What a Learning Tool it could be

You can send any wounded soldier a Christmas card via the Walter Reed hospital. If there are five Saturdays, (or Fridays or Thursdays or whatever), in a month, the Chinese call this “Money Bags” and it means you will receive money soon. If you share a picture of Jesus on Facebook, he will know AND he will also know if you don’t.

Sound familiar?

We all know these things. We know them because they are told to us, retold, recirculated and shared again and again. Other than the fact that they are all one hundred percent NOT TRUE, these examples represent just a tiny fraction of the “knowledge” that is delivered to every first world adult who uses social media each day.

Now imagine if people weren't so… misguided. Imagine if they stopped to think for a minute. Would they realize that Bill Gates isn't going to contribute ten cents for every time they share his photo? Would they understand that Facebook doesn't care at all if you place a notice in your status claiming copyright jurisdiction over the content you willingly shared over the internet? Would anyone stop to check… anything?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Now imagine what would happen if social media was used in a way that the creators of the internet had envisioned. Not the ArpaNet Cold War designers, but, those wide-eyed hippie types who envisioned an open, democratic platform for the exchange of ideas and information. Imagine if you could trust the information on social networks! Just imagine a world where everything you read was true and not created by some partisan hack with an axe to grind. We could actually use a tool like that. We could actually use it to share real information, real ideas and real news, without having to compete with bald-faced lies. It could be a fundamental shift in learning!

But, first, people have to be a&$holes. People so want others to believe in their side, their take on things and their own world view that they will actually lie to make it happen, (I’m looking at you, major news outlets). Then others, so willing to have someone say out loud what they hold in their hearts, agree, like, share and pass the, ahem… misinformation along to their “friends”.

Religion and science are not equal. Truth and lies are not equally important except in an academic discovery kind of way. And yeah, puppies barking at their own reflections are cute, but this doesn't move us along as a society. Imagine if we could actually use social media to teach and to learn. Imagine what kind of power we would have over our elected officials. They wouldn't dare lie to us. Imagine how smart our kids could be. Imagine how smart our great-great grandchildren could be.

When you read something on social media, just stop for, like, two seconds, and think, is this even possible? Is it logical? Are there other facts supporting or disputing this claim? Or is this just another steaming pile of nonsense being promoted to shore up one side of an argument?

We can change it. We can resolve to only promote information that is actually true, (even if it is just puppies barking at mirrors). We get what we deserve. We get what we allow. Our kids, and all of the generations after them deserve better than the false hopes and knee-jerk reaction-ism we have now.

Male Teachers in Early Childhood Education

With the rising call for pre K, universal preschool and a heightened awareness of early childhood education, (ECE), as a whole, the opportunities for teachers in these fields are blossoming for those with the right qualifications.

With ECE being seen, rightly, as more than simply daycare, i.e. “real school”, qualifications matter. Degrees are necessary, extended schooling is demanded. These are people’s kids we are talking about, after all, and a teacher needs to be educated in the proper pedagogy based on the prevailing research of the day.

With degreed teachers being the benchmark and a continuing drive toward more and more education being expected in the pre K classroom, there remains a qualification from a bygone era. To be an ECE teacher, it seems, one must be female.

With the large majority of ECE teachers being female, and statistically insignificant numbers of males emerging from college with an eye toward Early Childhood Education as a career goal, it looks like, in the U.S. at least, that this is a situation that isn’t on track to change any time soon. But, with the rising number of families having an active Dad in the picture, education seems to be the last place to allow children the benefits of a positive male role model.

While there is an ongoing call for more male teachers in primary and middle school grades, preschool is such a predominantly female workplace that any male in this role is sure to see himself as a resident of the “Land of Women”, (to borrow a phrase from Theodore Kokoros. His essay regarding being male in the ECE can be found here: ).

There are many reasons for this “gender gap”. Fear of being accused of abuse looms large in our “if it’s reported, he must be guilty” culture. This presumption of guilt is contrary to the American ideal of justice for all but that holds little sway in the mosh pit of outrage that has taken the place of our societal discourse. The accusation is made on page 1. The retraction or acquittal, page 12. All it takes is a parent with fear first and foremost in their minds for a misunderstanding to quickly become a call for dismissal or criminal charges.

That’s not to say that if there is a suspicion a parent shouldn't act on it. They certainly should. It simply means that we have been conditioned to believe that a male must have an ulterior motive for being in such a field of employ.

That may be because of the idea that “kids are women’s work”.

The underlying sentiment is that any male who would seek out such a traditionally low-paying position must be deficient in his “maleness”, and thereby, at least within the minds of some more unenlightened folks, less of a “man”. Some might even question the male ECE teacher’s ability to become a “real” teacher, and thereby reinforce the idea that dealing with kids on the preschool level is woman’s work. While this idea couldn't be farther from the truth, it remains, and pervades, our society.

All of this, though, leaves out an important point; kids need good role models. Anecdotal evidence suggests “…men and women on average seem to interact with children differently, and children respond to them differently. This means men might be able to provide children with important experiences that they are currently missing out on.” (In The Land Of Women: Being a Man in Early Childhood Education).

Numbers of families led by a single mother vary widely across racial and ethnic groups . Among families where the father is the sole parent, however, racial and ethnic divides are much, much less. While these families represent a drastically smaller portion of American families as a whole, there are still more than seven million kids living in single father households. (Male Teachers as Role Models)

The American family has changed and will continue to do so. These changes are us. The classroom, on all levels, needs to reflect this.

