Generation YES Blog

“Service-learning addresses three major issues in education: relevance of the curriculum, level of rigor, and relationships. It is about hope, inspiration, and learning for kids.”

-Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Rudy Crew

It’s been an interesting phenomenon to watch so many educators flock around Daniel Pink’s best-selling book, A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future. The book is a rallying cry for more creativity and arts, especially in K-12 education. It’s hard to argue with that. Stories of schools canceling recess, arts, music, even history and science to focus on boosting math and reading test scores makes your heart hurt. It’s beyond tragic to know in your bones that we are boring kids, wasting their time prepping for tests that don’t matter, and ultimately losing them.

It’s a gift to be able to raise a bestselling book like a golden shield against this insanity. Right?

But what if this gift is actually fool’s gold. What if it’s a misleading accumulation of misinterpreted anecdotes, pseudoscience, made up “exercises” and a profound misunderstanding of math, engineering, and science. Does this help or hurt educators who are trying to improve schools? Can you build a solid case for change on a foundation of sand?

Plus, I think Daniel Pink hates me.

Pink describes so called left-brain characteristics as “sequential, literal, functional, textual, and analytic” and assigns them to programmers, accountants, and people who got good grades in school. According to Pink, these attributes are “…prized by hardheaded organizations, and emphasized in schools.” This is in contrast to right-brain people who are “creators and caregivers, shortchanged by organizations, and neglected in schools.”

I’m a woman who loves math and science, earned an electrical engineering degree and worked as a programmer in the aerospace industry. Obviously I fall into the “left brain” camp. But although I got pretty good grades in school, it was spotty. I did great in Algebra and Physics. I was terrible at Geometry and Chemistry. I have no idea why. Maybe I was only “left-brained” in even years.

As I read Pink further, I became more and more puzzled. Right brainers are the future, the key to staying globally competitive. They are more caring and probably better looking. What did I do to deserve this life sentence of obsolescence? Where does all this animosity towards me and my kind come from? And shouldn’t I be making more money from some “hardheaded organization”?

It’s incredibly divisive to create two types of people and set them up in competition for grades and good jobs. It’s also ludicrous and misleading. You might as well say that all artists have emotional problems or all musicians have long hair. It plays into silly cliches and jealousy (or fear) of people who aren’t like you.

There are many types of people who happen to be good at math, science, or programming. Some are good at the school version of these subjects and some aren’t. To draw a hard line between the sciences and creativity shows a profound misunderstanding of both. I can tell you that programming is as close to composing music as anything else. It’s something that you feel, that you can lose yourself in, that comes from a place inside that is sometimes unexplainable.

I guarantee you that programmers out there are going, “w00t! tell it sister!” - and everyone else is thinking, “are you kidding?” But you have to believe me. Math, science, programming, and engineering are deeply beautiful and creative. Look — I believe you when you tell me that opera soothes your soul or that paint poured on a basketball is art. (I don’t really, but I’m polite enough to take your word for it. So take my word for this, OK?)

It’s a shame that this beauty is often lost in the K-12 curriculum. But that’s a problem with curriculum, not a problem with people’s brains.

Building his case on such an impoverished view of creativity in the sciences weakens everything Pink says. It shows a profound misunderstanding of people who aren’t like him and sloppy thinking about the cause and effect relationships he claims exist.

I’m suspicious of his analysis especially where it relates to children and learning. Pink tells a story about an artist visiting a school. He asks each classroom full of children if they are artists. In the kindergarten class, all hands go up with enthusiasm. In the first grade class, fewer hands go up, and so on, until by the sixth grade no hands go up. He concludes that the world doesn’t value creativity.

Oh, please. If you ask kindergartners if they want to be scientists, ballerinas, firemen, astronauts, or pretty much anything, you will get an enthusiastic show of hands. Sixth graders won’t. It has nothing to do with the value of art and everything to do with understanding the difference between 5 year olds and 13 year olds.

In another vignette, he takes us to a charter school for architecture and design, where students work on real world, interdisciplinary projects. He reveals that this school is safe and orderly, colorful murals line the halls, it has no metal detectors, and attendance is high. According to Pink, the success of this school is due to the “design” focus of the curriculum. However, anyone with any sense can see that creating a caring school with a relevant curriculum is the reason for its success. But apparently, looking at facts is simply old-fashioned “left brain” (hiss, boo) thinking.

Pink has no qualms about using anecdotes like this that not only don’t support his conclusions, but stand in direct contrast to what he is saying. Luckily for him, he is an accomplished writer. I stand in awe of his ability to enthusiastically plunge past inconsistencies on his way to trumpet unsupported conclusions.

I’m all for encouraging creativity in schools, but treating A Whole New Mind as a blueprint seems rash and insubstantial. This book celebrates fake science and entrenched stereotypes about people that are harmful and hurtful. Schools need to celebrate the gifts of all children, not label them as “new” or “old”.

Besides, he hates me.

