How a Student Can Teach and a Teacher Can Learn
Dale Lidicker
Kristina rolled into my life in 2006. Literally. You see, she has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair. She came to me as a sixth grader. I was her special education teacher. She would eventually become my teacher.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" I nonchalantly asked one day as I wheeled her to the elevator. She was then in eighth grade. Kristina wryly replied that she was not going to be a professional soccer player. She wanted to own a publishing company and write.
"That's something that I can do," she asserted.
I mentioned to her that I also had a deep interest in writing. I told her that I had written several short stories and poems. I lamented that I had never sent them out to editors out of fear of rejection.
"Maybe you should get over it," Kristina sternly replied. In the relative silence of the elevator, her voice boomed within my very being.
It was clear to me that I needed to replace my wishbone with a backbone.
And so began our journey in collaborative writing. Our venture of writing a book together afforded justification of Kristina spending a second year in eighth grade. Her parents were the ones that requested that she stay a second year. We had a rather large meeting to convince the powers that be, mostly administrators, that this would be in Kristina's best interest.
Kristina may be confined to her wheelchair, sometimes she says she is trapped by it, but her vision encompasses the universe. She fearlessly participates in adaptive sports. Her dad, Bob, takes her swimming to relax her muscles. She raises money for charity by taking plunges into freezing lakes on New Year's Day. She attends a variety of community events and participates in fundraising. It is quite apparent that Kristina is a tireless advocate for those with disabilities.
While writing our book, I always thought and held out the hope that her voice would eventually be heard above the educational din if we but listened.
It's awful noisy in our educational system these days. Students are seen but rarely heard. Teachers are being lambasted and scapegoated by everyone and their uncle. The loudest voice in the room is the educational reformers.
What is the reform movement? Simple. It is the corporate takeover of our public educational system. It is a manufactured crisis perpetrated by those who want to make money off the backs of children.
Educational reformers are concerned about testing, choice, teacher evaluations, merit pay, Common Core State Standards, and dismantling our public education system. According to Diane Ravitch, an educational historian, our nation is in the throes of the Walmartization of our PUBLIC school system.
Kristina and I came to the conclusion that what we were doing, writing a book, was true education.
While I may have been her formal teacher, she became my teacher on many occasions. Kristina taught me the true meaning of education. Hell, she taught me the true meaning of life. To live in the moment and to never allow fear to get in the way of fully living. Full speed ahead and let fear and doubt be damned.
Ironically, we did not write this book in the hallowed halls of learning. There was no real opportunity to do so. Time was always against us.
"Why is the government making me do this?" Kristina sighed after an extended reading session on our annual high stakes test. We were on break.
"I don't know, Dear One," I meekly replied as I masked the internal fire that was burning in my gut. We spend an increasingly inordinate amount of time testing kids to death these days.
But, Kristina and I created a book. We did not rigidly adhere to formulaic methods of writing using paragraph diagrams and 5 paragraph essay templates. Schools use these to jack up test scores. Authors do not religiously use these devices. Authors do not take standardized tests. Authors write from the heart and then work incessantly on effectively revising their work so that they can capture the reader's attention and draw them into their world. I had always believed that inspiring kids to embrace writing was one of the goals of education today.
So why doesn't more of this happen in today's school? Simple. Students and teachers co-authoring books is a giant leap beyond what many schools can realistically put into practice. Teachers have to play by the rules that are set by others who have never been in a classroom.
There are great things happening between teachers and students in our traditional public education system. Giving students and teachers an environment without fear and the liberty to produce great works should be our nation’s collective goal.
Dale Lidicker
Kristina rolled into my life in 2006. Literally. You see, she has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair. She came to me as a sixth grader. I was her special education teacher. She would eventually become my teacher.
"What do you want to be when you grow up?" I nonchalantly asked one day as I wheeled her to the elevator. She was then in eighth grade. Kristina wryly replied that she was not going to be a professional soccer player. She wanted to own a publishing company and write.
"That's something that I can do," she asserted.
I mentioned to her that I also had a deep interest in writing. I told her that I had written several short stories and poems. I lamented that I had never sent them out to editors out of fear of rejection.
"Maybe you should get over it," Kristina sternly replied. In the relative silence of the elevator, her voice boomed within my very being.
It was clear to me that I needed to replace my wishbone with a backbone.
And so began our journey in collaborative writing. Our venture of writing a book together afforded justification of Kristina spending a second year in eighth grade. Her parents were the ones that requested that she stay a second year. We had a rather large meeting to convince the powers that be, mostly administrators, that this would be in Kristina's best interest.
Kristina may be confined to her wheelchair, sometimes she says she is trapped by it, but her vision encompasses the universe. She fearlessly participates in adaptive sports. Her dad, Bob, takes her swimming to relax her muscles. She raises money for charity by taking plunges into freezing lakes on New Year's Day. She attends a variety of community events and participates in fundraising. It is quite apparent that Kristina is a tireless advocate for those with disabilities.
While writing our book, I always thought and held out the hope that her voice would eventually be heard above the educational din if we but listened.
It's awful noisy in our educational system these days. Students are seen but rarely heard. Teachers are being lambasted and scapegoated by everyone and their uncle. The loudest voice in the room is the educational reformers.
What is the reform movement? Simple. It is the corporate takeover of our public educational system. It is a manufactured crisis perpetrated by those who want to make money off the backs of children.
Educational reformers are concerned about testing, choice, teacher evaluations, merit pay, Common Core State Standards, and dismantling our public education system. According to Diane Ravitch, an educational historian, our nation is in the throes of the Walmartization of our PUBLIC school system.
Kristina and I came to the conclusion that what we were doing, writing a book, was true education.
While I may have been her formal teacher, she became my teacher on many occasions. Kristina taught me the true meaning of education. Hell, she taught me the true meaning of life. To live in the moment and to never allow fear to get in the way of fully living. Full speed ahead and let fear and doubt be damned.
Ironically, we did not write this book in the hallowed halls of learning. There was no real opportunity to do so. Time was always against us.
"Why is the government making me do this?" Kristina sighed after an extended reading session on our annual high stakes test. We were on break.
"I don't know, Dear One," I meekly replied as I masked the internal fire that was burning in my gut. We spend an increasingly inordinate amount of time testing kids to death these days.
But, Kristina and I created a book. We did not rigidly adhere to formulaic methods of writing using paragraph diagrams and 5 paragraph essay templates. Schools use these to jack up test scores. Authors do not religiously use these devices. Authors do not take standardized tests. Authors write from the heart and then work incessantly on effectively revising their work so that they can capture the reader's attention and draw them into their world. I had always believed that inspiring kids to embrace writing was one of the goals of education today.
So why doesn't more of this happen in today's school? Simple. Students and teachers co-authoring books is a giant leap beyond what many schools can realistically put into practice. Teachers have to play by the rules that are set by others who have never been in a classroom.
There are great things happening between teachers and students in our traditional public education system. Giving students and teachers an environment without fear and the liberty to produce great works should be our nation’s collective goal.