Balanced Learning

A friend and I went to see "Race to Nowhere" last night.  If you haven't heard of it, it's a documentary about burned out students and concerned parents.  What an eye opener!  I tried to watch it both from a parent perspective and that of an educator.  It was the end of a professional development day where the focus was on the student's learning, not the teacher. 

As a parent, I was a little distraught.  I watched the students in the movie talk about the hours of homework they have every night, and the pressure they are under, beginning at a young age and accelerating as they speed through high school.  I kept thinking about my daughters, and how I don't want them to be focused on college and their careers at a young age.  However, the reality is not my desire.  Grace is already thinking about college, her career, and her choices in school with regards to that.  Her enrollment in courses for this year in seventh grade and next year in eighth grade are directly related to her career aspirations.  Now, if you know Grace, you know she is driven to succeed.  This is her drive, not my drive or Aaron's drive.  We want her to be successful, and we try to advise her the best we can, but we do not push her.  After all, she pushes herself enough that we don't need to.  We suggest that she choose electives that she wants to take because she finds them interesting, not because they will look good on a college application.  After all, she's only in seventh grade, and her college application is a long way away.

As an educator, one thing really stuck out in my mind.  Are the children learning?  And by learning, I don't mean applying a formula to solve math problems, but are they learning to be problem solvers?  Are they learning how to live life?  Are they learning to develop a project, implement it, and analyze the results?  I can imagine that spending hours doing homework might make a student cram information into their brains, rather than actually figure out how to use it in real life. 

Now, in life, we aim for balance.  A balanced diet.  A balanced check book.  A balance of academics and extra-curricular activities.  Balance between work and family.  With my kids, I'm aiming for that too.  I'll continue to do what I do - encouraging my girls to make great choices at school, but still play on the weekends and enjoy their childhood!  After all, they are only children once.  As an educator, I'll continue to keep student learning at the forefront, and make my lessons real and relevant for them.