Why Teach Our Children to Dream?

Why teach our children to dream? Why should we encourage creative thought? Why should we encourage them to think for themselves? Accountability? Responsibility? How do we convey that we honor these qualities?

Is it through standardized tests? How does a standardized test measure if a child is accountable or responsible? Which leads me to ask the question: Who is really being assessed in this situation: the teacher or the child?

Needless to say, I am an educator, a teacher of high school English language arts. Furthermore, I love to read. I enjoy delving into a new world through the pages of a novel. In high school, I learned that words symbolized so much. I began to recognize the secrets hidden within words. How each had multiple meanings and I would enjoy taunting my cool and un-geeky friends with my sarcasm. I participated in the A.P. classes (Advance Placement), which offers college credit to high school students. I was even ranked number eleven in my graduating high school class. Originally, I was number 8, but was bumped down by a few students who took A.P. Art?! Admittedly, I was a bit sour because I took A.P. English for two years and A.P. History. Now, I’m not saying Art isn’t challenging because it can be. I took painting and photography courses in college, and it was not as easy as I thought. Yet, I still do not care. I suppose I am still a little upset about the whole A.P. Art thing, but do you see my point? Maybe my “top ten” status would have qualified me for more scholarships? Nevertheless, am I any less smart, intelligent or clever simply because a few A.P. Art students bumped me out of the top ten? I don’t believe so.

This leads me to ask the following questions: Can a test really measure the potential of a human being? What is the significance of a few points on a test? Why are we forcing our children to compete? Not just compete, healthily, but at the cost of self esteem, self confidence and self worth. If a student doesn't do well on these tests, are they, therefore, incompetent? I have heard stories and met people who went to college that were labeled as ADHD, with Learning Disabilities, or Physically Disabled. Why must we have other people tell us what's best for our children and our communities?

As an educator, I am disheartened, sometimes. I understand that we all have jobs, rules, regulations to follow, families, bills for which we are responsible and lifestyles to maintain. Yet, when is too much, too much? When is compromise simply defeat or better yet the failure to truly see the damage we are doing to our children? It so happens to be the same damage that was done to us. However, we didn’t have to wear uniforms in my generation. At least we maintained a seemingly little freedom and individuality with our clothing. What proof of creativity and freedom do our children have? Well, there are many schools that do not require a uniform, but there are many that do. My experiences all derive from schools with a uniform dress code. I understand that it may be advantageous to have a uniform dress code in an area or city with high percentages of gang violence. However, do the uniforms really decrease gang violence? Our children never cease to amaze me. If they want to do something, they will simply discover a more covert way to do it. So, if uniforms aren’t fully solving the problem, what is its real purpose? Or is it another systematic attempt to filter out the strong from the weak? Those who can get with the program from those who cannot? Survival of the fittest, is it? Or, simply, a technique geared towards influencing our children to compete in a system of rules that we had no power in creating. The same system that we once fought, but it seems we have forgotten with the onset of integration, affirmative action and the small amount of authority from the ‘powers that be’ who have willingly bestowed to pacify us and maintain their control of the masses. Our participation by acquiescing to “quiet lives of desperation” negates our power in this system of rules. Contractually speaking, if we truly comprehended these man-made laws (also known as positivism laws) we would prove many of them to be juxtaposed to the God given rights of man (also known as natural laws). I guess, it depends on Whom or what we value more: God’s law or man’s?

If we really care about our children, then there are a number of ways we could improve their quality of education, and it has nothing to do with tests or instructional strategies. I have discovered that most ‘problem children’ simply want someone to listen. They truly desire someone to see them as a worthy human—a child of God. Many unbelievers would be amazed at what can be achieved when a child feels empowered by an adult who expects as well as demonstrates moral and ethical standards. The majority of our children are living in poverty, abusive homes, states of depression, drug addictions, etc. Yet, we continue to find more ways to divide them, degrade their self worth with the onset of continuous testing. School can be an enjoyable place to be. Maybe not always fun, but where a child is in danger of learning something new every day. Envision school as a place that encourages research, freedom of speech, respect, tolerance, academia, integrity, growth and love of nature and mankind. Now, is that too much to ask from an educational institution? Or, is the pursuit of material wealth in excess our true goal?

