You're a genius! You're a genius! You're a genius!

It's good to see student's potential, not just their problems. What's not so good is to pretend that everything's just fine when it's not. Constantly looking for ways to improve teaching and curriculum? Good. Constantly changing the meaning of words so nobody has to face up to failure? Bad.

"This approach is genius," tweets TracingWoodgrains, who posts the suggestions below.

All this comes from a 2023 book by Gholdy Muhammad, Unearthing Joy: A Guide to Culturally and Historically Responsive Teaching and Learning.

Note that the word for defiant, confrontational, low-performing, at-risk and strange children is "genius," while "test prep" is "cultivation of students' genius and joy." Instead of celebrating resilience, schools are supposed to be so great students don't need to be resilient. An "unmotivated child" is a child whose school has adopted an "unmotivating curriculum."

Students have no agency. If they're not learning, it's the system's fault. It didn't recognize their genius and joy.

In a conversation with Education Week's Larry Ferlazzo, Muhammad discussed how teachers can support "students’ learning across the five pursuits — identity, skills, intellect, criticality, and joy."

Only 17 percent of Black 4th graders were “proficient” or “advanced” in reading on NAEP in 2022, she notes, but it's not the students who need help or intervention. The education system has failed these students by not creating "policy, curriculum, standards, and assessments that are inclusive of Black youth and responsive to their genius and educational needs."

Via Dylan Wiliam, here's a link to a Swedish study which finds "better achievement was associated with more teacher-led instruction, less connection to students’ daily lives, and —in particular — more memorizing of formulas and procedure."

Why would connecting math to students' lives lead to lower achievement? I'd guess it was a waste of time. The kind of teaching that's advocated to improve "equity" -- student-centered, culturally responsive -- may lead to less learning. I think that makes it harder for students to realize their potential, whatever it might be, and to experience joy.