I spent the evening grading a slew of papers and wondering where the disconnect occurred. This is no comment on individuals but on the nature of schooling itself. I think it starts early with students being taught to respond to a select cadre of questions. They fall into these comfortable rhythms of question answer question to the point that if the question changes or is somehow left vague, they are unable to break from the routine and seek creative solutions. In short, we are training robots.
Perhaps robots is too strong. Semi-autonomous knowbots. I don’t know that I am at the point where I understand how to peel back the plastic coating and rework the wiring to prepare them for a future that frankly has nothing to do with what they learned in k-12. That is the job of course, but I am still working at it. When I finally get that magical formula to reconnect students to reality in a truly meaningful way, I am going to bottle it, sell it, and then straight quit the game.
See, job is journey. You work at achieving a goal and once done you move on to another. At least, that’s how I roll.