Day 2

I wrote a paper for a University of Virginia graduate class in 1968 where I discussed the need of educators to focus on responsibility as a philosophy of education. It was published ten years later in Clearing House as "Responsibility as a Philosophy of Education." William Wade, 1978. In it I lamented that if we did not do something to stem the tide of denied liability, we would end up with students who were unable to accept the responsibility for their learning or take control of their own lives. So, here we are thirty-three years later with students who won't meet deadlines, can't set their own schedules, and have an aversion to authority. It starts in elementary school, grows dramatically in high school, and is consistently enabled in college. 

I have allowed students who had to have their car tires rotated on test day, to make up that test at a later date. I have also given an incomplete grade to a student who was on vacation during final exams so that student could make up that missed final after the semester was over. What was I thinking? What was I doing? I should have known better. I pretended to believe I saw it coming. Yet, I encouraged the student to learn and enjoy learning by giving them chance after chance to not do the work on time and to turn it in when they felt like it. The elementary teacher tells the student "They won't let you get by with this in high school." The high school teacher tells them, "College has a firmer policy on late work. You better learn it now if you expect to succeed when you get there." College teacher tell the student, "The work place is unforgiving, and your must become a responsible member of society or you will not make it out in the real world." And we wonder why we have people entering the workforce who do not understand a work ethic or how to control their own destiny. We could blame the student but, by definition that is not a very strong argument. We are the teacher; they were the student.The need to deny liability and not accept responsibility for one’s actions probably started with "There are extenuating circumstances over which I have no control." We taught that. Technology has certainly added to the force of that belief. With the realization that life and technology happens, we began to give the student a break when they had "extenuation circumstances." They grew.

Day 1

Starting a blog is like jumping from the top of a bluff without looking to see how high or what is at the bottom of that bluff. I do not know where this will lead or how long it will take to reach the bottom. But I have jumped. I have only jumped because I can see a crowd behind me running in my direction. The only direction to go is forward. It is, perhaps, too bad that I have run out of land to stand on, but I would rather jump than be pushed. Somehow I feel I have more control over jumping than falling. I am not sure I should debate it that long since I have already taken the leap. Now what?

The people behind me are in a series of frantic conversations. They are shouting, carrying banners, building videos, blogging, tweeting, and singing about the difficulties they see in education and how education and learning is out of control. Some students of the 21st Century are not responsible, have no understanding of deadlines, do not admit to harsh realities such as lying, cheating, stealing, and general law breaking. A cartoon in a daily newspaper May 6 illustrates the point. A child talking to her grandparent tells how the cartoon "bad guy" was caught passing a note during a test. The grandparent says "so he was cheating." To which the child says, "Yeah, but we don't call it that, Grandpa. He was test messaging." Funny, but an excellent example of our current ability to rephrase our life in such a way as to cover the truth and to live with our lies. So, how did we get  here and what can we do now that we know we are here? If you read this, you perhaps care what is being said about education.