themselves academically.

The basic components of Responsive Classroom are morning meeting (where every child receives and give a sincere welcome greeting to the school day), a proactive approach to discipline (which includes students have input in setting classrrom rules), positive teacher language and support of students, and opportunities for students to have a voice and choice in their learning (empowering them in the learning process and encouraging both critical and creative thought and expression).

In a larger context, Responsive Classroom helps students satisfy Maslow's hierarchy of needs: first we need our physiological needs satisfied, then safety/love/belonging (what Responsive Classroom provides), followed by esteem and self-actualization. The chance of high academic achievement is greatly reduced in the absence of a safe, nurturing, trusting environment, be it at home or at school.

Noted elementary school expert, Bob Sornson, stresses that students are "motivated by challenge but never too much". By having a classroom environment where students feel safe, known, and understood as individuals, they are more willing to take academic risks and appropriately push and challenge themselves. (There have been numerous studies that illustrate that students when given a choice of assignment will choose the one that best fits their needs and developmental readiness.)

Orchard is very fortunate to have Julie Wingate, a certified teacher-trainer in Responsive Classroom, help lead and inspire our faculty and staff in the benefits of using the Responsive Classroom philosophy and techniques.

Since its founding, Orchard has always had a commitment to the development of the whole child--academically/cognitively/intellectually, socially, emotionally, physically, ethically, organizationally. Yet this recent study quantifies what Orchard has intuitively known: a safe, nurturing classroom in essential for a student's academic and social-emotional growth.

Here are two links that provide a succinct overview of the Responsive Classroom approach Link and classroom examples of Responsive Classroom in action Link.

Neuroscience and Education

For roughly the past 20 years, the field of education has touted how research in neuroscience (how students best learn) will revolutionize classrooms.

Unfortunately there is much misinformation that teachers and parents believe to be true, “neuro-myths” that are believed to be true.

Two neuroscience truths that we all need to embrace are, first, that the brain is less hard-wired from birth than people have believed and, second, different parts of the brain act more interdependently than most of us believed.

In terms of the brain’s interdependence, a metaphor I recently read asks us to think of the different parts of the brain like the letters of the alphabet. By roughly 8 months, the letters have formed in the brain, e.g., the prefrontal cortex or hippocampus, but through experience, these “neural letters” activate in patterns to form “words, sentences, and paragraphs” of thought--in other words, they operate interdependently, not independently.

This is different from what many of us thought about the brain. While the prefrontal cortex controls decision-making and impulse control and the hippocampus stores memory, don’t think that other sections of the brain don’t influence decision-making and memory; again, different sections of the brain work as a team (or as letters) when it comes total brain function.

In education, this belief that one particular area of the brain controls a particular brain function and that the brain is hard-wired from birth led to a myth about dyslexia. While the back left of the brain influences sound processing and children with dyslexia have a poorly functioning back left of the brain, it does not mean that children with dyslexia can’t learn to read. More than one section of the brain influences how one reads; hence, educational interventions can help a child learn to read effectively.

Because the brain is less hard-wired and more flexible and changeable than many of us thought, the home or school environment is vital.

Because there is often not a direct link to neuroscience research, many teachers and parents have formed overly simplistic—or in the extreme wrong—implications in the classroom for how children best learn. In one article I recently read, teachers accepted the validity and accuracy of a bogus scientific research article if it included a picture of a brain scan.

While I've read a few books on neuroscience and the brain, neuroscience remains a vast, confusing topic and its implications for education are still forming.

But what has happened is many of us have taken our limited knowledge and understanding to form faulty, simplistic conclusions about brain research and its implications in the classroom.

Here's a link to a quiz about neuroscience and education See how well you do. (I had a group of heads of school take this quiz at conference this summer and no one cam close to answering all the questions correctly, especially me.): Link to Quiz.

Effective Parenting

Late in the summer, child psychologist and author Madeline Levine, whose new book is Teach Your Children Well, wrote an article in the New York Times about effective parenting.

Her article “Raising Successful Children” opines that the optimal parent is “one who is involved and responsive, who sets high expectations but respects the child’s autonomy.” The result is a child who does better academically, psychologically, and socially compared to parents who are “either permissive and less involved, or controlling and more involved.”

This type of parent does not praise his/her child for their talents and abilities, but for their effort, perseverance and determination.

This type of parent understands that the “central task of growing up is to develop a sense of self that is autonomous, confident and generally in accord with reality.”

This type of parent understands the importance allowing a child the opportunity to fail and to be unhappy.

