Knowledge Is Power--Especially When We Share It!

Many years ago I heard the truism that knowledge is power. Yet, I have come to realize as others have that knowledge that is shared is even more powerful. By sharing knowledge both individuals grow in their knowledge and expertise.

Dr. Stephen Covey recommends that when we have learned something new that we share it with someone else within 24-48 hours. This sharing will not only reinforce what we have learned we will benefit from what others share in return. In other words, the more knowledge wealth we share, the more knowledge wealth we gain.

My good friend and colleague, Michelle Bachman, and I have come across one way we can do this on a regular basis. We have decided that both of us will read the book Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts and share our ideas, impressions, insights, etc. via email. This is not only a way to increase our knowledge but it is also a way to keep in touch with friends who enrich our lives and expand our horizons.

The Civic Knowledge Divide

"We are in danger of losing a generation of citizens schooled in the foundations of democracy--and of producing high school graduates who are not broadly educated human beings," warns Dr. Judith L. Pace in her commentary at Education Week on December 18, 2007.

Pace goes on in this commentary to make comments that reinforce what has been mentioned in other "blog postings" at this site and that is that squeezing out social studies occurs disproportionately in low-performing schools with large minority and low-income populations. Yet, these are the very students who could benefit the most from a rich curriculum that encourages civic participation. By not providing them with this opportunity, another inequality divide is created between the haves and the have nots. As Pace indicates, studies point to a glaring gap in civic knowledge based on test scores correlated with socioeconomic background and race or ethnicity.

Although diverse opinions are crucial to a democracy, opinions formed without the proper background civic knowledge will lead to unwise decisions and thus, pave the way for "potentially dire consequences for our democracy."

Pace ends her commentary with a reminder from Linda Darling-Hammond that we who are practitioners and scholars must educate our government about what all our children need in order to be well educated.

Reference
Pace, J. L.(2007). Why we need to save (and strengthen) social studies. Education Week. Retrieved on December 19, 2007 from the World Wide Web: www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2007/12/19/16pace.h27.html?print=1

William Glasser Quotes

Quotes by Dr. William Glasser, the founder of Quality Schools:

As long as acquiring knowledge is the educational goal of schools, educational opportunities will be limited, as they are now, to affluent families.

Changing that definition to education is using knowledge and backing that up with all classroom work and tests focused on doing this is the way to upgrade the low grade system we have now.

Changing the system means giving up the way things have always been done that are no longer working.

Every single major push in education has made it worse and right now it's really bad because everything we've done is de-humanizing education. It's destroying the possibility of the teacher and the student having a warm, friendly, intellectual relationship.

I think it is totally wrong and terribly harmful if education is defined as acquiring knowledge.
If students get a real education where they are intellectually involved, where they have to show how they use the knowledge or improve the knowledge, they'll do fine on these tests.

Kids from poor families or poor backgrounds like A's as much as anybody else, but early in their career, by second or third grade, they give up on the idea that they'll ever get them and therefore we are killing them off on something that isn't even important, memorizing facts.

Now schooling, to get back to your question, schooling is basically 98 percent factual knowledge and so schooling is that what you're asked to learn in school and punished for not learning, that no one in the real world would ever ask you to know.

Running a school where the students all succeed, even if some students have to help others to make the grade, is good preparation for democracy.

So, we need to start understanding the difference between what I call factual knowledge and educational knowledge, and we don't focus much on educational knowledge.

There are only two places in the world where time takes precedence over the job to be done: School and prison.

We don't focus as much in schools on educational knowledge which requires thinking and application, as we do on acquiring facts.

Academic Rigor With Heart

I am choosing to take a detour today and save until tomorrow the further conversation about civic learning.


Yesterday for class Dr. Hite took us to BYU's (Brigham Young University) library to meet with Rachel Wadham, the library education specialist. Just being in a library inspires and awes me. Yesterday's experience was no exception as I caught Rachel's contagious enthusiasm for learning and accessing information.


When I first discovered libraries as a young girl, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I couldn't read enough books or gather enough information fast enough to satisfy my curiosity or desire to learn. The more I learned, the more I knew there was to learn, and I wanted to know it all. This insatiable appetite to learn it all is even harder now to address with the rate at which knowledge is expanding exponentially and when it is so accessible through so many avenues.

In spite of this strong desire to use my mind and to learn from books and other sources of intellectual knowledge, that alone won't quench the thirst or feed the hunger. The heart must be included in the search.

A few quotes to explain the importance of the heart in regards to learning:

• "It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." Antoine de Saint Exupéry from The Little Prince.
• "The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of." Charles H. Perkhurst
• The human heart knows things the eyes don't see, and feels things the mind cannot understand."
• "..it came to a time in my life when my heart told me things that my mind did not know...." Harold B. Lee quoting a prominent university professor
• "When we understand more than we know with our minds, when we understand with our hearts, then we know that the Spirit of the Lord is working upon us." Harold B. Lee
• "The heart is wiser than the intellect." J. G. Holland
• "If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing." Marc Chagall

In order to learn from the heart and allow it to guide our rigorous intellectual and academic pursuits, it is imperative that we take time to be still and to listen. The heart whispers so we have to listen closely.

It is important that as we pursue the getting of intellectual knowledge with academic rigor that we don't look beyond the mark by being past feeling. There will be times our hearts will provide answers to questions such as how to best meet the needs of our diverse learners that all the intellect and all the knowledge in all the libraries of the world won't provide.

