Confidence Lost
I had an interesting day, yesterday (Monday), which was preceded by a wonderful weekend, spent in the North Carolina Smoky Mountains. Brenda and I drove up to Cullowhee, home of Western Carolina University — our Alma mater. We were invited by folks at the Alumni Association to watch the WCU Catamounts “whoop up” on the App State Mountaineers. Facing an undefeated team from Boone, the Cats did a respectable job, scoring two touchdowns, and holding ASU to only 37 points. The highlight was, of course, the nationally recognized and award winning WCU Marching Band who filled the field, performing both a half time show and a second, after the game, show, facing the visitor’s stand, which remained filled until their show was over.
Brenda and I spent the night in Asheville, and then most of Sunday driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway (photos here).
Yesterday (Monday), we had breakfast with faculty and administration of the School of Education and Allied Professions, followed by a presentation I was asked to give to faculty and a bunch of education students. It was the first time that Brenda saw me speak to an audience (another story) and she commented later how some of the professors seemed to be watching the students and jotting down notes based on the youngsters’ responses.
After the talk, I met with a smaller group of faculty and administration for lots of questions and exchanges — and little of that was new. What was different was the perspective. They wanted to know, “How can we affect change?” This was a compact and concentrated congregation of leadership that was assuming responsibility for moving schools forward. I work with education leaders almost every week. But they go back to their own institutions. These folks will continue the conversation.
I can’t put my finger on any one statement or situation, but what came to mind several times is how much we, in K12 education, have lost our confidence. I remember, when I was teaching 25 to 35 years ago, a sense of educational entrepreneurship. I couldn’t have expressed it that way then, but I was free and felt encouraged to innovate in order to motivate learning — rather than applying teaching.
One of the professors said that when his daughter came home from her first day in sixth grade, she said that the principal had told the students that they will not be having fun. They will be learning. That is not innovation. It is blunt force education.
Not only have we lost our confidence, but our students are losing their childhood.
About the Author: 35 year educator, programmer, author, and public speaker. Read more from this authorTags: education > highered > learning > teaching > warlick > wcu
Comments
8 Responses to “Confidence Lost”
Leave a Reply
About
Most Commented
- Are they Students or are they Learners? (104)
- Why Are We Asking These Questions (77)
- Let’s just put them all in jail 24/7 (74)
- If “It’s not about the technology,” then What is it about? (65)
- First Year Teachers (58)
- Teachers & Technology — a rant! (58)
- Ethics & Information (57)
- Obama’s Mistake… (57)
- Reactions to Podcast 40: Redefining & Telling the New Story (55)
- Rip & Mix (52)
- What is the Purpose of Education? (52)
- Who Needs ‘Em? (48)
- Technology & Teaching (44)
- Is Pedagogy Getting in the Way of Learning? (41)
- The Next Killer App? (40)
Recent Comments
- Nara
on What is the Purpose of Education? - Tracy Rosen
on What Trumps Lazy? - David Warlick
on What Trumps Lazy? - Tooth Whitening
on Just Got Tagged - Tracy Rosen on What Trumps Lazy?
Tag Cloud
WP Cumulus Flash tag cloud by Roy Tanck requires Flash Player 9 or better.
Blogroll
- A Techno Teacher’s Second Life
- Blue Skunk Blog
- Connectivism Blog
- Cool Cat Teacher Blog
- David Jakes – The Strength of Weak Ties
- Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog
- Ewan McIntosh
- Josie Fraser – SocialTech
- Looksee Fishy Fish
- Moving at the Speed of Creativity
- Never Ending Search
- Practical Theory
- ProgrammableWeb
- Sharon Peters
- Sifry’s Alerts
- stager-to-go
- Terry Freedman
- The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins
- The Story of My “Second Life”
- The Strength of Weak Ties
- Weblogg-ed
Archives
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- January 2005
- November 2004
RSS Subscribe
Search
Admin
Books Written
| |
|
Cultivating Your Personal Learning Network |
|
 |
Redefining Literacy 2.0 (2008) |
 |
Classroom Blogging (2007) • Lulu • Amazon |
 |
Raw Materials for the Mind (2005) |
Flickr Photos
Tagged with travel
www.flickr.com
|
October 27th, 2010 @ 12:16 pm
I’m finishing a masters in ed tech. Aside from myself saying the word “fun” in class myself, I have not encountered the concept as important or noteworthy from any reference material or syllabus. And we wonder why students are glad to be done with the educational process when they graduate, and look upon learning as odious.
[Reply]
October 31st, 2010 @ 12:48 pm
David,
Do you think that educators have lost confidence because of the toxic attitudes and beliefs about public education that have permeated our culture in the last few decades? Every time I turn around, someone or some entity is telling me that I am incompetent. Or could it be that the constant political pressure to reform schools, without adequate funding, support, or consistent leadership has created educators who don’t know what to do, or who are afraid to be innovative because they need to keep their jobs? When you feel constantly under attack from all sides, how can you possibly believe in yourself??
[Reply]
David Warlick
reply on November 2nd, 2010:
Stacey, I think that it is partly all-the-above. I’ve written about our loss of confidence before, and mostly from the perspective of the political gain that comes from saying that schools/teachers are not doing their jobs. But I would add that education, as an institution has conservativism built into it — and this is not bad. Part of the job of education is to preserve the values that are important.
But things are changing, and we are finding it difficult, as an institution and as a profession, to adapt to the needs of a new generation of learners, new information environment, and unpredictable future. For the many who recognize this, but are constrained by a momentum that is nearly irresistible — that’s got to do bad things to your confidence.
[Reply]
November 2nd, 2010 @ 2:24 am
Maria…
Google…
November 3rd, 2010 @ 10:17 am
This breaks my heart. It’s also the reason that I was considering leaving the field and why I feel compelled to stay. I don’t have any ideas for solutions outside of my own classroom, though.
[Reply]
November 4th, 2010 @ 7:42 pm
How do you feel educators have lost confidence? Can you give some examples?
The first comment above saddens me (the one from the person pursuing a masters in ed tech). I strive to make learning and my class fun everyday. Some days are more boring than others, but “fun” should definitely be incorporated regularly in the classroom.
[Reply]
November 16th, 2010 @ 2:43 pm
[...] sad contrast was shared by David Warlick in his October 27 post Confidence Lost. He wrote of conversations with faculty and administration of a local university who were wondering [...]
February 17th, 2011 @ 10:22 am
[...] nor author of any reference or text mentioned it (save one edublogger, David Warlick, in at least one blog post). I just thought it sad that a raft of soon-to-be teachers were learning plenty about content [...]