Education: not ready to listen?

Guest post By Adora Svitak | Cross posted on Adora's blog

Editor's Note: This is the third post published at The Innovative Educator on this topic. The first post was Do we really want to listen to our children?  The second post was Listen to the students before it's too late.

The customer knows best.” It’s an adage seemingly old as time (for us young’uns, anyway). While it’s not always the case (as anyone who has worked an intense over-the-phone customer service job before may know), it’s certainly always valuable for businesses to listen to what clients are saying–whether surveys, market research, or feedback cards, many businesses have some structure in place to listen to their customers. And public feedback can have an important impact–Bank of America cancelled its $5-a-month debit card fee before it even began due to customer backlash.

In almost every area of the private and public sectors (think of representatives meeting with constituents or city hall meetings), there are ways for “customers”–those receiving the services or being represented–to make their voices heard. So why should education be any different?

Education? you might think. Surely there are those school board meetings or PTAs? But a crucial voice is missing in education: that of the student’s. How often do classroom teachers ask students to provide them with feedback on how their teaching could be improved so students learn better? When was the last time administrators sat down with students and gave them decision-making power or at least input–no, not just over the theme of the Homecoming Dance or how to decorate the school for the holidays, but important issues like curriculum, required courses, or assessment?

I’m asking these questions because of an email from a prestigious education membership organization that my mom recently received in response to talks about a potential book I was hoping to write (that would bring issues of student voice, reciprocal learning, and education technology to the forefront). It said that based on their research, the education community “is not yet ready to receive the message from a student.”

If the education community is unable or unwilling to receive a message about education from a student, I think we have problems. We’d find it unacceptable if our representatives suddenly started refusing to meet with constituents or if companies like Bank of America kept on charging ridiculous fees despite public uproar. Yet we accept that education doesn’t want to hear from students? We are the “customers” of our nation’s schools. It’s in our interest to learn in the best way we can–many of my fellow students have plenty of wise insights that I think could help change education for the better–but that simply won’t happen if the adults in the room are covering their ears.

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A prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, Adora Svitak (now 14) speaks around the United States to adults and children as an advocate for literacy and education transformation! Adora just started The Student Union  a group she started to bring student voices to education reform. She believes “Students + education leaders = positive change  If you’re a student with insights to share about your education or education leader (teacher, policy maker, educational service district administrator, librarian, media specialist, whoever can have an impact on kids’ education), ask to join”

You have read this article education reform / youth censorship / youth discrimination / youth voices with the title youth censorship. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/01/education-not-ready-to-listen.html. Thanks!

Listen to the students before it's too late

Our country has made many advances when it comes to human rights, equality, and discrimination. Women and minorities are allowed to vote and own land. Salaries of men and women are coming more into alignment. People of different races are given the freedom to marry and states are moving toward giving marriage equality to couples of same sex. We still have a way to go when it comes to discrimination, but we are making progress in a number of areas with the exception of one group that is making no progress at all.

This group’s rights are being horribly violated.  They are being denied the right to have a say in matters directly affecting their daily lives. They are being forced and coerced into doing things they don’t want to do and are having harm inflicted upon them in more and more ways. They are having their belongings confiscated from them like prisoners and are banned from things that free members of our society have access to. Those who stand up and speak out are often drugged into compliance. They are being silenced and told their voice does NOT matter, they have no say, and our nation is not ready to hear them. They are our nation’s second class citizens.

The group being discriminated against is school children.  

Ironically, the refusal to hear and consider the voices of children, may very well be what leads to the demise of the public schooling institution as we know it.  Kids are smart. In many ways, especially when it comes to technology and social media, kids are often smarter than the adults who are trying to control them. Students are using social media to connect and take a stand on a variety of issues.  They are staging protests and boycotts. They are telling educational software providers that they hate their product. They are starting their own student-led schools and they are uniting to opt out of high-stakes tests.

Now there’s a new way for students who want a voice in ed reform to have one.  High school student, international speaker, and author, Adora Svitak has formed a new group on Facebook called The Student Union. This group is designed to bring students (and adults who support them) together on issues that affect them. In many cases these will be the issues where they have been silenced for far too long.

The first issue they are uniting on is this:

Adora Svitak
Alright, how about this for a first topic:

Technology in education.

Students, how do you want to see technology being used in education? How is it being used (badly or well) in your current learning environment?

Here are some of their conclusions. Adults should be listening.

Technology Implementation in Education

1. Replace expensive schoolwide solutions like interactive whiteboards with more easily accessible, properly functioning technology (laptops to check out/bring your own device)

2. Live streaming and recording classes so that students are not hampered by inability to come to class in-person/can watch lessons again any time. (Ustream, Livestream, YouTube, etc.--all free).

See all responses are here.

