If we are to know the elephant, we'll need to make learner motivation the core outcome of public education.
With apologies to American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) who penned the original poem from which I have created this version. This fable has been attributed to many cultures and places. Apparently Saxe attributed it to India many years before his time.
With President Obama’s election, the time is ripe for a new dialogue about what the core assumptions of our public policy should be. So far, it seems that the discourse is dominated by adult voices that seem blind to the world in which our children are living. What would our system be like if the central tenet of public education was to cultivate and support each person’s motivation to learn and work productively for something they care about?
Five Blind Policymakers and the Elephant
Five wise men of authority
To learning much inclined,
Went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might change the others’ minds.
The first approached the Elephant
And happening to climb
Up his broad and sturdy back
At once began to whine:
“21st Century work place skills
and quickly, we’re losing time!”
The second, approached the animal,
Grabbed the beasts long trunk
Felt its strength and utility
And shouted in a funk
“We have no standards
It’s standards m’lads
all else is just plain bunk!”
The third reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What this beast is plainly like
Is mighty clear,” quoth he;
“‘Tis basic skills and discipline,
that’s what kids need, you see!”
The fourth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
It’s about outcomes and experience
And empathy, my good man!
The fifth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “Academics, oh glee,
It’s achievement that gives us hope!”
And so these men of wisdom
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
They all were in the wrong.
So oft in education wars,
The disputants I’ve seen,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about the fate of kids
Not one of them has seen!
Adapted by Steve Jubb (2009)
An Education Parable: The Blind Men and the Elephant March 4, 2009
Posted by nonebutourselves in Commentary, Ideas and Reflections.trackback
If we are to know the elephant, we'll need to make learner motivation the core outcome of public education.
With apologies to American poet John Godfrey Saxe (1816-1887) who penned the original poem from which I have created this version. This fable has been attributed to many cultures and places. Apparently Saxe attributed it to India many years before his time.
With President Obama’s election, the time is ripe for a new dialogue about what the core assumptions of our public policy should be. So far, it seems that the discourse is dominated by adult voices that seem blind to the world in which our children are living. What would our system be like if the central tenet of public education was to cultivate and support each person’s motivation to learn and work productively for something they care about?
Five Blind Policymakers and the Elephant
Five wise men of authority
To learning much inclined,
Went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind)
That each by observation
Might change the others’ minds.
The first approached the Elephant
And happening to climb
Up his broad and sturdy back
At once began to whine:
“21st Century work place skills
and quickly, we’re losing time!”
The second, approached the animal,
Grabbed the beasts long trunk
Felt its strength and utility
And shouted in a funk
“We have no standards
It’s standards m’lads
all else is just plain bunk!”
The third reached out an eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
“What this beast is plainly like
Is mighty clear,” quoth he;
“‘Tis basic skills and discipline,
that’s what kids need, you see!”
The fourth, who chanced to touch the ear,
Said: “E’en the blindest man
Can tell what this resembles most;
Deny the fact who can,
It’s about outcomes and experience
And empathy, my good man!
The fifth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
“I see,” quoth he, “Academics, oh glee,
It’s achievement that gives us hope!”
And so these men of wisdom
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right
They all were in the wrong.
So oft in education wars,
The disputants I’ve seen,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about the fate of kids
Not one of them has seen!
Adapted by Steve Jubb (2009)