School can serve as a great source of joy and achievement, but it can also leave students vulnerable, sad, diminished, and wounded, writes Kirsten Olson in her Education Week Commentary.
While education has long-served as a route to achieving full personhood, Olson says this notion is being threatened as learning is increasingly viewed as a testable product, intelligence as an innate quality, and failure as fault of the pupil rather than the education system. By dispelling the myths that educators know what’s at the core of making children learn and that they are adequately trained to judge every child’s performance, Olson maintains we can navigate the shoals of schooling without becoming shipwrecked.
What do you think? Does modern schooling send toxic messages to some students? Can that be remedied?
