Day Two: London: Education

This morning Audrey and Zach decided to chillax at the hotel, so Brad, Alex, and I headed out to the National Gallery for a short visit. It is a lovely space. We saw some famous paintings including Van Gogh's "Sunflowers." We also saw children being educated. The three of us watched enraptured as a woman walked a group of middle school girls into an understanding of a quite complicated religious painting. The girls analyzed the painting and collectively came up with a good dozen words to describe its tone. No one was texting. No one was passing notes. I sensed that these girls valued the process in which they were engaged. This scene was both inspiring and incredibly depressing. In the good ol' U S of A, the powers that be would scoff at such a scene as a frivolous undertaking that leaves children behind. At my school, we are program improvement which means, in No Child Left Behind terms, that all of my freshmen are looking at a sophomore year of double English, double math, history, and science. No music. No art. No drama. In short, no anything that actually teaches thinking. Rote memorization, anyone? Well, excuse me if I rebel. I'm not leaving my students behind. There will be art, drama, and music in my classroom next year because if I don't give it to them, no one will. These poor kids are dying on the vine and our system of education is a large part of the problem.