If the purpose of language was to convey the truth, then let us revive an old tradition. The art of rhetoric was simply that, an art to use words to convey truth in various ways to persuade. However, we have forgotten to teach this lesson to our children because people use rhetoric everyday and we along with our children are not evaluating their abilities to use this sacred art. We allow our children to be influenced too easily. We must fight and teach our children to fight negative stimuli. In the words of Marian Edelman Wright, "we must reclaim the minds of our children." What do we do when we discover little Kevin listening to Snoop Doggy Dog or Nirvana? We become fearful of what we do not know. Listening to what the media says instead of sitting with little Kevin and listening to the lyrics together. Let's take an interest in our child, or are we too busy to get to know our own children. They should be seen and not heard, right? They will be until little Kevin has a gun at the school, is caught experimenting with drugs or alcohol or has an illegitimate child all before the age of sixteen. Then, we will hear him.

We must remember to dissect the truth from this new hybrid language called english. There was a reason slaves weren't allowed to communicate in their native tongue, so they had to learn the language of their slave masters. If life and death is in the tongue, what are we really speaking? Moreover, how often do we think on the origin of the words we speak? If symbols can maintain their meanings throughout the years, can words do so as well? Also, remembering that language includes body language as well as one’s tone of voice and facial expressions. However, if a person is not privy to all the perspectives of language and only the words, then where does that leave us? At the mercy of the written word, which can contain all types of irony, symbolism, and hold multiple meanings and puns? For instance, a person could write a book that twists the truth (we call them "white lies"), but if that book is found and read hundreds years later, who is there to validate or negate their language? For instance, John Milton's "Paradise Lost," is a story we now hear in church. It is the well known story of the devil being thrown from heaven. Oftentimes, the monarchy used artists to document their version of the truth. Since monarchies believed they were chosen by god to rule (divine right, sovereignty, manifest destiny), they only saw fit that their legacy be documented as well.

We must not forget that language can be used to manipulate and control, as well as to do Good. We must not become lazy, but must always challenge our leaders to speak to us truthfully and/or honestly. If not, then we must be aware of this coded language and decipher it. Not to willingly accept it by those who use their ivy league education and/or degrees in higher esteem than our own. It doesn’t take a Harvard graduate to think. Discernment is a God given right. For instance, in a college persuasive writing course, I was shown strategies on how to write objectively with opinions and biases. Did you catch that paradox? Now, that simply means that the words are objective, but the content is propaganda. How often is the news delivering propaganda and misinformation at us and disguising it as in fact, the truth. Yet, in school were we encouraged or taught to research information and be inquisitive or memorize, recite, identify and recall facts? I recall one of my favorite english teachers allowed our AP class to choose our own research paper topic. I was elated. I was finally able to CHOOSE the topic I wanted to research. I was an inquisitive sort. The assignment gave me the opportunity to discover a topic I found to be interesting. Now, I was fumbling in the psychology/philosophy section because at the time I desired to be a child psychologist. For some reason, I somehow fell upon John Paul Sartre’s book on existentialism. I was completely engaged in his ideology. I wrote and researched not dutifully, but instinctively asking questions and finding the answers to my own questions. It led to me question and research more and more throughout my life. It was then I realized that everything we learn has been recreated from someone else’s theory. Nothing is new, but recycled thought with new ideas that each person adds on like patches to a quilt. I wish more teachers were like Mrs. Carr. In her class, I learned not only how to write better, but I learned about myself because she allowed to us to be creative. But now, so many take the curriculum “guideline” as the step by step directions to a destination. I was shown that there are many ways to a destination, and the journey is the best part. If everyone’s journey was the same, what fun would that be? Needless to say, I had a much more creative educational experience than my students, and this is what saddens me because I know mine wasn’t the best. I can only imagine those who had more resources along with their individuality and creativity. My family encouraged me to dream and to be free, and school only enhanced it. Now, I dream to help my students’ dreams come true. We must create a world that is safe for our children. It is the debt that all men pay, we sacrifice freedom for safety, but why can’t we have both?

Yes, we can! Change is possible. There is still hope. It is advantageous to teach our children to dream. It also may still seem as a disadvantage in some households. Households where deferred dreams are the norm, and the bitterness leaves remnants in the empty quiet spaces between people. The more I look around me I discover, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them”-Henry David Thoreau. Simply, following the rules of a job they dislike, producing more people who will be like them. And I am a part of this “training” that I find nonsensical to an extent. Regardless, I still dream and encourage my students to dream. Isn’t that what teachers do? We are to encourage the creative in the child to desire education and/or knowledge. Often, it has been referred to as an art. If teaching is an art, then why is it not treated as such? Either you can sing or you cannot; some people can draw, paint, have an eye for photography or they do not. Some artistic talents are inherent, some can be learned, but can the artist be cookie cutter? Can the artist be controlled? If so, then by definition, is what they produce still art? Art has always challenged the society of its time. Artists are always admired posthumously. I pray that the art of teaching does not befall the same fate.