Posted by amy at January 31st, 2006

“Are there other affective objectives that would be more in sync with this particular class?”

And there is the rub. It isn’t that I am down on the idea of affective objectives that could be included in a curriculum; it is that all evidence I saw in my exposure to the Boston school system was that the curriculum was built around non-cognitive goals. I once asked a “why” type of a question in one of the groups (I think it was why is studying history important) and the kids answered in a monotone chant, eyes rolling like only a fourteen year old can master, their school mantra about valuing diversity. The question of why is this important had only been put to them in terms of understanding and valuing diversity. They couldn’t have a dance recital to understand dance, they had to have a dance recital that celebrated one of the many ethnic groups heritage, for example. They couldn’t have a cooking class where they learned how to measure and read instructions, they had to have a class on what role the empanada serves in indigenous cultures. They could tell you about esoteric traditions with the same type of recall I break out once every five years for Catholic Mass. Recall that is based solely on repetition with no application

And while I am sure the administrator and the teachers who instituted these guidelines were incredibly well intentioned, the result was that the affective objectives were misfiring, and in the mean time, they were producing kids who couldn’t read and write.

The girls in my knitting class became more self-confident because they finally got math – a freaky, abstract concept that no one ever really explained in a way they could understand and no one ever really required them to know. Their self-confidence came from the mastery of a cognitive skill.

I hope I am not seeming to stubborn or antiquated in my resistance, but I believe that affective objectives need to be introduced at a higher level of the scaffolding, after the mastery of the cognitive skills have been proven. Other wise they can distract from the job at hand.