1987: There’s no doubt the learning game is changing, K-16. And the teaching game, in this digital age, is running ten steps behind, as usual. Even 30 years ago, Ivory towers attracted the brightest students. 
Even in that era students’ acumen threatened a well-established tradition of academia, and professors scurried to ensure their students paid a reasonable price for learning. In 1988 while teaching at a top-ranked university, I designed a scope and sequence of an introductory required Spanish Literature course. After all, I was a curriculum specialist! The course incorporated everything I had learned in my post-graduate work in Education. I wanted to motivate, prepare, teach for retention (in hopes that some students would continue on toward a minor or major). Since these students comprised the top 5% of college-age students, I thought it in their best interest to show them everything I expected of them, including the midterm, the final, the quizzes, an explanation and example of the kinds of papers I would require, rubrics for assignments and criteria for each grade they would like to achieve, the opportunity to submit any work early for my feedback, and much more. Although the course was “transparent,” according to the folder of required submissions of syllabi for every course, mine was more demanding than any other professor’s in the department: more papers, more difficult criteria for grading, more quizzes and tests, more readings, a “literary theory” portion that is not even included in the course description itself, and more. The students struggled to understand the transparency at first, but as soon as they understood the challenge, most rose to the occasion, and some even submitted their written work to and were published by student publications across academia. As a result, I gave many A’s, and the department immediately chastised me and encouraged me to give less. 
So… I raised the criteria required to complete for an A, B, C, etc., and the students met those expectations as eagerly as the year before. It happened a third year, and my students began to major and minor in Spanish. 
As they populated the Spanish National Honor Society, they began their own student publication in Spanish. The department, however, never ceased communicating to me their disapproval of my methods and how I am “inflating the grades” and not keeping students in their place by giving lower grades. It was the worst of times!
2017: Several of my former high school clients approached me with matching issues. They spent time in high school learning to compensate for their dyslexia and dysgraphia and ADD/ADHD, relying on accommodations but learning to take full responsibility for their work. Every client had gotten into top-rated universities and they embraced the challenges they would be facing their Freshman year. They knew that, given their issues, they must orchestrate their time and resources when asked to read and write. But, all of them at their respective (and respectful? institutions) were struggling with at least one of their courses for the simple reason that the professor placed only the next class period’s readings and assignments on-line, with NO access to the reading material until their PROFESSORS released it. In short, they were finishing their classes, doing regular “college stuff,” and would not receive the next assignment to do until the next day or night before the assignment is due in class. And to make matters worse, they could not start on that assignment until they finished other classes for THAT day. 
They had on the average 12-18 hours to read large passages and write large response essays. All of my former clients now lamented poor grades and frustration at not being able to budget their time and practice their compensation strategies that got them into the universities in the first place. It was the worst of times!
In the 1980’s, my colleagues believed that withholding information about how they assess their students and what content they will address keeps students guessing and “motivated” to earn that grade, with little consideration as to whether they are actually teaching well or their students are learning well. This information became the power to control every student who expressed any desire to earn a good grade. 
Almost in a childish or evil way, these colleagues seemed to throw out a vengeful assignment or pop quiz or grade papers very harshly, again withholding the proper feedback as to how the assessment was made. After all, these professors a generation ago had experienced the same hazing treatment in their own academic pursuits.
Yet, nowadays, little has changed. In my work with students who struggle with particular learning differences, I have seen the same harsh, unprofessional treatment in the digital age. I am speaking of the practice of PIECEMEAL online placement of content and assignments- such as Haiku, Bright Space, etc. Professors more and more are placing only the NEXT day’s readings and assignments online, leaving students completely unable to work ahead or work slowly and in their own time. 
While the digital tool is AMAZING, and truly streamlines many logistical solutions to academic needs, teachers use them as a “digital control” of student study habits, as a source of power over how much a student brings to each class. In my personal and professional opinion, professors who do this struggle with the insecurity that their students’ “learning something” too quickly might ruin that perfect teachable moment they had planned. 
Or, even more cynical, teachers fear being upstaged or exposed for not knowing something. In a world of Google searches, students can fact-check a professor any time. To illustrate, teachers might only post a reading passage and written response essay prompt one or two days before the class period it is due. With such shallow intentions, teachers like this at the very least deny students the opportunity to learn independently and in multiple modes. But, in addition and especially for those who need such accommodations, this “strategy” strips away the ability for students to budget their time appropriately and process things deeply. 
