By John Jensen, Ph.D.Today I watched while a large group of senior high school girls and boys argued loudly about why they didn't get along. Girls blamed the boys and boys blamed the girls. Neither was interested in how the other saw the situation, nor in careful listening to the other side, nor in any understanding of problem-solving. No one suggested that their own behavior might contribute to a problem. The single intent evidently shared by everyone was simply "Who is to blame?"
It dawned on me that this argument played out "the elephant in the living room" of US education, the unspoken presence that everyone knows about and no one addresses. It was the presence of irrationality driven by unmanaged emotion. Allowed to have its way, it demonstrates as does nothing else why education produces poor results so often, and also why the customary aims of education fall short. Continue on...