Adora was inspired to start the group after a series of rejections by education organizations who were shutting her out of the ability to take part in the education conversation. Can you imagine that? Educators and educational institutions are telling students that they have no place in the conversation about matters affecting them. I’m not surprised by this as my own efforts to include student voice in the education conversation have frequently been dismissed.  Most recently in the conversation of teacher evaluation I have brought up the point that students must be included in this conversation. Below is a typical reaction this idea receives:

Lisa --in a perfect world I would love to have student input as formal components of the evaluation; but it's silly to merely lambaste an approach for a specific school district culture because student input is not formally incorporated.  

Lambasting an approach for a gross omission is not silly. What is silly is to even consider any approach to teacher evaluation that doesn’t incorporate students. Sadly, I stand in the ed reform minority. In the national conversation about teacher evaluation, you rarely hear students mentioned.  

The silencing and discrimination against students is is not by accident. It is by design. The students know it. They want to be heard but feel helpless in a system that refuses to consider them as these two high school students shared on The Student Union.

Blake Copeland ‎
If only the teachers and administrators would include students in the process it would accelerate the whole process and make it smoother. The schools do not see the students as an untapped resource like they should.

Ethan Perrin
A while back a bunch of students and I were frustrated with the curriculum of our social studies and English classes so we wrote a letter voicing our concerns. Not even a class discussion followed, though we requested it.

It is no longer acceptable to leave our, capable, brilliant, creative, and passionate students out of the conversation.  They have a voice and a right to be heard. If the adults in the world won’t bother listening, there is very little stopping students from taking matters into their own hands. There are people already doing this like Dale Stephens whose Uncollege movement is providing the world with an alternative to the often over-priced and inadequate services offered by colleges whose diploma is no longer the key to employment. Students know today’s industrialized model of school where they are ranked and sorted by their ability to compliantly memorize and regurgitate will do nothing to lead to their success in life. Families across the nation are supporting their children in leaving school at higher rates than ever before and finding that they can have very successful lives without school.  

There is nothing stopping students from taking ownership of their learning when it comes to secondary school as well. While all the adult ed reformers and unions are fighting over how to analyze, rather than inspire, today’s youth, the students may very well take matters into their own hands and leave behind a system that doesn’t value THEIR voice and THEIR success. If you want to be a part of this solution, join your friends at The Student Union.

You have read this article education reform / youth censorship / youth discrimination / youth voices with the title youth censorship. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/01/listen-to-students-before-it-too-late.html. Thanks!

Do we really want to listen to our children?

If you’ve been listening to the conversation about ed reform you may have noticed that there is one group whose voice is missing. That group is students and it’s not for lack of trying. Students want to be heard and they have a lot of smart things to say, but adults are often reluctant to listen. The problem is pervasive and overt with many organizations having no remorse or misgivings engaging in such practices.

Until now, these activities went largely unnoticed. This is no longer acceptable. It’s time to blast these doors open. Identify institutions that are engaging in discriminatory practices. Take a stand and tell these organizations that age discrimination is not okay. We can no longer leave out the most important stakeholders in the education reform conversation. Not only is this not okay, but students, educators, parents, and anyone who cares should boycott organizations that engage in such ageist beliefs. It is outrageous that such discrimination and silencing is targeted at the very people they should be serving.  

One such student who has been blatantly discriminated against is Adora Svitak. A prolific short story writer and blogger since age seven, Adora (now 14) speaks around the United States to adults and children as an advocate for literacy and education transformation! In response to this discrimination, Adora has started The Student Union. This is a group designed to bring student voices to education reform. She believes “Students + education leaders = positive change.


We need to be concerned because if somebody like Adora, who has credibility through years of working in the public eyes, is denied of access to share her voice, what about other students who have equal brilliant things to say about their education? Many of them have been told their voice doesn't matter, does not deserve to be heard, or is not wanted. These young people are often shut down before a struggle can even begin. To be clear, this is not about Adora not having a place to speak, this is about all the children don't have a place to speak. Adora has not been rejected because of her ideas, but rather because of her age. A class of people, not a person has, been dismissed. Adora's story is a concrete demonstration of the unjust and harsh reality that our adults have created to shut our children out.

To follow is the type of discrimination taking place within the organizations that inspired Adora to start her online student activism group.

Scholastic
Scholastic, the global children's publishing, education and media company, has a corporate mission supported through all of its divisions of helping children around the world to read and learn. They are focused on encouraging children to learn to read and love to learn, helping teachers carry out their important jobs and supporting parents in their role as their child’s first teacher.

• Discriminatory act: Scholastic contacted Adora for a picture because they wanted to use her TED speech in their paid website program, but they refused to consider any of her book ideas. They unabashedly shared this as their reason: We don't work with child authors.
• Response: It is hypocritical and unethical for a children’s book publishing, education, and media company to refuses to work with the people they say they say they are serving. A publishing company that is sending a message to young people that they are not worthy of being considered as authors is discriminating against their very audience, not based on quality or message, but based on age.
• Call to action
• Boycott: If you  are a reader of books, support companies that support children authors. Scholastic is not one of them.
• Facebook: Let them know student voices matter at their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Scholastic
• Sample update: Scholastic should stop discriminating against children. We believe you can be an author at any age. Why don’t you? What will it take to get you to lift your blanket policy against working with children authors? We’d love to read a book by Adora Svitak and other young people. Stop censoring children.
• Twitter: Send them a Tweet at @Scholastic
• Sample Tweet: Tell @Scholastic to stop discriminating against students & start working w/children authors. #thestudentunion https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheStudentUnion

ASCD (formerly the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development)
This educational leadership organization with 150,000 members says they are dedicated to advancing best practices and policies for the success of students. Their members are professional educators from all levels and subject areas––superintendents, supervisors, principals, teachers, professors of education, and school board members.