And whether we like it or not, whether it is good or bad, the digital age has allowed our students to do more, have access to more information, etc. When students struggling with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia, for example, receive a 20-page article to read and a two-page response to write the day before it is due, they cannot apply the compensation strategies needed to produce quality work with such short notice. Over and over again in my work, my client says, “I’ve got to read this 25-page article for tomorrow and answer these short essay questions, but I just got the article last night. My professor just posted the questions (“prompt”) this afternoon.” And yet, for the last two years these high school clients and I have been emphasizing “working ahead” to make sure their work has depth and quality.
With such limited time and learning issues, my clients don’t know how to ask me for help now that they are in college. I try not to show my 
attitude and ask them the obvious WTF questions. Instead I focus on what each client can do and needs to do. I might read the article aloud or do a pre-reading focus session to make sure they reconstruct the meaning of the passage in a way that both facilitates retention AND answers the questions efficiently. Sometime, as painful as it is, I ask them to read the passage aloud to ME after I make myself quite familiar with the questions. Then, as they read, I stop them at each juncture that addresses a question. We brainstorm a response on a digital document, and then they keep reading. In short, I maximize the short time they are given to process large chunks of information. Except for those verbally gifted (and usually female) students who can process quickly, this treatment is academic cruelty.
What are those WTF questions? 
-Why aren’t all the reading passages for the course available from the beginning? Students (busy or with learning differences) can surely budget when they will have time to read.
-Why aren’t the response questions/prompts available at the beginning of the course? That way, students can create efficient ways to reconstruct the passages they attempt and attack them with quality. If a student can (and needs to) budget her time to do work, why can’t she do it with this course?
-Do professors really believe quality reflection can come in writing that is being assigned only days before? It seems pedagogically counter-intuitive.
-Do the professors really believe that doing the work on a limited distribution timeline will make learning “better.” What about the NON-linear learners or the ones that must see the WHOLE elephant before biting off one bite at a time?
-Do the professors believe their students might sabotage the class if too many of them already know what they might be addressing in class that day merely because they have done their reading and understood it profoundly? Does this mean professors are insecure or perhaps ignorant of how to utilize student input while they teach?
-Do the professors really mistrust the students to “dig deep” and therefore make sure students do some sort of busywork to prove they have been inspired by the reading material?
Online placement of content and assignments is an efficient communication tool, and students really do benefit from doing “prep” work before coming to class.
Especially in a college environment where some of the distractions are part of the total experience and classes do not meet daily, students need the autonomy and flexibility to decide how they must study taking into account all they value: 
social interaction, learning differences, course load, obligations and other deadlines, distractibility, interest, quality of their work, anticipated grade, and so much more. But here again, just as I have seen in many high school educators, the constant, daily work load with surprise content and even more unanticipated assignments related to that content, discourages students to gage how they should spend their time. When those students (especially those with learning challenges) underestimate the work and time assigned to them, they end up turning in poor quality work or no work at all. Teachers, then, can assess that work with poor grades and blame everything on the students. Surprising students with online assessments, reading materials and assignments strips them of any joy of learning. And, in my professional opinion, the only kinds of students who “succeed” in this scenario are those that boast superb executive functioning skills or who have been groomed to do academic work to the exclusion of everything else (nerds). I encounter so many twice exceptional students every day whose
intellect shines like the sun. But, the clouds of haphazard assignments over which they have no control to organize block the rays, producing discouragement in very capable students. In addition, outwardly, professors can simply absolve 
themselves of any professional responsibility by merely labeling such students and their behavior “disorganized” or “lazy.”
The big picture here is that in this current era, educators are using digital information to hold students hostage instead of assessing how students learn
in a digital age. Just like a generation ago, the issue is control. Did controlling students by haphazard grading and assignments, along with the threat of being “graded down,” help students learn best? And, today, does releasing content and homework assignments hours before the assignment is due help students to learn best? If these control strategies continue to be “best practices” at the university and high school levels, 
they will deflect the 
professors’ responsibility and place it on the students, allowing that ever UNcollaborative chasm between the ivory tower and student learning.
