For example, are children's lives over scheduled? My opinion is, generally, yes. It's not that kids lives shouldn't have a structure and a schedule. In fact, they should! But that the activities scheduled should be more child-led and driven. Children often love to please and therefore follow adult direction, but when we always direct kids what, how and why to do things, these kids never discover life for themselves. Kids need to learn their abilities, boundaries, and likes and dislikes for themselves. It is understandable to see so many lost college students today. They finally have the freedom to discover for them selves safe boundaries, but have no practice from their childhood with smaller consequences. We need to give kids more freedom sooner and some risk that they can handle. This can be addressed by family members, community members, and also schools. Schools, however, need the freedom to focus on the whole child's learning and not just reading and math test scores. Check out this video to hear about it from Education Professor Dr. Pedro Noguera:The second film is, of course, Waiting for "Superman". Oprah has made it popular and Bill Gates has put money into promoting it. Waiting for "Superman" is a great documentary film. The story is well driven and it made me want to keep watching. While watching I felt sad for the children and families who were looking for a better life through education, sad for the many issues that our education system has, and amuse/angry from some of the horrible metaphors about education--teaching is about filling an empty brain with 'knowledge'!? The film has driven me to some others responses. Steven G. Brant responds by sharing fault in the type of solution thinking the film uses to address education. Diane Ravitch's The Myth of Charter Schools allowed me to finally understand a fuller perspective of the charter school system. Superintendents Michelle Rhee (former), Joel Klein and more shared a manifesto on how to fix our schools. Leading Diane Ravitch, a high school teacher, and Richard Rothstein to respond.
