BFTP: Arm the teachers

A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post November 27, 2007. I was pleased to see the link to the letter to editor that inspired this post is still good.

Last Sunday the Mankato Free Press, our local newspaper, printed a letter to the editor from a local citizen demanding armed security guards in our schools. He wrote:

Sometimes I see a police presence at school events but they don’t carry guns. What are they going to do against a shooter? Nothing. ... We need a viable defense of our children and that includes armed security.  ... I want armed security in the halls and at the entrances before someone simply walks in with a gun and starts shooting. Don’t even get me started on cost or image arguments. ... I want my taxes used for this first, then whatever else.

I, for one, am proud to live in a community that so highly prizes its children that it is willing to go to these lengths to protect them. But personally, I would go one better. A single police officer can only be in one place at one time. I would suggest we mandate that our entire teaching staff carry loaded side-arms.

I don't mean any wimpy pea-shooters, either. I want my English 9 teacher to have the same fire power that Dirty Harry used - "a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world." The principal ought to at least have a machne gun and a couple RPGs handy.

I can envision genuine educational advantages too:

• When giving a quiz, the social studies teacher could point his gun at a cheater and say, "You've got to ask yourself a question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"
• The kindergarten teacher could always fire a few round in the air just to get the class's attention.
• The PE teacher really could get reluctant students to "dance."

I suppose the left-wing, pinko sissies will come up with a bunch of lame excuses why loaded teachers are "wrong" or "bad." But if you ask me, nothing says caring about kids like packing heat. 

Or we could read the research* that tells us that violent acts in American schools declined between 1991 and 1999 despite all headlines to the contrary. Schools are statistically one of the safest places in the community. 

Schools are safer than individual homes and neighborhoods. Children are more likely to encounter serious violent crime away from school than at school. Multiple sources suggest that students are approximately three times safer in school than away from school (Elliott, Hamburg, and Williams, 1998; Kaufman et al., 1999; Snyder & Sickmund, 1999). There is less than a one in a million chance of a student experiencing a school-related violent death. Furthermore, the vast majority of school-related injuries are not violence-related and the majority of school crime is nonviolent theft (U.S. Department of Education, 1999a). 

Or at least get data that paint an accurate picture of the scope of school violence before going off half-cocked.

* Original link to this article is gone, but the trend appears to be holding true.

Instructions for iPad use

This Thanksgiving was an early Christmas at our house for the grandsons. While Paul and Miles could wait until December 25th, Grandpa couldn't. Last night they opened their gifts - new iPads.

For nearly three years, the boys have fought over using my iPad. They love the games, of course. But I also see how many other educational niches these devices can fill. So, the iPads came with strings.

First, the "screen time" limit* that Mom and Dad set applies to the iPads as well as other screens in your house, I told the boys. Second, I asked them to be thoughtful about how they spend their time with these powerful, addictive tools. "Is what you are doing on the iPad making you smarter?" To help them remember to occasionally reflect on what their use, the photo below is their lock screen background ...

I am not real sure it will do a lot of good, but it is an attempt.

These bright boys will live their entire lives surrounded by electronic tools and temptations. Denying access is an unrealistic solution. Access accompanied by the excellent parenting they get from my daughter and son-in-law is their best and only chance to they have to learn some self-discipline and common sense. 

* Will the definition of "screen time" in families need to become more nuanced? Traditionally it has been watching TV or movies and playing video games - media consumption. But should reading an e-book count as "screen time"? Writing a paper or creating a video for a school assignment? Practicing math facts with a game? Building an imaginary world using Minecraft? Texting to Grandpa? Gets tricky.

Assessing creativity

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted. Albert Einstein

The final result is that technology aids our thoughts and civilized lives, but it also provides a mind-set that artificially elevates some aspects of life and ignores others, not based upon their real importance but rather by the arbitrary condition of whether they can be measured scientifically and objectively by today’s tools. Donald Norman

Adobe recently released a study, Creativity and Education: Why It Matters. (Thanks to Ryan Bretag's Metanoia blog for the heads up). Here are some interesting bits of this little survey:

• 78% of survey respondents believe creativity is important to their current career
• 88% believe creativity should be built into education curriculum
• 94% agreed with the statement "It is important for educators to encourage creative thinking in their students

but here are the scary bits....

• 80% of education majors (vs. 54% of engineering majors) believe "creativity is a skill you are born with"
• 47% felt there is enough opportunity in school for students to demonstrate creativity
• 41% felt academic test scores are the best indicators for success in school and beyond

Why the disconnect? Why doesn't every educator stress creativity in every lesson?

Might it be because we as educators are uncomfortable asking students to demonstrate something that we cannot objectively measure? I have a lot of fun doing my workshop Developing Creativity in Every Learner, but one area always makes me feel, well, inadequate.

Even if we ask for creativity, how do we know we've gotten it? I do believe defining creativity is a part of the solution - that not only should one recognize originality, but also the degree to which that originality improves the outcome. When I asked this question last spring, the response were interesting, but not real useful. What would a rubric, checklist or narrative assessment look like that helped determine whether creativity was demonstrated? Or is this even a valid question? Do we need "measure" creativity or simply accept it as something, as Einstein would define it, as something that counts that can't be measured? 

Inquiring minds want to know. Do you have an assessment tool you'd be willing to share with Blue Skunk readers that addresses creativity?

“Developing Creativity in Every Learner” Library Media Connection, October, 2012

"A Father-So Chat" (using CreativeCommons licenses with students) Head for the Edge, Library Media Connection, November 2007

“Ten Ways to Encourage Creativity in Your Library” Head for the Edge, Library Media Connection, October, 2012

Image source: Creativity and Education: Why It Matters.