Perception of age

Rebecca Smye-Rumsby
Jul 25, 2015
2 min read

One aspect of Ken Robinson's talk that I have always struggled imagining is the idea of mixed learning in terms of age. I found it hard to envisage classrooms with all age ranges and thought about how the older students must feel.

Growing up I had few friends from other academic years as there was a stigma in engaging with younger people. This only existed in school. I used to be in many groups such as scouts and the school band and this difference was never a problem here. I guess this is something engrained in the traditional school environment.

Considering this now, I think it's crazy that this 'pigeon-holing' could inhibit a students growth and limit their friendships to students of the same year. I do still wonder about how the older students would feel but this is only really a problem if the classes were divided into aptitude. If the focus is more based on topics and experience, and students are guided in a more individual manner, vertical classrooms could really allow students to grow.

I find this poem by Billy Collins, both witty and eye opening:

To My Favorite 17-Year-Old High School Girl

“Do you realize that if you had started building the Parthenon on the day you were born, you would be all done in only one more year? Of course, you couldn’t have done that all alone. So never mind; you’re fine just being yourself. You’re loved for just being you. But did you know that at your age Judy Garland was pulling down 150,000 dollars a picture, Joan of Arc was leading the French army to victory and Blaise Pascal had cleaned up his room — no wait, I mean he had invented the calculator? Of course, there will be time for all that later in your life, after you come out of your room and begin to blossom, or at least pick up all your socks. For some reason I keep remembering that Lady Jane Grey was queen of England when she was only 15. But then she was beheaded, so never mind her as a role model. A few centuries later, when he was your age, Franz Schubert was doing the dishes for his family, but that did not keep him from composing two symphonies, four operas and two complete masses as a youngster. But of course, that was in Austria at the height of Romantic lyricism, not here in the suburbs of Cleveland. Frankly, who cares if Annie Oakley was a crack shot at 15 or if Maria Callas debuted as Tosca at 17? We think you’re special just being you — playing with your food and staring into space. By the way, I lied about Schubert doing the dishes, but that doesn’t mean he never helped out around the house.”