"...my vision for school would be to go back to Plato/Socrates were I just sit up on a hill and everyone who wants to learn would come to me and we'd chat and learn and engage in bettering everyone involved (plus society if it was lucky :) ). Your voice in learning is very important including what it takes for you and your peers to be successful.
Sad thing is our culture is often lacking responsibility and instead is one of instant gratification. Most people just want to be happy now and not work to get long term happiness through consistent work or advocacy. So, what we're left with is a rigid structure of school which is there to keep everyone in line so each person hopefully gets enough to be a consistent citizen. Finding the positive motivating factor for most, that doesn't take the inflexible structure is the $1,000,000 question. I'm sitting on the hill anytime you want to learn :)
~McCullough"
I recently ran into this student who is doing very well with their college degree and doing research for a nonprofit firm. We had a wonderful conversation about their current passions, future plans and how they appreciated those teachers who were 'different'. A quote they left me with stick with me forever,
"Students aren't dumb, we know which teachers care about us and when we do and don't learn. Those teachers who try new things that stretch us beyond what we know of ourselves are the ones we remember and appreciate. Thank you."
*If you wondered, we 'won' and this student earned what they proved they knew from summative assessments I had given and tracked throughout the semester in my own form of "Standards-Based Grading" at the time.