Earlier this week I attended the Learning Forward Conference with my fellow LASD principals and district staff. It was a great opportunity to immerse myself in learning and to hear from experts in the field of education. One such speaker was Michael Ungar, a Canadian researcher on social and psychological resilience. During his keynote he reminded us that resilience is a quality that is more facilitated than innate. It is a characteristic that develops as opposed to one that either simply exists or doesn’t. However, if we bubble wrap our children to protect them from any and all struggle, they may not have ample opportunities to cultivate this aptitude.
On our playground, I was recently asked to elaborate on the rules. In that exact moment (I had been dancing and partaking in karaoke with our students), I couldn’t come up with an extensive list. Instead, I said it boiled down to making great choices and ultimately ensuring safety. I asked the questioner to be more specific so that I could supply a better response. “Are children allowed to play with sticks?” Without hesitation I said, “YES…as long as students don’t pull off a branch from the tree to get it or poke their peers with it.” While Unger spoke, I imagined a sterile playground where children were encased in the bubble wrap of intricate and exhaustive rules that would stifle their imaginations and suffocate their zeal. When I walk Almond’s blacktop and see children negotiating (sometimes very passionately) the kickball rules, or discussing (often vehemently) whether the ball was in the four square line or not, or digging holes and getting their hands filthy with dirt...I see children building resilience. Students experience these opportunities both outside and inside the classroom.
Another topic that came to mind were the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) which have elicited much debate across the nation and in our very own Almond rotunda. CCSS math contains standards for both mathematical practice and content. The content standards are specific to each grade level and include such topics as place value, properties of operations, etc… The practice standards describe varieties of expertise that mathematics educators at all levels should seek to develop in their students: 1) Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. 2) Reason abstractly and quantitatively. 3) Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. 4) Model with mathematics. 5) Use appropriate tools strategically. 6) Attend to precision. 7) Look for and make use of structure. 8) Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.
As I sit and help my 2nd and 4th grade daughters complete their homework each week, I’ve pondered what I’m certain many of you have asked yourselves, “Why aren’t we just teaching kids the way we learned math? Learn the efficient algorithm to solve the problem or memorize the formula and apply it.” The standards are designed in such a way that they will learn the algorithms and will utilize them with automaticity after having developed a solid foundation for the mathematical concepts themselves. “Math is a language of logic. It is a disciplined, organized way of thinking.1” To become fluent in this language, our students need to understand what exists behind the numbers and symbols.
I’ve heard it said that one of the most challenging aspects of the CCSS math is that children now have to explain their thinking and their strategies. The reason this is hard right now is because students are not accustomed to doing this. Math used to be about the end result, not the path to get there. Now the process matters just as much or even more than the product. Should we stop because it’s hard? I, for one, don’t think so. In fact, I often remind students that growing our brains IS hard! Sometimes our brains might even hurt from thinking so hard, but that’s how we exercise our noggins. To strengthen our biceps, we lift weights. After a tough workout, our muscles are often sore. That pain eventually subsides and our muscles grow and we can lift heavier and heavier weights. Our muscles are resilient. Let’s afford our brain these same opportunities.
As all of us grown ups know, life is full of challenges. We’re going to have to climb some very high mountains, cross some treacherous rivers, navigate some dangerous valleys, and even survive the worst storm in 5 years :-). Yes, we will need to access our intellect during these journeys. However, what will keep us going towards that finish line, is our determination to persevere! Without that, we will go nowhere.
1 Ripley, Amanda. the smartest kids in the world and how they got that way. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013. Print.