When I walked into the open area where my team is housed, a young teacher was sitting alone in one of the waist-high cubicles. She was speaking into her iAudio U2, recording a digital story. She looked up at me, and shared, “This is hard to record, especially without written notes.” As I heard these words, I flashed back to the conversations we’ve been having over the last few weeks about digital storytelling.

“You’re exactly right,” I told her. “This is hard.”
“It’s harder than doing a blog or podcasting,” she responded. I agreed. I expressed how grateful I was that I hadn’t yet had to craft a digital story via the oral composition approach. It’s what she said next that was really interesting.
“It’s hard to do this because I’m used to writing everything down. But, you know, this is in reverse for our Special Education kids.” I again agreed and shared that this was exactly the conversation we’d been having over the last few weeks. She continued.

“My students can do the oral but they won’t do the writing. They can talk for 3 minutes straight and tell a story, but I have to do this multiple times.”
“As you model this process to them, ” I responded, “you’re establishing common ground. They’ll see that you’re not that good or proficient at it, but they’ll be able to do it better.”
“Yes,’ she replied, “for them, this is their strength.”

This conversation was quick, but profound. It was profound because it reminds me that we often force our children to learn the way we do. In many cases, that’s great. But, when you consider what the TED Conference speaker, Sir Ken Robinson, had to say. . .essentially that our creativity is educated out of us.

If we’re so busy educating children to OUR strengths as educators, aren’t we diminishing the strengths that our children have? Can’t we find a way that nurtures the strengths in our children? Who knows? Maybe those strengths that we place so little value on–remember, Ken says we squander children–will be what save us in a flat world.

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Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure