What a Lawnmower Teaches Us About Education
Smells Like: lawnmowers, teaching
My new manual lawn mower
It’s rewarding to have time to work in our yard, which after reseeding has begun to thrive in the rocky soil of our patch of land at the foot of Mt. Baldy Road.
Ours is a tricky yard: a third of an acre of shifting sunlight and shadow that seems to change to direct sunlight by summer. So finding the right time to seed and fertilize requires patience and effort if the yard, which has a nasty habit of turning brown, is to survive and thrive.
While pushing my manual mower, I was thinking about how the older tools are somehow more efficient, and it was difficult not to think the same way about teaching. Despite all the technology, is our teaching better than it was, let’s say, a decade ago? Are the minds of our students taking hold like the struggling grass in my yard? Do we as teachers need to reach for more basic tools?
It’s not a far-fetched analogy: kids need tending, and they need the right tools. I think teachers might be better off putting away the power tools and using the hand tools. A little old-fashioned nurturing goes a long way.
By Tom Fasano on April 12, 2010 – 10:04 am
Posted in Thoughts on Teaching | No Comments »