age or ability?

i was talking with a colleague and confidant about grade-level systems, and we began thinking about what makes more sense for students: age-level or ability-level placement? i immediately thought of other learning processes such as martial arts, music, sports, visual arts and almost everything else that is typically taught outside our K-12 classrooms, and i realized each of these operates on an ability-based placement system. black belts are not just the old fogies and many middle school music students are much more accomplished than some college student trying to become that guy-at-the-party-who-plays-guitar. so why are students in our schools placed in grade levels based on their ages, forcing teacher to teach myriad levels within a single group of students?

i think socialization is one reason. students should be able to socialize with peers at or near the same age, especially during adolescent years. we have all heard about 13-year-olds who go to college and turn into socially inept savants who live frustrated, incomplete lives, having never developed certain parts of their socio-psychological selves through social interaction. also, exceptionally advanced students often learn so quickly, that even higher level courses are too slow for them. they actually need accelerated courses to be challenged. but is it elitist to offer accelerated options for those who are exceptionally able learners? it is if we ignore the needs of other students. but we don't think that has to happen.

let's consider what most kids need:
social interaction with peers: ah, but 'peers' can be defined by age, intellect, specific aptitude and interests, not just the other kids on the block.
academic challenge: bored kids are usually bored because their learning, lightning fast at birth, has continuously slowed to a mind-numbing belly crawl. think back, you know what i am talking about.
life challenge: this is a little fuzzy, but kids need to learn how to deal with struggles they will face throughout their lives. we offer safe environments to explore academic learning in schools, so we can cerainly help ensure kids begin learning life lessons individually while they still have support networks like parents, guardians, teachers and other guides available. out in the world, sometimes there's no one but you and your problems. if that's the first time you've dealt with these types of problems, you might be in trouble.

we need to figure out how to balance these things without excluding or severely limiting any of them. keeping students with kids the same age no matter what leaves some kids bored and artificially limited and others struggling to keep up, often learning more about how to limp through an upcoming high-stakes test than any actual knowledge or skills. learning must be connected to the rest of the world, so there is no reason different age-levels and different academic levels need to remain bounded from one another. we adults work with and learn from one another, even though we are all different ages and levels of ability and experience. why not prepare students to do this more naturally by encouraging it while they are still in school?

i suspect that there are enough variations among students regarding different kinds of aptitudes and abilities that all forms of developmentally important interaction can be met through an approach that limits arbitrary and artificial barriers between students. i realize this is a complex process and deals with very complex inter- and intrapersonal activities. i don't believe that attempting to simplify the students into least-common-denominator categories is the best way to address this complexity. i realize this post contradicts itself in some places, but the argument does have multiple valid perspectives so i have decided not to edit them out. i hope this transparency will allow better discussion of this topic.

timelapse invite

greetings, all. i have set up a wiki site for the simple creation of a collaborative story called timelapse about a person like me and like all of you. in fact, it IS me and all of you. the story takes place over the course of 24 hours, though what happens within that time is up to all of us. use of time travel, of course, is encouraged. you can find loose instructions at the top of the page. please feel free to write as little, as much and as often as you wish, but remember that we are trying to incorporate the dreams and ideas of many different people into one constructed person. this project will end at 5 pm on Monday, April 23rd. the page will be locked at that time, allowing no further edits or additions. a new project will follow. enjoy.

warning: graphic discussion

are graphic novels lower on the food chain than verbal prose? than poetry? are pictures, combined with words or standing alone less effective, less valuable than words alone? advertisers would say no. the art world would say no. the american national standards institute (ANSI) would say no. so why do haughty-graphic-novel-bashing-commenters writing for pseudo-affected audiences feel their opinions are fact?

what if we transported ourselves back in time to live amongst the inca? should we wag our fingers at them for not figuring out how to construct a language that was based on binary relationships rather than ternary systems of meaning-making, as is used to construct aymara, one of their chief languages? it seems a embarrassingly post-elitist to denounce the communication system of a society that existed six centuries ago, yet successfully practiced mortarless stone construction, brain surgery, sustainable high altitude agriculture and operated with a government that included separate chains of command, creating checks and balances on authority. in many ways, this society in south america was far more advanced than the majority of the world. yet, they communicated in a very different way than their contemporaries, a way that many believe is better for the obvious purpose: communicating. many critics of prose cannot wrap their brains around the delicate, smashing facets of poetry. many poets cannot see the dynamic living magic in writing for the stage.

the graphic novel is another form of writing, implementing multiple ways of learning and information presentation/uptake that are more complex and require significantly more planning than prose. the process of creating a graphic novel involves ways of thinking and composing that many of us who dwell beneath the surface of the overpopulated algae-choked verbal lagoon cannot even imagine, let alone practice with any level of understanding or success.

but i love words. notice the simplistic symbolic binary construction of that which you've just read. words are great. let's not denounce their brothers and sisters, though.