Curiosity and Courage in the Classroom

by Eileen Wedegartner, Blended Learning Specialist

WGBH, one of our Boston NPR stations, recently ran a three-part series titled, “Teaching the Future: Climate Change Education on Cape Cod.” The series explores the challenges for teachers who are trying to teach about climate change when they have not had deep training on the subject.

It’s an interesting look at how teachers are tackling the issue, from the challenge of bringing the science down to the cognitive level of the students to the issues of funding real-life exploration around solving real-world issues.

While listening to the broadcast I thought back to JFK’s speech on September 12, 1962, at Rice University which contained one of his most famous quotes: “William Bradford, speaking in 1630 of the founding of the Plymouth Bay Colony, said that all great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and both must be enterprised and overcome with answerable courage.” This speech kicked off the investment in science education that would see its fruition on July 20, 1969, when the United States completed its first mission to the moon.

When leaders take the reins and seize the opportunity to ensure that the United States is leading the way in the world, we are capable of incredible feats. Sadly, that is not always the case.

Climate change is real. Some may quibble whether human activity has caused the rapid changes, but I would rather follow the lead that urges we stop arguing about causation and start acting on what we can do for mitigation.

Public K-12 systems are not always where leaders focus their efforts to solve imminent crises. Fortunately, in a group of schools noted on the program, there are teachers who are driven by something greater than fame or funding: they are driven by curiosity. This reminded me of Hobbes’s remark in Leviathan that “Anxiety for the future time disposeth men to enquire into the causes of things: because the knowledge of them maketh men the better able to order the present to their best advantage.” If only we had more anxiety.

The reality is that climate change is happening. We need to engage students in the search for solutions. The GBH program suggests that this sort of problem-solving should not be left exclusively to the science classes. Issues of this global magnitude require the collaboration of all the core subjects, because it will take all the expertise of all our experts in training to confront the challenges of the next generation.

As an educator, I can’t think of a better way to make school relevant for students than to identify a real issue in their lives. As problem-solvers, students need to be able to look at the scientific facts, the mathematical realities, the social and historical causes, and then evaluate the arguments for and against taking action. And what form that action might take.

Climate change is not the only issue on which this sort of approach would work. There are any number of real-life concerns that encompass all core subjects to encourage our future leaders to solve: energy resources, pollution, health care, disease control, food management, water resources and social justice, to name just a few.

In the moon speech, Kennedy said “If this capsule history of our progress teaches us anything, it is that man, in his quest for knowledge and progress, is determined and cannot be deterred. The exploration of space will go ahead, whether we join in it or not, and it is one of the great adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.”

The program notes that “A 2016 study from the National Center for Science Education found that about 75 percent of science teachers do teach about climate change in their classes, but most of them spend only a few hours on it a year.”

It is inspiring to learn about communities that are modeling the sort of determination we need to head off this approaching crisis. This is the curiosity that can foster inquiry-based education that bridges all subject areas and readies today’s students to be the leaders of tomorrow.

As a nation, we need to encourage students be problem solvers. The teachers mentioned in the WGBH program demonstrate the kind of inquisitive courage we, as a nation, need to nurture in order to confront the issues of our time. The program is worth listening to for anyone interested in innovation and relevance in education.

What did he say and When did he say it? And what did he mean?

By Greg Cunningham, Blended Learning Specialist

When I read recently that UMass Amherst football coach Mark Whipple had been suspended for using the word “rape” in a press conference, a burst of memory went off in my mind. I flashed back to the high school cafeteria line where a classmate blurted “I just got raped by that calculus test.” No one blinked. My first thought was not about his choice of words, but my GPA. His grades in calculus were usually higher than mine; if he had done poorly, my grade would probably be zero.

The Highs and Lows of Working in Schools

by Cathie Maglio, Blended Learning Specialist

The schools I work in have been back in session since the beginning of September. I was excited to get back to see teachers I have worked with for years, to meet teachers who are new to the JFYNet program, and to see all the students, new and returning. I have also gone to new schools, giving presentations on the JFYNet blended learning program. I enjoy doing these demonstrations since it gives me a chance to meet other teachers and principals and to show them a program that I know helps raise students’ skills and scores on MCAS and college placement testing.

Today is Opening Day at Fenway Park

by Greg Cunningham, Blended Learning Specialist

It’s the worst-kept secret in offices, boardrooms and schools anywhere within striking distance of Fenway Park: people play hooky the day of the home opener. And why not?

In early April, young baseball fans find more to learn at the ballpark than in a classroom, and older ones more to do than in an office. In schools students are told to dream big, to imagine the impossible. Walt Whitman in Song of the Open Road sings “These are the days that must happen to you.” Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland asks “’Who in the world am I?’ Ah, that’s the great puzzle.” Exploring Wonderland, Alice realizes it is she who’s changing, not the world around her. She grasps to hold on to the innocence of childhood, a yearning all adults can relate to on opening day. What is the ballpark but a scene of eternal childhood?

by Eileen Wedegartner, Blended Learning SPECIALIST

It’s that time of year again when beach balls are traded for book bags. For many students, fall is a season of excitement: a new term, a clean slate and an opportunity to make new entries in the growing ledger of successes. But for others it’s a time of angst with the shadows of past failures dimming their vision and shrouding their hopes and expectations in nervous gloom. My task is to help these students acknowledge the past but find a way to embrace the new school year as an opportunity to write a new narrative on that fresh slate.