“If you can’t stand to see your child unhappy, you are in the wrong business…Small challenges that start in infancy present the opportunities for ‘successful failures’, that is, failures your child can live with and grow from. To rush in too quickly, to shield them, to deprive them of those challenges is to deprive them of the tolls they will need to handle the inevitable, difficult, challenging and sometimes devastating demands of life.”

This type of parent understands the difference between appropriate and inappropriate parental involvement in their child’s life.

This type of parent wants the best for his/her child but also recognizes it is “the child’s job to grow, while yours is to control your anxiety so it doesn’t get in the way of his reasonable moves toward autonomy.”

Finally, this type of parent knows children “thrive best in an environment that is reliable, available, consistent, and non-interfering.”

How Children Succeed

It's never too early to begin identifying books about education I plan to read over Winter Break and beyond.

The other day I read a review in the New York Times Book Review of Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed.

Tough (by the time you finish this blog, you'll see the appropriateness of his name to the thesis of his book) explains that most parents in America subscribe to what he calls the "cognitive hypothesis...that success today depends primarily on cognitive skills--the kind of intelligence that gets measured on I.Q. tests...and that the best way to develop these skills is to practice them as much as possible, beginning as early as possible."

However, Tough wants parents to subscribe (and provides support in his book) to the "character hypothesis--the notion that non-cognitive skills, like persistence, self-control, curiosity, conscientiousness, grit and self-confidence, are more crucial than sheer brain power to achieving success."

So how do you develop character in kids?

Tough succinctly states "character is created by encountering and overcoming failure."

His book then focuses on how on children from both ends of the socioeconomic spectrum are not offered the opportunity to develop their character.

While from the New York Times review it seems to me Tough might be guilty of over-generalizing the experiences of wealthy and poor kids, his book provides a warning for parents and teachers who at one extreme overly control or too tightly control a child's life and at the other are too laissez faire.

His conclusion is that America is a country "of very privileged children and very poor ones, both deprived of the emotional and intellectual experiences that make for sturdy character."

I'm looking forward to reading this book in full. It follows in the recent educational trend (Dweck, Wagner, Walsh Click) that student character and attitude trump cognitive ability and that schools and home need to offer kids more opportunities to struggle through and deal with setbacks, and learn to persevere and to defer gratification.

Remember, self-esteem comes through practice, competence, and achievement--and, in the progressive education tradition, needs to come from within (intrinsically not extrinsically).

Here's the link to Tough's book on Amazon: Click

Self-Control, Empathy, Respect

Most of you this summer probably saw the video of middle school students bullying and harassing a bus monitor. The video went viral and newspaper articles soon followed bemoaning how cruel and rude students are today.

One of the better articles I read on this topic was in Psychology Today entitled "Teaching Civility in an F-Word Society."

The author, Marilyn Price-Mitchell, identifies the key elements of civility, i.e., how we treat one another, as self-control, empathy, and respect.

As a head of school, I am always looking for a succinct list of skills, habits, attitudes that Orchard strives to develop in children.

While schools have the obvious responsibility of developing students academically, Orchard also focuses on developing students' character, including self-control, empathy, and respect.

According to the author, developing students' character is more important than ever due to the un-civil world kids are growing up in.

What are the causes of this overall decline in civility?
• An informal society with vague or even non-existent rules for expected behavior
• An Internet-based world where anonymity frees one of personal responsibility
• A reality-TV culture where talking behind people's backs and using people in a Machiavellian manner are celebrated and rewarded

As parents and educators, regardless of how we try to shelter our children, they are indelibly influenced by the norms and mores of contemporary society.

The only way to combat these societal influences is through "cognitive dissonance" in class and at home where positive adult role modeling and frequent discussions help children see the value of qualities like self-control, empathy, and respect.

If not at home and at school, where will children today learn that value of being a good friend, citizen, and of having respectful debate and healthy disagreement?

The author ends with a list of ways we can help children learn civility:

1. Lead by example.
2. Think about the impact of our words and actions on others first.
3. Treat children and adults with the respect that we expect them to treat others.
4. Apologize when we are wrong.
5. Disagree with intelligence, humor, and civil discourse.
6. Don’t let anger and emotion get in the way of listening to others.
7. Teach character strengths, like respect and empathy, at homeand in classrooms.
8. Demand civility of our politicians and public servants.
9. Set ground rules for civil behavior at home and in classrooms.
10. Challenge people’s views but don’t attack the person.
11. Be tolerant of people who are different from us.
12. Praise others for their civil behavior, regardless of their viewpoints.
13. Empower children to take a stand against bullying.
14. Remind kids often why we should be civil.
15. Teach kids how to become engaged citizens.

I am very proud to be a member of a school like Orchard that focuses on the development of the whole child--cognitive, physical, social-emotional.

