02nd Mar 2008
just because i’m interested
Chris and I and a friend went last night to see a one-act play based on the story of Leopold and Loeb. The friend sent a link to a good website when she got home that had more of the story — two young men, in the early part of the 20th century, who thought they could commit murder and get away with it simply because they were so much brighter than most of the people around them (and richer). If you’re interested here is the link.
I’m writing about this not just because of the story, which is very interesting and includes one of the most famous summations of all court history: Clarence Darrow’s speech against the death penalty (he would, later on, become a part of the Scopes monkey trial about teaching evolution in Tennessee) but because I am sitting here reading about this. I have a to-do list the size of my arm and about 18 different things I could be doing right now but I’m not. I wanted to step outside what I do and learn about something different, just because I am interested in it. I think we can’t forget the importance of letting us and our students have time, sometimes, to learn about something new just because it fascinates them.
We only get one chance here, on this spinning sphere. Every day that is lost in testing is a day you can’t go back and get again. I know we have important things to teach our students, but isn’t it more important that they learn to care about learning and follow their own areas of interest as well? Learning something new, doing something interesting makes each of these days we have sparkle, in its own right. Who are we to take days away from children for testing when we’re not entirely sure what it tells us or what the results mean?
Amen.