The digital age, along with the elearning platforms available, hold amazing potential for all kinds of students. But, these are still the worst of times! Zero changes have occurred between 1987 and 2017. The onus of learning lies on the student only. Professors seem immune to reflection about the effectiveness of their teaching. And, to make matters worse, the current environment merely attracts a population of students more and more homogeneous in the way they learn, slowly matching the information dump, hostage-taking strategies of current age higher education models. While the academic world relishes diversity, they subversively weed out all kinds of learners by their very adherence to a pedagogy of insecurity and pressure. The hyper-organized students and the unidimensional-thinking professor will survive in the current system, but they will both miss out on the beauty and diversity of thought from other kinds of learners. These students have the ability to learn and communicate and contribute ideas to academia, ideas that have passion, compassion, insight, depth, debate, inquiry and more. The “best of times” would embrace both the diversity of student learner and the diversity of instructional strategies. Digitally efficient does not make a teaching strategy effective. Providing all students the time, opportunity and dignity to learn and communicate that learning is possible, even in a digital world.
figure out whether their choice of university is the “best fit” for them personally throughout their entire college experience. Even with such a vague definition of “best fit” for them to perform well enough in high school to be accepted into college and even with “sage” parents in the Education field, the Race to Nowhere continues the longstanding tradition all the way through college. My daughter, now a senior at Duke, writes a terrific blog (wordsofhope.com), a small part of which exposes the harsh, psychological realities of living in an environment that has no clue it is even on the treadmill, selling the treadmill, recruiting students who only know how to run the treadmill. We were talking about my former blog post about frogs (please read if you haven’t), and she dropped a bombshell… well, actually, 
it was just a pithy statement I wanted to use as inspiration for this post. She simply said, “Dad, college success is 80% documenting your past, present and future and 20% learning.” I asked her what she meant, and here are the nuggets of our conversation.
an amazing progeny of my wife. She possesses everything and anything necessary to organize, locate and/or “document” important events. If she needs it, she has it… stored or saved somewhere!
Many universities allow such “transfer” simply because they do not offer (those strategically avoided) required core courses in the summer. “Who cares about learning and joy, I must get the highest GPA!” Scurrying for a 4.0 is like running a sprint with “record time” but with no finish line in front.
and I mean any interaction or accomplishment or achievement they have done or are in the process of doing, in real time, because the race to nowhere throws students off the treadmill if they have not proven themselves or they cannot prove themselves in an instant. The only defense that one measures up is to have documentation of one’s personal value… and to present it to someone who values those documented credentials. So much for the joy of learning!
from other students, inflating their own egos and resumés, reinforcing the desire to keep running the Nowhere Race. Running faster means you document your future internship and then run even faster to the scholarship application process to make sure you get a reputably named scholarship to fund your travel, expenses, and in some cases, even the internship itself. You see, the scholarship is not just a way to help students financially, but it is another notch in the CV, another resumé-building activity that has no planned end to the construction. In my own sardonic perspective, students won’t wipe a dog’s nose if it doesn’t have a slot on their resumé! For AMAZING ideas to help students think about learning and their own interests, I recommend Katharine Brook’s book You Majored in What?
Her study and organizational skills make her successful in that area, but, since so many are on the race to nowhere, she feels inferior with an A-! She feels helpless when she compares herself with other “runners” in the race. She loses focus and sight of what brings her joy and what she is designed to do and be! What charges her? Knowing she has something more to contribute to the world to make it a better place, to share with others and grow from a community of other altruistic heroes! What charges most Nowhere racers? Getting the prize before someone else! I can’t help but picture them running and narcissistically hogging the treadmill rails, making it harder for others to run ahead, blocking access for others to “succeed.” I really like this metaphor stuff!
In short, YES! I’m whining! Yes, this is the norm for anyone who needs to or wants to “get ahead.” And, yes, in many or most cases, “ahead” is enough to become another one-percenter! But, remember my son? He, too, has been accepted into an amazing institution of higher learning. And I fear for him! I truly believe it is THE BEST FIT for him! But, the apple does not fall far from the tree! My son LOVES being! Not doing…! He is present in the moments he deems important or meaningful… which are many but not necessarily traditionally academic! He applied to this university bravely revealing his true self in the application process: academic prowess, stellar community-building skills, intellectual curiosity, independent thinking and… yes… overcoming learning differences that make it difficult to “run their (traditional) race their (traditional) way.” They graciously accepted him. He loves learning and soaks up more than the average information dump… But, he does not document his life…! Comically, he DOES document his experiences and relationships with Snap-whatever, or Insta-thingy! But he does not behave like he is on a treadmill winning the race to nowhere! He would 
rather make sure his friends are accompanying him, pulling them up to the front, where he will probably dwell most often merely due to his natural intellect without even knowing or caring that he is “winning.” Is this success? In the world of Race to Nowhere, turning around to help others succeed is a death sentence, a guarantee you will “get behind” or “get left behind.” Will my son have to metamorphose into something he is not merely to “succeed” at his university? He is mature enough to stay true to himself, but is he willing to document his whole life, taking him away from the things he loves and turning him into a competitive, arrogant, scheming, superficial monster? Will this university pose the same challenge/definition of success, upholding standards that don’t allow him and many others to demonstrate their learning? I’m afraid I’m the one worrying about this… which may be evidence that I am part of the problem and not part of the solution, that I want my son to “fit in” and “be successful” like everyone else. It may even mean I do not have faith that he will succeed if he doesn’t continue to go against his nature and run this pathetically exhausting and counterproductive race.
He may surprise me and jump again into Nowhere Race Training with gusto, just as he had to do for 12 years to get into a school that might bring him joy and meaning. Eighteen years old is too late to change a child or an entire system of Education. I am hoping he will rise above the dehumanizing manner in which academic environments “compete.” I am praying he will remember how to take the knowledge he learns and turn it into wisdom, compassion and servant leadership. I so want him to succeed and be self-sufficient and happy. Perhaps going to college, whether the institution espouses the Race to Nowhere or not, really is about growing up, maturing and becoming comfortable with oneself in an ever-changing society while also learning a “cultured,” predetermined curriculum prepared by an institution of higher learning.
Do any of you have advice for me? Insight into how to guard ourselves and our children from losing their humanity in this crazy treadmill Race to Nowhere? I welcome your comments? I also offer you my own counsel if you so need. Together, we can learn!
I forget the difference. 
Anyway, the tadpoles in the eggs grow, they develop, they hatch… into the water. Again, they grow, they develop, they absorb their tails and climb OUT of the water. They know the water! They jump into it. They play in it! They procreate in it! They know how to USE the water for their own good, but, their expertise of water comes from having lived IN it and having looked AT it from dry land. 
Their perspective from the water is just as valuable as their perspective from dry land. 
Their goal in life is NOT to stay in the water thinking that the water brought them out of the eggs and gave them a pretty good life with a tail. Their goal is not to look incessantly for more water, better water, or the water most popular with all the other frogs! In fact, without the perspective of stepping out on dry land, the frogs would never know how to distinguish better water. They would not be able to respect those who have come from different waters. They would not even know that more water existed, and they certainly wouldn’t see that, in general, they are responsible to live their own life “happy,” not the life of other frogs. The distracting search for bluer water limits our capacity to grow into the frogs (or toads) we were meant to be. After all, a frog’s goal is “relationship” with other frogs in an exciting world into which we frogs may bravely step (or swim).
Now, what does this have to do with My Education Education? Everything! Allow me to analogize. We Americans are born into a pond of free and democratic education. Like for tadpoles, our “eggs” are short-lived. They are called Kindergarten. Now, I wanted to say “the Elementary Grades Years,” but, truthfully, the innocent shell that protects young lives with humanitarian, humanistic “play” and natural, meaningful and authentic learning dissolves and breaks even EARLIER than Kindergarten. That is, the “baby tadpoles” have very little time to “develop” their “tadpoleness” in the egg before the egg is shattered for more “water”- the water of Outcomes Based Education, or “academic readiness,” or “customized curriculum” or higher ERB scores. Our tadpoles stay too briefly in the haven of “play is our work.” In the short-lived life in their shell, our children must learn what it means to play TOGETHER, to play SAFELY, to play ALONE, to SHARE, and many more things that seem like natural human behaviors for which any curriculum of their interest is a secondary excuse. Teachers and “better waters” will not ever be able to “dump” these kinds of lessons into children in such a short time!
So human tadpoles are pushed into the water (and out of their shells) way too soon and are literally and figuratively flooded with more and different and “better” water: the next trend in Education promising the get the youngster “ahead.” Parents are told this new water is better. Their children will swim to the front of the pack if they just drink from the chalice of this next curricular or extracurricular panacea! 