McCullough and Reading

David McCullough said in his 2003 Jefferson Lecture for the National Endowment for the Humanities: "We are what we read." He added that this was no less true in that distant founding time of our nation. Therefore, when he studies the life of a person, he not only searches for what the person wrote, but also searches to discover what he/she read.

McCullough mentions in this same speech that reading is a means of education and gaining knowledge. But books mean more than knowledge in the basic sense. Books allow minds to meet, ideas to be exchanged, and experiences to be remembered or imagined. Those who don't read impoverish themselves.

Dr. Seuss said it succinctly:

The more you read,

the more things you will know.

The more that you learn

the more places you'll go.

Considering that reading is so important, it is critical that we keep the following in mind:

• "It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own," said Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The results of one research project indicated that while the average American home had 137 books, the average Hispanic family with an English Language Learner (s) only had 26. There are many Hispanic homes that have none.
• A book doesn't have to be read in English to carry the message. For instance, a monolingual Spanish speaking student who is learning English doesn't have to wait until he/she is proficient in English to read books---Let her read Anne Frank in Spanish. According to Dale Rees an ALS (Alternative Language Student) Coordinator in Salt Lake City School District, "Ten years from now the student won't remember whether Anne Frank was read in English or Spanish, but she will know that she read it."
• Mark Twain said, "The man [child] who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them." In other words, focusing only decoding skills, especially for English Language Learners, won't help them to fall in love with books. Exposure to books is what creates a love for books....and a by-product of a love for books is a desire to learn to read them.
• Children, including our diverse learners and English Language Learners, can comprehend more than they can read on their own. Therefore, we must read books to them that they are unable to read on their own.
• Great literature comes from many different cultural backgrounds, not just the dominant culture. Therefore, we must not only expose all children and youth to a variety of genres, but also to great literature from a variety of cultures.

May all of us follow the counsel of William Faulkner, "Read, read, read." As we do so, and as we encourage our young to do so, we will reap the benefits that David McCullough claims come from reading.

Teaching History and Multiculturalism

As I read LaVarr Webb's comments on David McCullough's visit to Utah in Utah Policy a couple of days ago, I felt that maybe it was time to tackle once again a controversial topic in the multicultural arena.

Historian Daniel Boorstein said, "Trying to plan the future without a sense of the past is like trying to plant cut flowers." Famed author and historian David McCullough states that if we are to be successful in the present, it is critical that we study history and be knowledgeable about the past

McCullough also made the following important points:

• "Because you were born into this particular era does not mean it has to be the limit of your experience. Move about in time, go places."


• "..you can't understand yourself or your country without a sense of your past."


• "History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are."


• "..history is a larger way of looking at life."
  

In spite of the fact that probably most would agree with all these statements, the results revealed from one survey is indicative of what our young people know (or rather don't know) about history: The survey shows that almost half the kids polled don't know the purpose of the Declaration of Independence. And about 1 in 6 parents don't know that the document declared the American colonies free from British rule. The survey also shows that only about 1 in 8 children can correctly identify the nation's founding fathers, that only about half know that "the shot heard round the world" started the Revolution, and that a third don't know that the "Redcoats" were British soldiers who fought in the Revolution - and not in either the Civil War or World War I.

This is a travesty. Yet, there are some things happening in education that could help explain reasons for this. One is the focused emphasis on reading and math in order to meet NCLB mandates....and forgetting that teaching history could help with reading comprehension. Another reason could be the paranoid educators feel ---that while teaching history they may say or do something that is not politically correct and/or in contradiction to multicultural advocate demands.

Tomorrow's post will further address this issue--with help from the wisdom of David McCullough on this topic.

Be Intelligent

To best serve our diverse learners, we must not only be well- educated and knowledgeable, but we must also be intelligent. To be intelligent requires one to be filled with light and truth. It is possible to be forever learning and never arrive at light and truth.

What must we do to move from being educated and knowledgeable to being intelligent?

• First step: Be humble knowing that no matter how much we know (or think we know!), there is still so much more we don't know. We will learn line upon line and precept upon precept.


• Second step: Seek to learn from the most excellent sources, not just the good or even the better. In order for souces (literature, art and music, people, articles, movies, websites, etc.) to be categorized as excellent, they must teach, enlighten and inspire us.
• Third step: Feast upon and ponder the lessons being taught by these excellent sources.
• Fourth step: Always have a pen and notebook close at hand--in the car, in the bathroom, on the night stand, and in one's brief case--to record insights and ideas.
• Fifth step: Within 24 hours teach someone else what was learned.
• Sixth step: Apply what was learned.


• Seventh step: Be open to new ideas and thoughts even when they are diametrically opposed to one's personal ideas and thoughts. This will require listening to the "voices" of others, including those who are not formally educated.


• Fourth step: Be willing to be wrong.

Being filled will light and truth--being intelligent--will lead to wisdom. Wise and intelligent, not just educated and knowledgeable, answers are required to respond to the question, "How can we best serve our diverse learners?"

Spiritual Leadership: Application of True, Unchanging Principles

Felt it was important to define spiritual leadership as it is being used in this blog. It is not the same thing as religion In fact, a person can be very religious without ever seeking spiritual principles to guide his/her life or circumstances.

There are true, unchanging PRINCIPLES that if unearthed can support research as well as direct it. True, unchanging principles sought after, discovered, and applied have the potential to make a difference for our diverse learners in a way nothing else can.

Therefore, not only does spiritual leadership not mean religion, it also has nothing to do with position or title. Anyone who has the courage, fortitude, and zeal to seek the hidden treasures of knowledge and wisdom (principles) related to multicultural education is employing and providing spiritual leadership.