Sylvia

I have been tagged by Rick Weinberg (The Tech Ed Guy) with a meme, which is sort of a blog chain letter.

The Rules

1. Post these rules before you give your facts
2. List 8 random facts about yourself
3. At the end of your post, choose (tag) 8 people and list their names, linking to them
4. Leave a comment on their blog, letting them know they’ve been tagged.

My 8 random facts

1. I worked on a City of Los Angeles survey crew one summer and walked the entire length of Mulholland Drive in the Hollywood Hills measuring curb cuts. The crew chief refused to use my newfangled calculator because he didn’t “believe in it.”
2. My middle name provides mild amusement. “What’s your middle name?” “Kay” “No, your whole name!” “Kay” … hilarity ensues.
3. My first job in ed tech was drawing underwear on a black and white line drawing of a naked baby. It was a Hypercard stack created in England designed to teach children about body parts, and the drawing with body part labels had to have underwear, or else American schools wouldn’t buy it.
4. I am a second generation Los Angeles native, a distinction only important in Los Angeles.
5. A big tree in my yard caught fire (spark from a bigger nearby park fire) and it’s on YouTube. No real damage, amazingly enough.
6. I was within a few blocks of ed-tech blogger Technospud, Jen Wagner on August 16, 1977, the day Elvis died. We discovered this through the POWER OF THE INTERNET!!!
7. That seems like enough…

I’m not exactly sure who started this meme or where anyone else’s lists are. I know I’ve seen a few, but it seems like too much work to try to track down who has been tagged already. If you’d like to blog about 8 random things, I give you permission to blame me.

8 People to tag next: You, you, you, you there in the back row, you, those two over there, and sure why not, you.

Sylvia

“Education is the point at which we decide whether we love the world enough to assume responsibility for it and by the same token to save it from that ruin, which, except for renewal, except for the coming of the new and the young, would be inevitable. An education, too, is where we decide whether we love our children enough not to expel them from our world and leave them to their own devices, nor to strike from their hands their choice of undertaking something new, something unforseen by us, but to prepare them in advance for the task of renewing a common world.”

Hannah Arendt, Teaching as Leading

About Generation YES

We believe that technology in schools is critical to bringing 21st century educational opportunities to everyone. However, we see that traditional approaches to integrating real technology into classrooms have largely failed. Even though visionary educators have seen the potential for decades, and there are a few bright and shining examples of students having amazing experiences, more often than not there is a failure of implementation between the vision and the action.

We believe the missing component is student involvement, student voice, and student ownership of the process.

When students are actively involved in the process of planning and implementing education, they become invested in the process. They become key stakeholders in improving education for themselves and their peers. We focus on technology as a vehicle for this, because technology is a powerful conduit for constructive, collaborative learning, and the connection that today’s youth feel for this new technology-driven world.

We must stop thinking of school as something that happens to students, with all the information, learning and experiences flowing from “us” to “them”. Instead, students should be empowered to be agents of change, not objects of change. Teachers who are expert facillitators, guides, and co-learners are key to this process.

Generation YES was established to create tools for this kind of change - professional development, print materials and online tools to help students and teachers achieve these goals. We facilitate change in schools that are interested in transformation, growth, and fulfilling their potential as inclusive learning communities.

For this digital generation, there is no more important task than creating relevance between their lives and their education. This generation is connected, aware, and eager to put their minds and hearts into any problem facing the world. We believe that if we teach today’s students to solve real problems, learn how to learn, and give them the tools to do it, we are investing in the global citizens of the tomorrow.

More information about Generation YES and our programs can be found on our main website at www.genyes.org.

Why a blog?

• We like sharing ideas with people
• We want to think out loud as a company
• We want to include everyone’s voice in the discussion

Read our Welcome post for more reasons.

Most blogs are personal journals - how will this work as a company?

We aren’t sure. We’re willing to try. We set this up as a group blog and hopefully it won’t be confusing. Or maybe it will be and we’ll try to organize it better. The cool thing about these tools is they allow this flexibility.

Who is contributing?

Here’s who is contributing now. We hope that once Generation YES teachers and students find this blog, we will have more voices.

Dr. Dennis Harper is the founder and CEO of Generation YES. He has taught in over 40 countries around the world — K-12, undergraduate and teacher education programs. He’s known world-wide for his focus, research, and practical support of student voice in transforming schools with technology. Full bio

Sylvia Martinez is president of Generation YES. She has a varied background in both educational and consumer software and games, with expertise along the way in design and development of online environments that encourage learning and communication. Full bio

Megan Evander is the customer support lead for Generation YES. She is a recent graduate of The Evergreen State College, which focuses on providing authentic, project-based learning for all students. She is also the daughter of a GenYES teacher, so is apparently born to be doing this. Full bio

Others coming soon - we hope to talk a couple of other people (especially our student interns) into coming online. They are being shy for now.

All of us can be reached by email at our first names plus @genyes.org

Thanks!