• Discriminatory act: Adora proposed a book idea to ASCD after speaking at their conference. The book would bring issues of student voice, reciprocal learning, and education technology to the forefront. Adora was told that the project was not something that ASCD can pursue because based on their research, the educational community is not yet ready to receive the message from a student.
• Response: Any member of the ASCD should know that they belong to an organization that believes it’s members are those who aren’t ready to hear from students.  If you are an educator that doesn’t want to hear from children, you are in the wrong profession. If you are an educator that does want to hear from children, and you are a member of ASCD, you should know that you belong to an organization that condones the silencing of and discrimination against students.
• Call to action

• Membership: If you are a member of ASCD that is offended that they believe you are not ready to hear from kids revoke your membership.  
• Contact: The 2012 ASCD Annual Report is title “The Value of Each Voice.”
  Let them know whose voices they are missing.
  Write to President of ASCD is Sarah Magana Shubelor. Exec. Director/CEO is Gene R. Carter Snail mail: 1703 N. Beauregard St. | Alexandria, VA 22311-1714 USA
• Facebook: Let ASCD know student voices matter at their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/ascd.org
• Sample message: Ready or not young people have big ideas about education reform and the ASCD should not silence them. Stop age censorship and discrimination and give authors of all ages an opportunity to share ideas and lend their voice to the important conversation of education reform.
• Twitter: Send them a Tweet at @ascd. Tweet abt them using #ASCD.  
• Sample Tweet: #ASCD thinks adults aren't ready to hear student voices re: #edreform. Tell them they're wrong! #TheStudentUnion https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheStudentUnion/

Children*s Festival
A world-renowned festival of performing arts for young audiences, the Vancouver International Children's Festival has been educating, entertaining and inspiring young audiences since 1978.

• Discriminatory act: After posting Adora’s teaching video, her mom contacted them about having Adora present at the festival.  They responded saying, “At this point we do not invite children authors but that could change.”
• Response: It is absurd that a children’s festival does not invite or allow children to present. It is outrageous that an organization whose mission is to educate, entertain, and inspire young people also discriminates against them.  This organization is happy to take ticket money from children and invite them to attend, but they don’t want to do business with them.
• Call to action
• Contact: The Children’s Festival (http://www.childrensfestival.ca/contact_us.php) and let them know you will not be attending if they continue to discriminate against young people.  Tell others to do the same.
• Facebook: Write on the Children’s Festival wall on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/KidsFest.
• Sample message: The Children’s Festival should stop making policies that discriminate against children. Age should not be the solitary factor in the refusal of a person to present. Stop the discrimination. Change your position. Let Adora Svitak present. 
• Twitter: Send a Tweet to @vicf and let them know that children should not be discriminated against.
• Sample Tweet: Tell @vicf they should change their position & stop discriminating against children. Let Adora present. #Thestudentunion

Schools
Our tax dollars go to support institutions of learning that are entrusted with our most precious resources. These institutions should be responsive to those whose tax dollars they are collecting. The government should not overstep its bounds when it comes to educating children.

• Discriminatory act: Most schools are governed without considering student voice. Rules are made for students, but they have no say in them. Classes and teachers are chosen for students whether they like it or not. Teachers and schools are evaluated without the insights or input of the very people they were created to serve.
• Response: Schools should be incorporating students into the decisions that govern them. They should also give students input when it comes to what kind of job their teachers are doing. Students should have a say in what they learn, how they learn, and who they learn from.
• Call to action
• Tell: Tell schools how you feel.  
• Facebook: If students are dismissed, they can start a Facebook group for their school to unite, share their ideas and how they might implement them.  Join other students around the world to share ideas about student rights and ed reform at The Student Union.  
• Twitter: If your school is not honoring student voice Tweet about it. Use (or create) your school’s hashtag and #TheStudentUnion. Tell your school student’s deserve a voice.  
• Sample Tweet: Students at #YourSchool deserve to have a voice. Who will support us? #TheStudentUnion

Adora Svitak is not alone. There are students being brushed aside and shut out of education conversations by the adults in schools and organizations around the world. This is no longer acceptable. Students want to be heard, acknowledged, and included in the conversations that affect them. Are you ready to listen? If so, join Adora and other students and those who support student voice at The Student Union.

You have read this article age discrimination / child censorship / education reform / Student voice / youth censorship / youth discrimination / youth voices with the title youth censorship. You can bookmark this page URL https://benncam.blogspot.com/2012/01/do-we-really-want-to-listen-to-our.html. Thanks!