Elementary School Leadership in an Age of Anxiety

I asked parents and faculty/staff to read as a back-to-school assignment the article "Elementary School Leadership in an Age of Anxiety.” Click to read article

If you did not have the time to read the article, below is a summary of its salient points:

In recent years elementary and middle schools have felt increasing pressure to make their programs, including preschool, more "rigorous and academic" in hopes of better preparing students for a more competitive world.

However, numerous research studies show that increasing academic demands, particularly on young children, does not enhance—and often has a deleterious effect—on students.

To the author, this desire for more academics is “fueled more by adult anxiety rather than by an understanding of children and their healthy development.”

And that’s the challenge in elementary school education today: “…engaging parents in an ongoing conversation about the learning process that will help their children develop into successful, engaging, and resilient learners.”

Many (Wendy Mogel, Madeline Levine to name two) have noted that kids today are more stressed. “As childhood today is seen more often as a time to amass as many skills as possible as quickly as possible, children suffer from fear of failure and from fatigue.”

The truth is that kids need more unpressured time to develop properly. Too much stress actually impedes performance and even brain development. At Orchard we refer to this as finding the magic blend of care and challenge. Overly-stressed kids often work hard at first, but ultimately lose cognitive functioning and typically see a decrease in their motivation to learn.

Neuropsychologist, William Stixrud, advocates for “flow experience” in classrooms where kids are highly focused and working hard, but also “experiencing high enjoyment coupled with low stress.”

Childhood cannot be viewed as merely a race toward successful adulthood. “By blocking out opportunities for children to develop spontaneous interests, and by too narrowly defining the benchmarks of success, we deny children both the joy and the growth that comes from learning new skills and developing new capacities.”

So, how can teachers and parents work together to create an optimal learning environment at school and at home for children?

Keep in mind the importance of engaging the child and fostering a sense of enthusiasm in the classroom--provide students with opportunities to be creative through open-ended, authentic projects that require students to use higher-order thinking skills.

Emphasize not just the final product but the effort the child puts in: I’ve written before about the importance of a growth rather than fixed mindset. Developing good work habits and learning to persevere against adversity are crucial habits for kids to develop. When we talk to our children and students, we need to make sure that we acknowledge their work and effort along with the quality of the final product.

While effort is important, it can’t come in the form of too much stress. This extends to homework, one of the most controversial topics in any school. Orchard's position has always been that kids still need time to be kids. Unstructured time is essential. Homework can help a child develop effective study skills, including increased personal responsibility, review important skills and concepts, and help a student demonstrate understanding; yet too much can lead to stress at home and in a child’s life. At Orchard try to keep the 10 minutes per grade rule, e.g., 4^th grade 40 minutes, including reading.

Finally, it's vital for the adults in children's lives--parents and teachers--to work together to help make pre--, elementary, and middle school education a strong foundation--in terms of knowledge, understanding, and attitude.

I invite you to share your thoughts on the article and its congruence to Orchard's approach to education.

Click to comment link below to add a comment.

Enjoy Summer Break!

As we all get ready for the joys and fun of summer break, below are some inspirational and provocative quotes about teaching and teachers.

Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or in the same way (George Evans)

Do not train children to learn by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each. (Plato)

As a teacher I feel I have a moral obligation to help the children in my classroom grow toward becoming full human being and to feel successful. Teaching cognitive skills is not enough. (Jean Medick)

It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts...it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves. (Robert Hutchins)

They may forget what you said but they will never forget how you made them feel. (Anonymous)

I hear, and I forget. I see, and I remember. I do, and I understand. (Chinese Proverb)

It is possible to store the mind with a million facts and still be entirely uneducated. (Alec Bourne)

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths theater. (Gail Goodwin)

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous. (Confucius)

It's not what is poured into a student, but what is planted. (Linda Conway)

Instruction begins when you, the teacher, learn from the learner; put yourself in his place so that you may understand...what he learns and the way he understands it. (Soren Kierkegaard)

A word as the education of the heart. We don't believe that this can be imparted through books; it can only be imparted through the loving touch of the teacher. (Cesar Chavez)

The highest result of education is tolerance. (Helen Keller)

You can teach a student a lesson for a day, but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives. (Clay Bedford)

Nothing is ever achieved without enthusiasm. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

The important thing is to never stop questioning. (Albert Einstein)

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonsrates. The great teacher inspires. (William Arthur Ward)

How is it that little children are so intelligent and men so stupid? It must be education that does it. (Alexander Dumas)

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. (Abraham Maslow)

And my favorite--even though it's questionable that W. B. Yeats wrote or said it:

Education is not the filling of a bucket, but the lighting of a fire.

Enjoy the summer!