Sometimes teachers point out to me the fads they’ve seen come and go during their teaching careers – like Process Writing, BSM, Wellington Maths and door-stopper curriculum documents. After teaching something that was celebrated as the latest and greatest, we watched it disappear without a trace after a year or two. Now, thirty years later, we look back, shake our heads and say ‘what were we thinking?’
Ashtrays were put out on staffroom coffee tables along with the cheese and crackers, the five minute afternoon break was just enough time for smokers to light up, students had to do ‘their own work’ and if they didn’t behave, we had ways to make them. What were we thinking?
Driving home from the pub was OK (as long as you went slow) and we did all sorts of risky activities with no thought about personal safety or protection. What were we thinking? Babies were put to sleep on their stomach (invariably snuggled into a sheepskin) and children rode their bikes to school and without helmets. What were we thinking? The TV variety show ‘The Black and White Minstrel Show’. was hugely popular and we laughed at jokes that made fun of another culture. What were we thinking?
In 2007 we have bird flu preparation, KCs, getting more exercise, Literacy (capital L), free fruit, eating less junk food, ICT, debate about the driving age (again), the drinking age (again), Numeracy (capital N), no fizzy drinks, Web 2.0, Inquiry Learning, the education conference pandemic, formative assessment and the preoccupation, agony, opinion, over-analysis about The All Blacks (yet again.)
In thirty years time what will have been worthwhile, lasted the distance and made a difference? And what will we look back on and say ‘what were we thinking?’
technorati tags:tradition, culture, education, teaching, fad, practice, New_Zealand, ICT
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