I love ideas.
As a teacher, I heard many ideas. Kids have endless ideas.
Some sounded far fetched like the idea of creating a star in jar.
There is a science experiment conducted with oil, water and alcohol that likens the reaction to the creation of a star. This experiment inspired an idea that Taylor Wilson had. Taylor Wilson, 17 years of age, is now a nuclear physicist having developed a fusion reactor in his garage at the age of 14. I highly recommend watching the scientific wunderkind; click on the TEDtalk link below.
http://www.ted.com/talks/taylor_wilson_yup_i_built_a_nuclear_fusion_reactor.html
Taylor Wilson is changing the world. Taylor sees things in a unique way. He was given permission to do so.
I remember a grade 1 student completing a reading lab assignment and this was one of the questions:
Are the stripes on the zebra:
a) horizontal?
b) vertical?
Vertical of course. Basic.
The child walked up to me and said "I don't understand this question." So, I assumed she hadn't understood the subtext of the question and helped her read it again. "No, Mrs. Middleton, I know what the question reads." She was obviously perplexed. "What is it that you don't understand then?" So, I proceeded to review the geometry lesson on vertical and horizontal lines on the blackboard assuming the little light bulb would go on. "I know that vertical lines go up and down. Is the zebra sleeping?"
Aha. "Let's assume, the zebra is awake, so he's standing up and you are standing beside him."
Picture the stripes if the zebra was lying down and you were standing in front of his head.
My brain was more structured or predisposed to answering formulaic questions.
Her's, not as much. Less confines = more possibilities.
Why am I going on about zebra stripes? To illustrate the value of trust in our children's ideas.
Educating Taylor Wilson must have been a tremendous task - if a teacher felt it was his/her responsibility to do so. However, I would guess that the great teachers allowed themselves to learn from Taylor Wilson. The great teachers didn't expect Taylor to fall within the parameters of a grading rubric.
Great teachers likely gave the tools to inspire him and trusted/allowed him do the rest - without interruption.
I'd once discussed the science of plate tectonics to grade 3 students as we studied the lithosphere. I could almost see the connections their brains were making to volcanic and seismic activity. This extension to a lesson on the composition of the Earth wasn't part of the curriculum expectations - not at a grade 3 level - but it was fascinating and came about because of a question one of the students had asked.
During a federal standardized test taken several months later, a question pertaining to volcano eruptions was answered in great detail by 4 of my students. They wrote about plate tectonics and one child even drew a diagram of convection currents. This was extra research he'd done on his own beyond the classroom. The grading rubric did not recognize the advanced terminology or did it consider the diagram- all of which was quite relevant to volcano eruptions. He didn't get the points for his thorough understanding of volcanoes. According to the parameters of the federal education system score, he didn't get it.
Children like Taylor Wilson need to be inspired by education rather than filled with education. Structured curriculums and mandated subject content aren't conducive to evolved thinking. In fact, they may even curtail the possibility of discovery or genius at play.
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