Growing Pains

Here's what I know. Science learning fosters constant growth. In the last literature circle the question was posed "why do people find it difficult to ask questions?", and my gut-reaction was BECAUSE IT MAKES PEOPLE UNCOMFORTABLE. I stand by that reaction, because its true. Asking questions, digging for a better answer, for more extensive research defines the scientific community. To be someone who is able to ask those questions, means you have to be someone who is OK with being vulnerable, opening up, to work towards a more defined answer, towards greater collaboration. Both teachers and students in the science classroom need to be acutely aware of this fact to succeed.

Constant growth... I have been weirdly drawn to the story of Gary, Indiana for many years now. Gary, Indiana was a city formed artificially by the U.S. Steel Corporation in 1906 in a response to the high demand for steel production. Nestled on the shore of Lake Michigan, 25 miles south of Chicago Gary was a booming steel town on the forefront of science and industry. In fact, its education system was under the microscope from the start, because all of this science and industry made way for a "progressive" way of educating called scientific management. In a nutshell, "the factory model" of schooling in Gary was modeled after the factories that produced the steel for automobiles. At its inception administrators loved it, because it provided a away to send students on appropriate paths based on their achievements (think sorting hat) and while some students who thrived in the regimented environment loved it because they succeeded, many other students felt dismissed and unimportant. This model of education changed the U.S.'s school system for the greater part of the 20th century. Which is a real shame, because I'm not convinced that very much true learning took place there.

These schools were the antithesis of growth presented as the most efficient way to get the job done. Gary's economy collapsed in the early 1960s due to the outsourcing of steel production. Just like that, it decayed into a ghost town now overgrown with nature.

I think science education can be so much more than a list of rules and steps to churn out a product. Ready to let the science take over?

Here's some photos I took of a school in Gary, Indiana this summer: