Let's add to the Page 1 List that Dennis Littky created: What does "confident" mean? Do not succumb to peer pressure...

The first page of Dennis Littky's book inspires some readers to start making their own lists of "what should students be taught?"  and "What do we want students to have inside them when they leave school?"

Here are some items that two teachers compiled during a conversation.  You can heard some of the conversation on thjis SOUND CLOUD link

https://soundcloud.com/steveenglishteacher/prees-peerr

a soundblog sound cloud to connect...

a list of items

we want our children and students to be....

flexible

willing to learn another language

resilient (able to stand up after falling down, comfortable with being uncomfortable)

stubborn

dedicated

determined

willing to try again

what have parents failed to do?

is there something that we can improve today?

A SUGGESTED POSTER

What skills do you want to add to your toolbox?

Did my parents read to me at least one hour a day?

Did my parents expose me to other languages?

Did my parents encourage my social development?

Am I confident in a social situation?

Did I get enough fat, protein omega 3 before I was 4 years old (for brain growth)?

Baby's brain Growth

Mercola's article for babies and brains

Why we need omage-3 NOW

confident

initiative...  does the teacher make space for students to take over the class?

question authority

grateful   show gratitude

compassionate

suppress my individual desire for the good of another person (to help someone) or for the good of the group.

are you doing something because you want to do it or are you doing it because you want to fit in?

are you pursuing this goal because another person says, "You should do this."???

Many of these points are made in Littky's list, such as 
-- have integrity and self-respect
-- look at things differently
-- have moral courage
What does it mean to "be confident"?

Do not succumb to peer pressure.

Chapter 1, page 1: Male reader

When I watch kids walk into the building on their first day of school, I think about what I want them to be like when they walk out on their last day. 

I also think about what I want them to be like on the day I bump into them in the supermarket 10 or 20 years later. 

Over the course of three decades watching kids walk into my schools, I have decided that I want them to

❊ be lifelong learners

❊ be passionate

❊ be ready to take risks

❊ be able to problem-solve and think critically

❊ be able to look at things differently

❊ be able to work independently and with others

❊ be creative

❊ care and want to give back to their community

❊ persevere

❊ have integrity and self-respect

❊ have moral courage

❊ be able to use the world around them well

❊ speak well, write well, read well, and work well with numbers 

❊ truly enjoy their life and their work.

To me, these are the real goals of education.

I want students to learn to use the resources around them. 

I want them to read something or see something they are interested in and follow up on it. 

I want them to have an idea and then get on the phone and call people they can talk to about it, or pick up a book and read more about it, or sit down and write about it. 

When I imagine one of my students as an adult, I imagine a person who is a thinker and a doer, and who follows his or her passions. 

I see an adult who is strong enough to stand up and speak for what he or she wants and believes, and who cares about himself or herself and the world. 

Someone who understands himself or herself and understands learning. 

Creativity, passion, courage, and perseverance are the personal qualities I want to see in my graduates. 

I want them to come upon things they’ve seen every day and look at them in a whole new way. 

I want them to feel good about themselves and be good, honest people in the way they live their lives. 

And I want my students to score high on the “tests of emotional IQ” that life will inevitably throw at them over and over again.

Finally, I want my students to get along with and respect others. 

Someone once asked me, “What is the most important thing a school does?” 

I replied that everything I believe about the real goals of education is not possible if the kids in the school do not care about and cannot get along with each other or with the people they meet outside of school. 

I believe that this is at the heart of what we mean when we talk about celebrating and respecting diversity, and it is at the heart of what makes a school and a society work.

Get the book from ASCD.   

www.TinyURL.com/LittkyChapter1

Get the book from Amazon.