Reflective Prompt: To what extent is the quote applicable to me and my colleagues: “In training a child to activity of thought, above all things we must be aware of that I call ‘inert ideas’- that is to say, ideas that are merely received into the mind without being utilized, or tested, or thrown into fresh combinations.” Alfred North Whitehead (1929)
Standardized testing has become the rooting soil of ‘inert ideas’ for students and teachers. Standardized testing has paralyzed master teachers into becoming the planters of seeds that will find neither water nor sunlight to grow. Every year a teacher is reminded that he/she will be held accountable for students passing a standardized test. Every year a teacher is reminded that if his/her students do not meet the criteria of a rigid passing rate the school will suffer and could be condemned to failure. Every year a teacher sees no other outlet but to plant these “inert ideas” so that the students will pass this year’s particular test for this particular teacher. And every year, a new planter must begin this process. In turn, the seeds wither and die as the sun and water to their growth continues to become paralyzed by the drought I call standardized testing.
As I transition from teacher to administrator, I see so much more than what I thought I knew about education. When I first read this month’s prompt, I thought, “How Interesting? I am struggling with this very same idea with the teachers I work with. How will I respond to a prompt that upsets me every time I read it?” My question lies in thinking how is it that education has not changed since 1929 when Whitehead spoke these very words. How can this situation be possibly true seventy-eight years later! The teachers I work with work diligently at their craft: some work diligently to continue teaching the same lesson they have taught for years on end; some work diligently to revamp the teaching lessons they taught last week. And neither is at fault for continuing to work with these “inert ideas” that hinder a student’s understanding of content material.
My students constantly grumble when my expectations lead their thinking beyond a regurgitation of concepts covered in the classroom. I stand by three rules a student must adhere to when giving an answer to a question:
Rule No. 1: Students must provide ‘On the Line’ Understanding where there are able to provide an answer covering basic concepts and validity of their point.
Rule No. 2: Students must provide ‘Between the Line’ Understanding where the intricacies of their answer must be provided in detail. How or what makes their answer correct? By whose authority does their answer stand true? How would I go about finding their answers validity?
Rule No. 3: Students must provide ‘Beyond the Line’ Understanding where a student must complete their validation by referencing their answer to life. How is their answer substantiated with life’s occurrences? Is there a time in their personal life that they have witnessed their answer be true or false? Where else have they seen the answer validated: movies, literature, family, etc…?
The adage of ‘read between the lines’ holds true in my classroom, and what I have seen with this teaching theory involves a student having to manipulate the “inert ideas” presented them in class into personal ideas that can be adapted to any situation they see fit. This process is not easy; by all means, I am honest to say that my students sometimes take months to understand that this concept of working their minds works. But the answer to Whitehead’s proposed dilemma lies in this: I am most happy when my students come back to school and tell me, “Miss Rodriguez, I couldn’t get you out of my mind this weekend. I was watching this movie, and all I could do was analyze why this was this and why that was that…”. It is then and only then, that I realize that the educational ideal Whitehead discusses is that of stale “inert ideas”, and the attainable educational ideal of now lies in productivity of vigorous ideas. As a future administrator, I will lead by setting and striving for the attainable educational ideal of today.
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