Done.

Dangerous word. Okay, that may be overplaying it a bit, but this word, this idea–I believe–poses a threat to learning.

It starts with “due.” Seems necessary, and I suppose it is, but as soon we emphasize “due” (which we do) the work too often becomes about getting done. But isn’t that the point? We give kids work. They do the work. That’s the process. But I wonder if we didn’t create our own monster.

In my subject, at my level, the kids come to me largely conditioned to do to get done. This is especially true in writing, where kids often want to know the minimum word count–for no other purpose than to reach the “done threshold.” But, to their consternation, I never give word minimums, focusing instead on achieving purpose, not reaching a word count. If I ever impose a word count, I set a maximum. Anyway, back to my point, kids have learned, as we taught them (perhaps to effectively), to do to get done.

I don’t think we intended to, and I suspect I am not alone in wishing we could unplug this Frankenstein and address this malfunction in our monster, but whether we intended it or not, we did it. We created a monster with “done.”

So, what can we do with done? I have some ideas, but I am out of time this morning, so I will continue this post in a second part tomorrow, so I am not done. Never done.

Happy Wednesday, all. I am sorry that I didn’t get very far this morning. Have a good day.

Do. Reflect. Do Better.