Thoughts for Thursday….
Have you heard the story about the farmer’s donkey that fell into the well? One day a farmer’s donkey fell into a well, the animal cried for hours as the farmer tried to figure out what to do. Finally, the farmer decided the animal was old, and the well needed to be covered up anyway - it just wasn’t worth it to retrieve the donkey. (Here it comes…one of my analogies…it’s a good one, I promise.)
This story relates so clearly to students struggling to learn to read, and unfortunately not just our children, but our adult neighbors and friends who have never been given the opportunity to learn to read. We assume our society and our systems support all children learning to read and growing into literate adults, just as we assume the farmer will care for his donkey. However, when faced with challenges and needing effort and commitment to overcome those challenges, our society and systems often give up. We see our system leaders succumb to the overwhelm, they give up, they avoid, they delay…making excuses, actively or passively implying the effort is too great, the cost is too great, the solution is not clear, and “it just isn’t worth it.”
When we talk about literacy, that “it” is totally worth it! That “it” is important to my children, to my students, to their teachers, to their families, to their schools, to their communities. That “it” has the power to change and improve most of the challenges we face as a society today (I will save those connections for another post). However, it appears our systems, our public education systems, our state and national education leadership, have succumbed to the overwhelm and are not engaged in looking for a solution.
Don’t be discouraged (you know I will find a silver lining - my relentless mom and educator superpower is coming with some more analogies for motivation), we the donkeys; the parents, the children, the teachers, the readers and the struggling readers, the researchers, and the leaders have solutions. We have evidence based research to support effective literacy instruction based on the science of reading. We know how our amazing human brains learn to read. We also know how to teach reading so that 95% of students learn to read. So why aren’t we doing it? Why aren’t our children learning to read? Why do we have statistics across the nation of only 33% of students reading at or above proficiency?
Because we have ‘farmers’, our teachers and leaders that are overwhelmed and have not yet been taught to use effective tools. Instead of shovels, they have been given dessert spoons to address the issues, they continue to shovel the dirt into the well, in what seems like an unattainable feat and while they aimlessly try to fill in the well and end the misery, the donkey, our students, our children, our struggling readers and their parents and teachers have to sit and wait. While they wait they also start to lose hope, they lose their trust in their teachers to support them, they lose their belief in themselves…they stay standing, shaking off the dirt, but tiring of the wait, tiring of trying to stay upright while lacking any hope of having their needs met and getting out of the hole that feels so deep.
If we work together, pull our resources together, and genuinely invest in our children and our society learning to read, the hole we have lost so many children and neighbors to will shallow. Our schools need shovels and appropriate tools to address our reading challenges. They need evidence based literacy instruction, provided with adequate training on how to teach reading and writing effectively utilizing these tools, our teachers and education leaders need to be educated and understand the science of reading, we as a society need to fund and support this in all schools regardless of zip code.
As a recovering donkey, I am no longer crying, I am no longer waiting for my farmer to figure out how to get me out or get my children out of the hole…I molded the dirt I was given into steps, I broke through walls to access my own resources to build a firm base, and I am using this experience to support others. I am sharing the shovels with anyone who shows up to help or is in need themselves. I am hoping others take the shovels to their own farms and shallow the wells for their own communities. You know, if we think about it, even if we only have dessert spoons we can still make a difference if we have many working together.
So here is a little song inspiration as you head off in search of your shovel and shake it off! Keep going, keep growing, keep learning, keep loving...you’ve got this!
- Meghann
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