Distracted by Shadows

   The days are short. The sun rises quickly and falls just as fast. Our time each day becomes more precious as the days move quicker. Gone are the long evenings sitting by the barbecue as it slowly cools through the evening. Gone are the early mornings with birds chirping and dew out in front. It is Autumn and here we are in the hustle and bustle of life. Here we are with this person needing this and that person needing that. Our children come home with a variety of assignments. Their lives filled with activities and tasks. It is in this time that it is easy to be distracted by the shadows.
    We live busy lives. There is always another assignment, another email, another group we need to help. It's easy to run from place to place to help out wherever you need to and to lose track of what is truly important. This running from place to place, these things we do. They are simply shadows, calling us, flickers of light that pull our attention from what is really important. We lose meaning by looking at the shadows and not seeing the light.
    I was a teacher once. I'd like to think that I still am, but in reality I know that I'm not. I taught children wonderful content that made me marvel. As a Chemistry and Modern Political Systems teacher we had fabulous discussions, we experimented on peeps. We read Letter from a Birmingham Jail. We discussed the Taliban before anyone had heard of the Tailban (this was between 1995-99). We learned about ions, the Second Law of Thermodynamics, and electronegativity. I enjoyed it. Children learned it. It has been over 15 years and we all have forgotten most of it. This content was only shadows of important value. Meaningful for the moment. Lost as time ticked forward. Meaningless in a world of "Ok, Google" and "Hey, Siri" where content is available in a moment.
   The common reflection of learning in the United States was that it was that the curriculum was a mile wide and an inch deep. The Partnership for 21st Century Schools analyzed what we needed in order to prepare learners for jobs that didn't exist and a world that was changing by the moment. It provided the following framework for learning:

Partnership for 21st Century Skills

   In a the hustle and bustle world, one of movement and action it is easy to only focus on the center. The shadows move so quickly that for many it is easy to lose the outside and only see the core. We do this in our lives and our national leadership has done this in education. Common Core State Standards, PARCC, and SmarterBalance may claim to do more, but in reality they are simply core subject content, standards, and assessments. No more, no less. In reality they are meant to be the stepping stones from which we help students develop life and career skills, through which we explore creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and communication, during which we apply information, media, and technology skills. Content and standards are meant to be springboards from which learning lifts off into meaningful experience not foreboding anvils that drag us down. 

   We have become distracted by the shadows in both life and learning. Over time I have realized that the value I brought as a teacher was through our conversation, relationships, and collective exploration. It wasn't that they learned who Peter Stuyvesant was or did the flame test in my class. In our world, these are just shadows, little bits of activities, not necessary information. We could have just as much had amazing argumentative papers and expository videos regarding the plethora of effective techniques in performing underwater basket weaving. For the value is in the conversation and exploration and not the distraction of the content itself.

   Our time is short in this world. Each day life moves fast. It is so important to grab onto what is meaningful and to avoid being distracted by the shadows.

Life Moves Pretty Fast