Intelligence
As a younger person I saw myself as being of average intelligence, well-educated, traveled – definitely not “retarded.” Years of actual teaching experience, however, taught me otherwise
What I possessed as a young man was a lifelong set of experiences that virtually guaranteed my success in school and also caused me to see myself as one of the bright ones. However, had you put me alone in the wilderness I would have proved to be utterly stupid in the simplest skills of survival.
What all children possess or lack is not intelligence – it’s experience. Kids (and adults as well) either have a set of experiences before entering school capable of insuring success there, or they don’t. Based upon their own past experiences and their maturity they are either “ready” for school or not.
As my teaching career drew to a close, I realized I was treating kids (and their parents!) differently than I did as a beginning teacher. Early on I perceived my job as one of diagnostician. “Here’s where your child needs to improve, and here’s what we need to do to insure improvement.”
Many years later I saw myself as an encourager. “Here is where your child’s gifts lie, and here are all the great things they’re doing already.” Educators pay lip service to the importance of helping each child to reach his full potential. What we really want is for each child to test as high as possible in every area possible. Consequently we become partners in undermining the self-esteem of every child since no child is gifted in every area of concern in our schools. At some point they fail to measure up, or so we imply by our obsession with test scores.
Over the years it becomes clear to most teachers and parents that a child’s abilities and inabilities are set early. Many believe that they are determined at conception & are locked into our DNA. If this is true, then some kids were never intended to be “readers” or “mathematicians” or “musicians” or “athletes.”
Most people are clear about music skills being inherited & therefore unobtainable to those not so gifted. But reading is another area in school in which kids either have the skill or not.
What I possessed as a young man was a lifelong set of experiences that virtually guaranteed my success in school and also caused me to see myself as one of the bright ones. However, had you put me alone in the wilderness I would have proved to be utterly stupid in the simplest skills of survival.
What all children possess or lack is not intelligence – it’s experience. Kids (and adults as well) either have a set of experiences before entering school capable of insuring success there, or they don’t. Based upon their own past experiences and their maturity they are either “ready” for school or not.
As my teaching career drew to a close, I realized I was treating kids (and their parents!) differently than I did as a beginning teacher. Early on I perceived my job as one of diagnostician. “Here’s where your child needs to improve, and here’s what we need to do to insure improvement.”
Many years later I saw myself as an encourager. “Here is where your child’s gifts lie, and here are all the great things they’re doing already.” Educators pay lip service to the importance of helping each child to reach his full potential. What we really want is for each child to test as high as possible in every area possible. Consequently we become partners in undermining the self-esteem of every child since no child is gifted in every area of concern in our schools. At some point they fail to measure up, or so we imply by our obsession with test scores.
Over the years it becomes clear to most teachers and parents that a child’s abilities and inabilities are set early. Many believe that they are determined at conception & are locked into our DNA. If this is true, then some kids were never intended to be “readers” or “mathematicians” or “musicians” or “athletes.”
Most people are clear about music skills being inherited & therefore unobtainable to those not so gifted. But reading is another area in school in which kids either have the skill or not.
posted by Old Timer at 3:01 PM
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