The Fallacy of Precocity

or..."I'm not a smart kid, I'm in algebra I"

Malcolm Gladwell speaks about this idea at length in his awesome lecture found here, don't have an hour (also available on 92Y itunes account to listen whenever) here is a summary which this post is based on.

Prodigies are easy. They advertise their genius from the get-go. Late bloomers are hard. They require forbearance and blind faith. (Let’s just be thankful that Cézanne didn’t have a guidance counsellor in high school who looked at his primitive sketches and told him to try accounting.) Whenever we find a late bloomer, we can’t but wonder how many others like him or her we have thwarted because we prematurely judged their talents. But we also have to accept that there’s nothing we can do about it. How can we ever know which of the failures will end up blooming?  The problem is that we identify talented kids by their ability to learn things, and we identify talented adults is by the ability to do things.  Yet the difference between learning and doing is the difference between black and white.

Rest of Article

I personally struggled (well maybe not struggled, but I was certainly aware of it) with classification in school. In elementary my friends were in Gifted and Talented and I wanted to go with them to do the cool stuff they talked about (we are talking 3rd grade here), I don't remember the explanation as to why only some 8 year olds got to go the "gifted and talented" class, but I am sure it was rich.

In 7th grade I wanted to be in pre-algebra with my friends, so much so that one day I got a bathroom pass, walked into Mrs Drakes 2nd period class with my friends in it and asked if I could be in the class.  How would you handle this situation?  I really wanted to be in the class, and although I never felt "dumb" because of the classes I was in, I quickly figured out I wasn't one of the smart kids...

... and by 9th grade, I stopped asking.  I didn't enroll in AP courses when given the chance, and I only took one honors class (H Spanish 3, which was a joke by the way that I got a credit boost for that class) when a teacher said he/she thought I would be successful at that level.  This is the challenge of a system that has certain gatekeepers to achieve at a certain level.  I lost all agency in determining how high I could go.  The bar had been set, I knew what kind of student I was and worked hard to do the best I could at that level.

The problem lies in the focused linear and non-permeable lines we draw for students to move through school.  I feel like online lessons can work to undue this problem.  I am delivering content through Youtube videos that I make and let students work through material asynchronously, sometimes in class, sometimes at home.  I'm trying to introduce the business concept of ROWE, into my classroom (thanks Daniel Pink!).

This year I have asked our AP physics teacher to list one or two ideas per unit that I can present the students that he would like them to be familiar with coming into AP physics.  Students can self-select into this content should a bolt of confidence strike them given their progress on any given idea.  Having produced the lesson and practice online, I am not responsible for the differentiation that comes with inviting students to choose to do this work.  I only have to be there for support when they come to bumps in the road.

The big picture is this class, for any student, at any time, can morph into a H Physics class as the students choose to.  Students have a choice to push themselves to that level that is never there once you enter the College prep track.  The open ceiling also includes a clear well defined floor.  If you can do these things (insert list of essential core standards of passing a class here), you are guaranteed a C.  One teachers comment.

"So you have asking them to do the work in your class, that they used to have to do in G (general) Physics".

My response was yes! the only difference being that with confidence and encouragement, that student can self select into more challenging work at any time.  Where as once they were enrolled in the G course, that was all they were going to be exposed to all year long.

It's important to note that everyone (teachers) would prefer school to be this way, we have simply been lacking the tools to make it viable....until now :)

Cheers!