Csikszentmihalyi began his book with a quote that I really liked. He said that, "more than anything else, men and women seek happiness. Everything else we strive for money, health, prestige, everything is only valued because we expect that it will bring us happiness." I think that this is so true we work so hard to make money and become successful, but at times these things can make us miserable. If men and women seek happiness then so do boys and girls. Sometimes I think some of us forget this because boys and girls are just little kids. If children seek happiness as much as adults then as educators we should try to make school a happy place filled with meaningful learning.
Most educators try so hard to incorporate differentiated instruction into their lessons. We try to make sure we touch each type of learner, the ESL child, the special needs child, the academically talented child etc, but what about the differences between boys and girls? You don't hear many educators say that this lesson is geared towards the boys or the girls. Since we don't do that many of our lessons are lost on the children that have no interest in that area. According to the article young men who were passionate about the activity experienced flow and those who weren't didn't experience flow, especially in the content area of literacy. Knowing this why not allow boys to read about topics that interest them. In a way let them make up their own reading curriculum with guidance from the teacher. In my opinion if a child is reading then who cares if it is a classic novel. I would rather have them read something than nothing at all.
I personally love when flow happens throughout the day. It makes the day that much better. I want to share this enjoyment with my class so I try to make it happen for my students. I want my students to walk away from a lesson with understanding. If I need to find out what makes my students tick then that's what I will do. Educators put in a lot of extra hours why not make them count.
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4 comments:
I like your mention of the many various learning satyles we see in our classe. I agree that educators do and must create lessons to reach out to the different styles. I think flow can be discovered when all of te students feel control and involvement with lessons and tasks.
I think that if schools learned and practiced differentiated methods for boys and girls, then maybe the success rate would be better as well. It is so amazing for me to see the difference because I work in a coed environment and I try to "keep in mind" the differences.
I often wonder what are they doing at the "all boys" schools in our nation. THese are schools where academics is stressed and the pressure to compete is tremendous.
I whole-heartedly agree with your point of view. Give boys a chance to feel connected to their work and they will be connected to it.
I can not agree with you more. I actually try to let my students boys or girls choose topics that interest them when it is time for independent reading. During writing each child write something that they have some prior knowledge about so it makes it a little easier for them to become engaged in the material. We should gear more lesson towards what makes the girls or boys happy. We may see some signifcant changes!
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