Hello my name is Loddy Micucci and I am a teacher and have been a teacher for more than twenty years.
I can’t believe I am writing this article and yet it needs to be said. I mean every word of it.
I have just had one of those light bulb moments and as usual the flashes are controversial.
The importance of what we learn?
Do you get the uneasy feeling that your school life didn’t serve you as well as it could have? The amount of people that talk about the useless knowledge they acquired at school makes my stomach churn. What we were teaching? You know all of that acquiring general knowledge just to have it tested and graded to say well done or you fail. What purpose did it serve? I am currently helping my year nine son with his homework and I can see the pattern being repeated all over again. Study formulas, learn the formulas and apply the formulas to each problem. Will you ever use these formulas? Some people might! Yet everybody has to learn them. I even have to go back and relearn them so I can help my son understand what he is doing.
What happened to school being a place to be happy
“When I was 5 years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.”
― John Lennon
We are told that we must teach children to read and write that’s imperative. This overides all other aspect of school life.
TO BE HAPPY – NO
TO BE PASSIONATE – NO
TO FOLLOW YOUR PASSION- NO
TO DISCOVER YOUR INNER GREATNESS- NO
TO LEARN HOW TO GET ALONG WITH OTHERS -NO
TO UNDERSTAND WHO YOU ARE – NO
We put all these amazing unique students through the one size fits all system! They either fit in or fail!
Well what about these kids with dyslexia?
The whole system that we impose on them just doesn’t work. Do we continue to torture them by labelling them as stupid and dumb. Do we just leave it up to the caring compassionate teacher to discover a way to help these students find away to succeed in life.
Do we just shun them and ostracise them as misfits? Do they spend their whole school life checking out the corners in the back of the classroom.
One in five students, or 15-20% of the population, has a language based learning disability. Dyslexia is probably the most common of the language based learning disabilities.
How do schools cater for Dyslexia?
Schools are the seat of learning and the road to knowledge to secure jobs within our society.
Yet why do so many people become successful in spite of schools? Is it no a damning statistic that of the one in five students with a language based learning disability is not catered for in our traditional classrooms. Of all the schools that I taught in many teachers identified language issues within children however not many knew very much about dyslexia. It did not even have any resources or special programs aimed at helping kids with dyslexia.
Yes, unfortunately we did just send them to the back of the room. Out sight out of mind. That is unless they were behaviour problems to boot. That would get things moving. Well we had all sorts of ways of dealing with challenging children.
Most of the energy of the school was about how do we deal with these behaviour issues. It was like going to the doctor and being treated for the symptoms of an infection without finding out where the infection originated from.
Why do we spend so much time on the negativity in our lives!
Is there hope for students who learnt to daydream of a better world?
Dreams……………………………………… can they come true?
Can we still make them come true if we failed at school? The answer of course is yes. I would venture to say that the majority of successful people have become successful due to some challenge in their life. And for many it would have been their nightmare experience at school. These students learnt a valuable lesson and that was not to rely on what they learnt in school to determine how successful they could become. For, if this was the case then their whole life would not have amounted to very much at all.
No they found something else. They learnt how to turn the disappointment of not succeeding at school into a motivating factor towards becoming successful. Mind you I am not suggesting here for one minute that all of those that failed at school became successful. But those that decided that it was not going to stop them achieving what they wanted out of life. Those that clearly saw what they wanted to achieve and established a burning desire to achieve it no matter what, did become successful.
You see it is no different to somebody who was successful at school. Each set of student needs passion, a burning desire, persistence and faith that they will achieve their goal. Their performance at school didn’t equal success.
Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Oprah, Richard Branson, Albert Einstein just to name a few all epitomise the above qualities. It is what sets them apart from the herd. Not how successful their schooling was.
What can we do about it?
Refer to John Lenon’s quote. Can we just simplify life to being happy. Imagine a world of happy people living for today.
“Imagine all the people sharing all the world
You, you may say
I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one
I hope some day you’ll join us
And the world will live as one”
Are you one of these school misfits or do you just want to be happy?
Lets break down the walls of school and pursue happiness and set ourselves free
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As someone who taught for many years in American schools, Loddy, I love your insight and passion here for those students who, somehow, fall through the cracks. Our educational system has so much in place for those at risk, and many are helped, but there are those who, somehow, fall below the radar.
And, I agree wholeheartedly – too many instructors are not teaching children the love of learning, the joy of discovering their unique talents, the happiness that comes when those talents are pursued with passion. I tried. Really, I did. But, the damning script was already written and I was commanded to follow the rules or lose my job if my students tested poorly at year’s end.
Still, I interjected inspiration and encouragement at every point I could. It’s just the way God made me to be.
I no longer teach in the classroom. But, I follow my writer’s dream and pray that my daily devotions inspire and encourage my readers.
Thank you for this marvelous, informative post!
Blessings to you!
Thank you Martha, I am so happy that you followed your passion. I take my hat off to people who see through the system. Wouldn’t happiness be the end result of breaking down the chains that bind us to a script.
“And, I agree wholeheartedly – too many instructors are not teaching children the love of learning, the joy of discovering their unique talents, the happiness that comes when those talents are pursued with passion. I tried. Really, I did. But, the damning script was already written and I was commanded to follow the rules or lose my job if my students tested poorly at year’s end.
Still, I interjected inspiration and encouragement at every point I could. It’s just the way God made me to be”.
Thank you once again Martha for that brilliant insight. I am sure your students were blessed with your empathy and desire to make a positive difference in their lives.
It is sad Loddy, that so many children go through school never being made aware of their inspirations or passions. It’s all about ‘numbers’ and ‘stats’ here where my child goes to HS. When my daughter was in the school system, her middle school was even worse. You were pushed out if you ‘rocked the boat’ and tried to increase awareness in any area.
I believe that the whole school system needs to be revamped. We are doing our children an injustice.
Thanks Mary, sorry to hear about your daughter and her experiences in a very rigid school system. You know we learn so much about conforming to a system and we are made to believe that it is the only way to succeed, And then to really succeed we have to unlearn it so that we discover who we truly are?
Loddy,
I agree the system has a lot to learn, maybe to be a teacher they should have to take a course in All the Missing Pieces, and The Power of Passion before they could continue teaching and the course should be part of the curriculum before actually teaching. I believe this would be a huge leap for both the teachers and the students.
What a great idea Judy. Maybe we are pioneering a new form of university. The Power Of Passion University designed to unleash the amazing talents you were born with. Graduate through your passion and use it to guide your life to amazing heights.