Doing Too Much…

Do you ever feel that as teachers and parents we do too much for kids?

Think about learned dependency…

With the best of intentions, we sometimes for our kids what our kids could do on their own.

Learned dependency is the unfortunate result. I was thinking  about that as I was walking the beach every morning while I was on vacation in Florida. Every day I would see this bird and I am quite sure that it was the very same bird hanging around a local “fisherperson.” The fisherperson  changed daily but the bird remained the same. The routine never changed. Once the fishing pole began to jiggle, the bird would flap her wings and the fisherperson would throw her a fish.  One for you and one for me! The bird had learned that there was no reason for her to fish for herself. She was a happy camper! She was trained to be dependent on that fisherperson. Do you know a few kids who may have something in common with that bird. We need to be careful not to do too much…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8limRtHZPs

photo credit: cletch

School Tests: Help or Hurting Our Students?

photo credit: JaeYong, BAE

According to a recent study published by the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the test scores of 17 year old’s have not increased since the 1970’s

The bad news: the scores for 17-year-olds are unchanged in the same periods. Those were the findings, released on Tuesday, of the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a federal test considered to be the best measure of long-term trends in math and reading abilities. Among the other findings: black and Hispanic students at all levels scored much higher than they did three decades ago, but most of the gains were made in the 1970s and 1980s, and have stagnated in recent years.