1. What is the negative impact of a skills-centric
education?
2. How important is culture in a school?
3. What motivates action and accountability in students?
1. What Is The Negative Impact Of A Skills-Centric Education?
What do we mean by a skills-centric education? This means an educational environment where
95 to 100 percent of the resources go toward increasing student achievement in
the core areas, or providing them with other “Life Skills” training (trade
classes, professional speaking, or the all famous “how to shake a hand
properly”….), as opposed to a balance of mindset and skillset training. Character education programs and social and
emotional development are beginning to make headway, but not enough. Too often I go into a school and the response
is we love it and our students really need it, we just don’t have time because
we have to focus on the skills (or the core subjects).
Unfortunately it’s the natural way to respond when we see
deficiency in those areas. We tend to
think if we just up the dosage then we will get a different response. And that is part of the answer, but the
reason it doesn’t work is the body has built an immunity to it.
Every time I get that response I walk out of the room
thinking, “We went from number one in math to somewhere after 20. Do you really believe all of a sudden that
many students could no longer learn math?
Or that many teachers became ineffective at teaching math?” The answer is no. Brutally honestly speaking, they just don’t
care. It’s that simple.
Students today are logical, (in their own way). If you don’t make a connection between the
skills and their life they simply don’t care, and therefore won’t put forth the
effort required to show efficiency in those skills. The old “this is where you
use this” chart doesn’t work for them anymore.
There is very little external motivation of a negative parental response
to a lack of achievement. You have to
develop the character, so that they care.
What is the danger when we don’t? It exacerbates the problem. Primarily because of the frustration and
feelings of failure that come with continually missing the mark, or falling
short.
For today’s students we have to balance academic achievement
and skill set development with character education and mindset development. Otherwise we continue to up the dosage to the
point we eventually endanger the patient.
How Important Is Culture In School?
Culture can be defined as the sum of attitudes, customs, and
beliefs that distinguishes one group of people from another. Culture is transmitted through language,
material objects, rituals, institutions, and art.
Attitudes, Customs, and Beliefs.
If I were to ask the students about the culture of the
school what would they say?
If I were to ask them what are your teachers’ attitudes
about success and failure, overcoming obstacles, or managing relationships,
what would they say?
If I were to ask them about school customs and rituals,
would they have a response?
If I were to ask them about common beliefs, for example “We
believe everyone deserves a second chance.” How many of them would know
that?
A school is a community, and every community WILL have a
culture. If it is not clear what the
culture of your school is, the students will adopt their own culture, which
usually doesn’t support achievement.
So how do you start to create this culture?
Language, material objects, rituals, institutions, and arts.
Create a common lexicon that’s easy to remember and that
supports and promotes the schools attitudes, customs, and beliefs.
Use common material objects often, mascots for example, but
associate values with the materials objects which reinforce the culture.
Develop rituals and in-school institutions (clubs) which use
the common language and all centered on supporting the schools culture.
Don’t just decorate your boards, develop an art style that’s
unique to your school.
Lastly make sure students are a part of implementing the
culture. Use some of their jargon when
creating your common lexicon. Let them
develop art pieces in your school’s style and create clubs that recognize
aspects of the schools culture.
Culture is ultimately what informs decision making and
action. A negative culture, or even
worse, no culture at all, results in those types of actions.
What Motivates Action And Accountability In Students?
A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which
is higher than himself, and a mean man by one lower than himself. The first produces aspiration, the second
ambition, which is how the vulgar man aspires. (Marcus Aurellius).
Ambition is not enough.
Ambition is aspiration with no substance. It’s the student who just wants the 4.0 just
because, or the adult who works and works to become CEO and still feels
unfulfilled.
We have to connect student goals and achievement to
something they see as higher than themselves.
Something that they can add value too.
This is the only way to start to actually affect change and get students
to start to make action. As long as we
preach ambition with no “WHY”, we will not see change in students.
Find out more lessons from the book “37 letters, on our Meet
The Author call this Sunday. Register
for the event here.
You can order your copy of 37 Letters by clicking here.
