As I read about Jake, I thought about our paper-pencil school system. Jake was more interested in action and the three dimensional world. The REAL world. The whole goal of education should be for us to prepare kids for the real world, but we continue in the same old system. Jake did well when he was able to work at his own pace and not have to stay seated all day.
I found it so nurturing the way Jake was included in his family and allowed to work with his dad. He was allowed to make mistakes and learn from them. Action for men was "an important part of knowing" in Jake's family but also in working class values. Action led to learning. For men in the upper class and middle class, books and schooling are more valued. How can we ask children to abandon their family values and become the kinds of students who sit and write and read all day?
The action continued even in the way that Jake narrated a story. Hicks states that the way he told the NASCAR story was "evocative of his use of Sega controls." His narrator self was close to his character self, which is not school-like, when the narrator is outside the story. His kind of story and his interests and needs would not be met in the basals used in his school. Poor Jake just needed more time and more connections between his home and school life. Can't you just hear Dr. Morris getting upset about basals and bad pacing??
The challenge we are left with is how to place home identities "in dialogue with new (school) ones."
Ashley Catlett
Comments (3)
I couldn't agree with you more, and actually I wrote about several of the same things that you did. Jake and his family were in tune with real world lessons. He wasn't not capable of learning but he saw learning in a different way. It needed to be purposeful not just because it is in a basal. His family did a great job embracing that, whereas the school did not know how. The scary part is that if schools do not figure how to reach the working class then our kids are going to keep falling behind and many will continue to drop out like Jake's dad did.
Posted by Amy Spade | April 17, 2009 5:30 PM
Posted on April 17, 2009 17:30
Ashley,
Your comments made me think of the all boys classroom we have in our third grade. The teacher has purposely selected texts that boys can relate to. She incorporates lots of opportunities for action and competition. Although she still has struggling readers, they all love school and are finding ways to engage with print. It's a great concept that I think we could all apply even in regular classrooms.
Posted by Jayne Thompson | April 20, 2009 6:14 PM
Posted on April 20, 2009 18:14
Every time I read this I think about how Jake would do so much better in an alternative curriculum such as a Montessori school. My older son attends a Montessori school, and he never sits down! He doesn't have to! He is allowed to work on the floor or table and move around as much as he wants, as long as he isn't bothering others. What is amazing is that all of the children are accustomed to this, so none of them are distracted by the low hum of activity.
Posted by Alecia Jackson | April 23, 2009 8:35 PM
Posted on April 23, 2009 20:35