After posting about Austin’s Butterfly, I entered into a discussion with a Twitter-friend:
If you look, you’ll notice my tweet about a ‘slow-education’ was favorited:
After following Joe, I checked out the website. Similar to the concept of ‘slow food’ the principles of a slow education are:
- Promoting deep learning in the context of a broad curriculum that recognises the talents of all students.
- Believing that the quality of the educational engagement between teacher and learner is more important than judging student ability by standardised tests.
- Supporting investment in education and in teaching as a profession as the essential moral foundation of society.
Further investigation led me to this video which is so cool and such a good reminder as to why we need to trust kids more, allow them more agency and freedom, and be prepared to let them take the lead in their own education.
I love the PYP Exhibition for this reason. I am wondering though, if even this is something that we are sullying with our obsessive need to
1. be in control
2. checklist and rubric everything
3. keep learning on a tight, fixed schedule
What if…
- ‘exhibition’ was a year round process
- all units were designed with big ideas that allowed for individual inquiries
- we created a space for kids to learn at their own pace
Imagine that school….
sonya terborg 