At
what point do we let go and allow our children to have complete autonomy over
their educational plan? When our
children are very young, we have complete control over what we teach them. Don’t touch this, comb your hair, brush your
teeth, sit up straight. etc. As our
children grow, they migrate to areas of interest through a form of natural
selection driven by achievement and success.
As parents, we watch this and either nurture it or discourage it, usually
basing our decision on what we want our children to do or where we want them to
grow. Thus begins the age-old struggle between parent and child over what the
child wants to do versus what the parent wants them to do or believes is
right for them.
Do
we have the same struggles in education?
When do we let go and have students choose what they want to do versus
telling them this is what they have to do?
The wave of choice in education is our current narrative, but how far
will we go to empower students to truly choose their own way? In our system, students have to take a
certain grouping of courses in order to fulfill graduation requirements. There is some latitude in course selection,
but it is often quite narrow and restricted to the skills of the teachers in
the school. If the core, non-elective
courses are removed from the equation, we know that students choose courses
based on their interests, teacher reputation or parental advice and vice versa,
we also know that students choose to not take courses because it is out of their
comfort zone or wasn’t one selected by a friend.
In
high school, the number of courses that need to be taught is one of the major determining
factors in allocating teaching loads. This in turn makes the course selection process
a very hot topic for many schools. In high school, to meet the needs of
students, the schedule should be driven by student course selection. A student-centered
rather than a teacher centered schedule. Herein lies to dilemma. If the goal is
to build a student centered schedule, we need to be open to the idea that some
subject areas may decline and others grow based on student course selection. The
reality is that no school wants to see an elective curricular area decline or
diminish. The breadth of elective curricular choice is what defines a well-rounded
educational program therefore; it should not be acceptable for a student to
make a course selection choice based on comfort zone and or peer pressure. As
educators, we need to encourage our younger students to explore options outside
of their comfort zone and or peer influence so they are exposed to as many
elective curricular areas as possible. Through basic psychology, the fickle
nature of youth demands that we expose our children to as many experiences as
possible so they become informed adolescents who can make better decisions. The
basis of this belief is grounded on the mantra of “How do they know they don’t
like it if they’ve never tried it?” or the familiar dinner table dialogue of
“how do you know you don’t like it if you’ve never tried it?”
Thus
we have come full circle… Who really knows best? Do we as educators force our grade 8’s into
an elective area exploration rotation, or do we allow them to choose their
electives? If the goal is to produce socially responsible, productive members of society, it should
be our duty
to ensure our children are given a well-rounded education by exposing them to
curricular areas beyond their comfort zone and beyond the safety net of peer
pressure. Like the brussels sprouts, when your child says, “I don’t want to try it”,
what do you do?
Identify the stakeholders… Trust the process… Trust the people… Edu-Bring…
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