Stirrings

A young teacher approached me today.  She sees the shallowness of the education she is permitted to offer her kids.  She wants more.  She wants to start an Alternative Ed. class around lobstering, deliberately centering a student's education on the core of Rockland's economy.  She wants the kids, as part of the class, to actually go out and haul every day.  Math in running a small business, bait, gear, profit and loss.  English in journals.  Social Studies in the history of the area, of lobstering, of the hundreds of ways various cultures cook lobster.  Science in bottom grabs, feeding habits, interesting study and original research.

I am encouraged because I'm feeling the stirrings all around me of experiential education.  There is a tinder box forming all around me.  All we need is a match.

Gratificaiton

One of the crew at the boatyard inspired me today.  He said he wasn't keen on owning his own boat.  What excited him was having a lovely luxury yacht come in.  He would work on it, scrape, grind, prime, glass, paint.  When she leaves she is a work of art, a tiny piece of perfection.  The work of his hand.  The satisfaction on his face told it all.

Is it even possible to give our kids that satisfaction in their education?  I mean, really, how much soul stirring gratification can there be in a multiple choice test?

Let's Get Physical

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We are not alone.

More Mistakes

Today’s conversation went something like this…

“I can’t cox.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve never done it before.”

“So?”

“So, I’ll fail.”

“Had anyone else ever coxed before their first time here?”

“No.”

“So, why can’t you do it?”
“Because I can’t.”

All this while we were throwing our dock lines off and our reluctant cox took her place at the helm.  She wasn’t five minutes out, using the tiller for the first time, before she asked, ever so shyly “Can I do the commands too?”

She was loud, she was sure, she made mistakes, and she recovered from them.  She maneuvered the gig very well against a strong northeast wind.

The crew agreed that a fair “punishment” for “lying” to us that she was going to fail should be dipping her hand in the cold water.

Why are these kids so sure that making a mistake is the same as failing?  What have we as a society taught them, and how do we un-teach it?

Mistakes

I’m making dozens of mistakes as I learn to finish a fiberglass boat.  I attached the keel today.  Do-overs are frustrating, but this too is experiential education.  I am learning every time I touch this project.  Occasionally, if I’m lucky, someone more skilled and experienced than me comes along to advise or encourage me.  Every day I walk away from this project tired and hugely empowered.

Are we doing our kids a dis-service shielding them from “failing”?  Maybe, if we can give them opportunities to make mistakes we can show them how to profit from those mistakes.

My keel isn’t perfect, but it will still help the boat go straight.  The next one will be better.  Tomorrow, I’m going to make different mistakes, and learn from them.

A Single Skill

I notice often that certain kids will choose to sit the number one seat, where the oars are lashed.  They have taken on the oars as their special field of competence.  They proudly repeat those magic moments when they can lash the oars.  They rarely get it right the first time, but they get some part of it right and so they are anxious to try again.  They learn to pass the oars out according to number and to wait til each oar is tossed before going on to the next one.

This isn’t a highly skilled job.  Really, how hard can lashing oars actually be?  But for young adolescents finding their way in the world it is a moment of safety.  They can be useful, they will be praised, they will feel competent and important for that one moment.  It doesn’t take much to encourage a kid.  They just need to hold on to something they can believe in themselves for.  So, they pull number one and they are happy.

Only a little

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing

because he could do only a little.”  -Edmund Burke