{"id":345,"date":"2012-10-13T13:17:45","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T13:17:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/?p=345"},"modified":"2012-10-13T23:33:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T23:33:16","slug":"345","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/345\/","title":{"rendered":"Why should we teach both character and knowledge?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2F345%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/stress1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-353\" title=\"sad and stressed\" src=\"http:\/\/rosarioconsulting.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/stress1.jpg\" alt=\"sad and stressed\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/stress1.jpg 500w, http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/stress1-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cauchipics\/4471686868\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/\">http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cauchipics\/4471686868\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>I believe that we can agree that the teachers who impacted us the most were the ones that served their students with love and served them with principled discipline. \u00a0\u00a0During a road trip with my wife, we listened to a thoughtful podcast from NPR\u2019s \u201cThis American Life.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The piece entitled <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thisamericanlife.org\/radio-archives\/episode\/474\/back-to-school\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cBack to school\u201d shared insights from Paul Tough<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0In Paul\u2019s book &#8220;How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character&#8221;, he underscores the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots. \u00a0\u00a0How should our educational system reach parents and students who are trying to break the cycle of poverty? \u00a0\u00a0How helpful is standardized testing with regard to this problem? \u00a0\u00a0This program suggests that we can promote student success by nurturing loving and caring families and arming students with character building habits. (a.k.a. non-congitive skills)<\/p>\n<p>This program was especially meaningful to my wife Sarah who teaches Biology at a state college in Georgia. \u00a0 \u00a0&#8220;For me, I see the results of a child whose life has been spent in poverty. \u00a0A lot of the students that I work with come from disadvantaged backgrounds. \u00a0 You can&#8217;t even worry about the cognitive skills yet because they haven&#8217;t figured out how to learn. \u00a0 This is why this program hit home with me.&#8221; \u00a0 \u00a0 After reflection on this program, she felt a greater conviction to serve her students well and being aware of their backgrounds. It also gave us a great appreciation for the work that Sarah&#8217;s sister does at a non-profit out in Montana that helps to arm parents with the right tools from the start- teaching them parenting skills and building relationships with their children (<a title=\"Thrive\" href=\"http:\/\/www.allthrive.org\">www.allthrive.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>I strongly encourage everyone to listen to this program. \u00a0 In this post, I wanted to share \u00a0a few insights that I felt were important:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>87% of students in Chicago public schools come from low income families<\/strong>: \u00a0This number was shocking to me. \u00a0 \u00a0Poverty is bad enough. \u00a0 Mr. Tough makes the observation that we can often correlate poverty with forms of domestic emotional trauma. \u00a0 \u00a0In May 2012, Sandy Doyle outlines data suggesting that <a href=\"http:\/\/inthesetimes.com\/article\/13162\/the_poverty_of_domestic_violence\/\" target=\"_blank\">domestic violence is on the rise due to our job crisis<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>How much can a teacher help a student who has lived with a high degree of home trauma?<\/strong> \u00a0For children who have lived with a high degree of emotional home trauma, what can teacher&#8217;s do? \u00a0 Some of these kids have experienced horrible life events: murder, domestic violence, abuse, and theft. \u00a0 \u00a0 Common sense would suggest that children who live with high degrees of home trauma will be highly distracted from learning in schools. \u00a0 What can we do?<\/li>\n<li><strong>James Heckman suggests that we may be putting too much emphasis on standardized testing<\/strong>: \u00a0 As a numbers guy, I respect the desire to have goals and to measure team against those goals. \u00a0 James Heckman, a nobel prize winning economist, has spent a large part of his career trying to understand what makes students successful in life. \u00a0 Consider the GED, a test of cognitive skills that can serve as an alternative to the traditional high-school diploma. \u00a0 From his study of the GED test data, one can observe that GED students are more likely to have positive life outcomes than those who did not take the test. \u00a0 \u00a0GED students, however, are more likely to &#8220;drop out&#8221; of marriages and college than students who finished 4 years of high school. \u00a0 \u00a0If students should be learning more than cognitive skills like those taught by the GED, what other skills should they be learning?<\/li>\n<li><strong>What is the value of teaching non-cognitive skills or character building habits?<\/strong> \u00a0 Mr. Tough suggests that educators should find ways to teach non-cognitive skills in addition to cognitive thinking. \u00a0 These are the &#8220;don&#8217;t give up&#8221; sorts of life knowledge. \u00a0 \u00a0These skills can include soft skills, character, social skills, grit, \u00a0and\u00a0perseverance. \u00a0 The <a title=\"7 Habits\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Seven_Habits_of_Highly_Effective_People\" target=\"_blank\">7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey<\/a> may outline a list of practical &#8220;non-cognitive&#8221; skills.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Trauma from a bad home life prevents your brain from learning cognitive skills:<\/strong> Kids living with domestic home trauma often <a title=\"Fight or flight\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fight-or-flight_response\" target=\"_blank\">live with a mindset of &#8220;fight or flight.&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0When any animal is being threatened in a fight or flight situation, the rational center of their brain is turned off. \u00a0 The program suggests that it&#8217;s biologically intractable to teach young people who live with domestic home trauma and high home stress.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n<!-- Facebook Like Button v1.9.6 BEGIN [http:\/\/blog.bottomlessinc.com] -->\n<iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Finspiredtoeducate.net%2Finspiredtoeducate%2F345%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=false&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height: 30px; align: left; margin: 2px 0px 2px 0px\"><\/iframe>\n<!-- Facebook Like Button END -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/cauchipics\/4471686868\/sizes\/m\/in\/photostream\/ I believe that we can agree that the teachers who impacted us the most were the ones that served their students with love and served them with principled discipline. \u00a0\u00a0During a road trip with my wife, we listened to a thoughtful podcast from NPR\u2019s \u201cThis American Life.\u201d \u00a0 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":347,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/inspiredtoeducate.net\/inspiredtoeducate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}