And only the tadpoles at the front of the pack get to jump into the next best body of water, where the population of tadpoles is smaller and more “competitive.” This poses a threat to parents, as the tadpoles in this new body of water can all swim as fast as or faster than their own children. And so, parents help the tadpoles find more water to jump into, to “distinguish” their children from the others at the front of that pack. Some push the tadpoles to do sports, music, online classes, tutoring, “enrichment,” and more. So, our tadpoles never learn the world of any body of water because we parents are trying to push them through and out of one body into the “next best.” And then, by the time parents figure out their tadpoles are just like the other tadpoles even though their children had worked so hard at standing out, the tadpoles begin to lose their tails!
If you know anything about these creatures-adolescent tadpoles, that is- they stop eating and literally digest their own tails while they “go through the changes.” 
So, in reality, adolescent tadpoles actually ignore the water in which they live and focus on “more important” issues. (Wouldn’t it be nice to navigate through FAMILIAR waters during this period instead of hopping into new waters every 3 to 6 months? In Middle School, we may as well say the same thing. Middle Schoolers stop feeding on the “water” of Education and focus on what they were put on this planet to do: you fill in the blank here… individuate, move into Formal Operations Thinking, pick at their acne, develop a secure identity, etc. Whatever it is, adolescent tadpoles need time to grow into their own bodies, lose their tails and connect with fellow tadpoles to muster the strength for their upcoming leap OUT of the water, physiologically able now to manage a bigger world with legs, breaking apparatus, new and stronger muscles, etc. Biologists say that it is usually hunger that drives a tadpole adolescent out of the water. Think about the “water” we humans dump on our adolescents, like drinking 
from a fire hydrant! More classes, more tutors, more “extra-curriculars,” camps, etc. How often do we even know if our children are “hungry” for the water we pour down their throats? And, by this time, some of our adolescents have become quite skilled at a few things- through practice, drill, opportunity, privilege, self-motivation, parental threat, etc. 
There may or may not be the joy of jumping into the water like a young adult frog experiences or even the sense that frogs can and should hang and swing with other frogs with joy and by nature, but at least our children can jump into some of the “better waters” better than other frogs. Suzuki violin, the School of Science and Math, UNC School for the Arts, Governor’s school, “gifted” programs, rounding out our resumé to be eligible for the “best” schools and scholarships! Some of our young adult frogs can play in some really awesome water where others can’t. 
And this pushes the parents and now the frog itself to seek out newer… but related… waters, a process which has now formed into such a rigid formula, neither froglings nor parents can see any other approach to going through life’s waters. You see, now, we don’t want to push the frog too much into new waters where she might get caught up in a relationship with the other frogs at that level, or, heaven forbid, she might disregard jumping into the other waters that now define her as “distinguished.” Pushing the young frog even harder distracts him until he can be pushed into the next best body of water. Ultimately, these frogs only know the waters because they have merely lived IN them. Without the perspective of living OUT of the waters, the only path of “life” for these frogs is to paddle in the water with a “select” group of other frogs who believe they are just as superior. Even though the analytic capacity is limited for the frogs who only live in/on the water, their own community of “fast paced” frogs considers them to be “the best.” At the very least, having a perspective outside the waters gives a frog a broader and more accurate assessment 
and analysis of self and the world. Remaining on the treadmill for so long sometimes makes the frog lift that special middle finger in rebellion to the very academics that the community believes will bring him the best success and say “that’s enough” or even worse!
Dare we drop our guard, our pretense… and share? From pre-school to the finest of Ivy Leagues, we educators are ALL guilty of tuning the treadmill for the next wave of tadpoles! Which of we educators will be the first one to pull the plug!
But she did need an awakening of her spirit, that verbal, happy, creative little girl that had acquiesced to a compliant vomiting mouth of information in the 7th grade. You see, in the 7th grade, I encountered my daughter memorizing a list of prepositions. I simply asked her, “What IS a preposition and why do you need to know more of them?” She could not answer, dismissed me brusquely, and stated that the test was to write the first half of the list tomorrow and the next half the next day. I walked away sad and silent.
Like Mary treasured in her heart all the angel had spoken to her regarding the Baby Jesus, I basked in the joy that a teacher is reaching my daughter and melting her hardened heart!! I would love to bore you with scenario after scenario regarding Mrs. McNeer, but I don’t want to lose readers (numbers, LOL) and I want you to know the effect she had on my son, as well! And, by the way, I probably wouldn’t bore you if I, personally, learned 8th grade English with Mrs. McNeer, but for now, you’ll have to settle for this ordinary writing style. So sorry!
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