If men are coming back into their own families as not only breadwinners, but, engaged and attentive parents, why don’t we see them as a positive addition to the ECE classroom? We must, if our children are to reap the benefits of seeing how adults are supposed to act, and interact, with children and each other throughout their day. Our children need to be allowed to fear less and learn more. Some of that they can get from a gender-balanced school environment. 

The rest they need to learn from us.

Combating the Word Gap

The “word gap” represents a disparity between kids from upper economic level families and kids from lower economic level families. Specifically, it means that kids from lower level families hear fewer words than their counterparts in higher income families. As it turns out, thousands fewer. This word gap means those kids who hear fewer words understand less of their language. This can manifest itself in many ways, with more frustration in school, lower grades and lower levels of success among them.

A recent Stanford University study, (check out a video with the researchers talking about
their findings here ), noted differences in recognition speed and other factors among toddlers, echoing
“the landmark Hart and Risley study in 1995” that “ identified “remarkable differences” in the early vocabulary experiences of young children.”
(This quote taken from the NAEYC website story found here. This is a great article with lots of ideas and resources for parents and teachers concerned with this issue. It provides ways to address the issue and ideas for making a difference.)

Here’s one more. If you have kids, (any age), try this. Grab a dictionary and open to the first page. Take the first word, (if that is too common, find one that isn’t), and read the entry to your kids. Let them roll their eyes. Read the definition. When they ask what you think you are doing, tell them that you want to know more about your language, and you want them to know more too.

Do it again tomorrow. And the next day. And the next. Keep going, each day. One word, that’s all. Don’t be surprised when your kids start remembering the definitions. Don’t be surprised, but be encouraging, when they reach for the dictionary instead of asking you what this or that word means when they are reading for homework. Don’t be surprised when they start looking up words of their own to share.

Will this fix the problem? No. The word gap needs to be addressed in both the home and the school system, as well as a much larger approach designed by people way smarter than me. But, what it can do is create a family standard. A standard that shows kids and the adults in the house that knowledge of the language is important. Pronunciation counts. Understanding is key. It sets a standard that shows that it is not enough to “get by”. To excel is the goal. 

Sometimes it's a small approach that can make a big difference.

Talk to Your Kids

Talking to your kids like they are people and not Tarzan’s pets makes a huge difference. If you start out with “Is Baby hungry?” or the like, you are doing your kids a serious disservice. Speak to them like people, they can handle it. You don’t have to recite Shakespeare, but the baby talk thing has got to go.

In 2002, my division was downsized. I was an art director for a major multinational corporation and I was given a choice; either work in a place that was 90 minutes away from my home by train, or jump ship and take care of my kids.

My wife and I were lucky. Her salary was enough to let us get by. I didn’t want to work 15 hour days just to pay for child care and have someone else raise my children, so I stayed home, became Mr. Mom, and never looked back. I mention all of this to illustrate that I am not a teaching professional. Just a dad, and a proud one, at that.

I did it all… diapers, feeding and reading, reading, reading. I read The Hobbit to my wife’s belly when she was pregnant with our son. I read it again when she was carrying our daughter. When I was downsized, my kids were not yet old enough for pre school. My top priority became to make sure my kids understood their native language.  I knew that if I demystified the language for them, they would become kids who loved to read, they would be unafraid of writing, and they would be better prepared to stand and deliver in school.

My wife and I read to them both each night. When they were old enough, we read as a family. We’ve been through all of the Harry Potter books, all of the Narnia books, Septimus Heap, Artemus Fowl, you name it. Everything that they chose and some that I picked for them.

Some nights I didn’t feel like reading. Some nights I was too tired, or too cranky, or just not in the mood. Too bad. I did it anyway.

 Why?

So they could hear me speak to them.

Studies show that one of the main differences between success and failure in young children comes down to how familiar they are with their language. (Check out this article from the Santa Fe New Mexican ).

 I don’t mean just sight words, but how well they understand what is being said to them and what they are reading. Tone and inflection can be just as important as knowing the “i before e, except after c “ rule. This affects not only how well they write, but how they perceive authority and how well they respond to directions.

I didn’t know any of this back in 2002. I just knew that I loved to read as a kid, and I felt that if there was one thing that had turned me into a lifelong lover of learning, that was it. So, along with the obvious, (to me), benefits of reading, it turns out that the research supports the idea.  At least indirectly.

When I would read to my kids, they would inevitably ask questions. My answers grew as they grew. Soon, we were having full-blown conversations about the relative merits of why anyone would want to eat green eggs and ham in the rain, or on a train, or… well, you get the idea. 

The reading was great for bonding and exploring literature great and small, but it was the conversations that reading encouraged that really got them involved.  Through it all, my wife and I always made sure to speak to them, and listen to them, as if what they said and how they said it mattered.

Now that they are a bit older, they remain unafraid of words. That may sound strange, but many kids “hate English” as a subject or fall behind in a class that requires them to take notes on a lecture. Standardized tests are not exactly written for the kid who has only experienced two or three thousand words in their daily lives. The disparity starts to show up around the third grade when those tests start dividing kids into tiers based on performance. Being confident enough to pull meaning from context or figure out a root word can make all the difference.

Talking to kids doesn’t make them smarter. It can, however, help them do better in school, where the focus is more on testing and understanding what has been taught. This, in turn, raises their grades, helps them reach their goals of college or career and helps them to better prepare for a life full of learning.

Which really begins once they are out of school, anyway.