Thread by @triciaebarvia

One of the things I commonly hear Ts say about our work as educators is that we need to prepare kids for college or the world (hopefully both).

I’ve said that myself, so I’d like to unpack that a little. A thread... 1/ #DisruptTexts

Preparing kids for college and/or the world is a line of reasoning I’ve often heard used to justify practices that Ts believe will help kids succeed.

We need to give homework, tests, exams b/c that’s how they’ll be measured. 2/

Or that Ss will need to know X, Y, or Z b/c that’s what college professors expect.

In the ELA world, this line of reasoning justifies teaching everything from the 5-paragraph essay to isolated grammar practice to reading Shakespeare. 3/

I get it. We want to make sure kids are prepared.

But what does “prepared” really mean? And to the question of preparing kids specifically for college, I wonder how many Ts have been to college recently. How many of us are relying on our own foggy memories of college? 4/

And even the most well-intentioned among us will engage in practices that we know aren’t best for kids but we think we need to because, well, reality. 5/

But I wonder... is our job as educators to prepare kids for the world as it is or to disrupt that world for a better one?

Because I look around today and I’m not sure preparing kids for this world is enough—or should even be our aim. 6/

I’m reminded of what @MisterMinor said at #NCTE16: We teach not for mastery but for revolution.

To what extent should we accept schools as microcosms of society or as training ground for making society better?

I say we aim higher. 7/

At an #NCTE17 session, I’ll never forget what one of the presenters said: “History is made up of stories. And all stories have gaps. We should teach our Ss to be the historians who will fill in those gaps.” #sschat 8/

I think you could apply this thinking across all disciplines. I’m thinking, for example, of my friend and #hfellows @DingleTeach who at #TMC18 called us “to find the math, or the ways to rehumanize education, that doesn’t yet exist.” mariandingle.com/blog/measures-… 9/

And as all who follow me @juliaerin80 @TchKimPossible @nenagerman know, this means we #DisruptTexts not just for Ss of color, but as @doxtdatorb asserts, “so that all students have expanded perceptions of the intellectual legacies of people of color.” /10 longviewoneducation.org/beyond-champio…

I don’t think any of us want our Ss or our schools to prepare our Ss for the world we have; I think we’d probably much rather prepare our Ss to question, disrupt, and dismantle the systems that have failed us. /11

That means we have to model what that questioning, disrupting, and dismantling looks like in the context of our classrooms.

That means we have to be willing to say enough is enough. /12

So let’s practice what @DrStachowiak calls “radical love.” Let’s follow @SaraKAhmed’s lead and “get proximate” to the stories of others.

Let’s look beyond what IS to imagine & invent something BETTER.

We know better. Let’s do better, teach better.

And let’s start now. /end