Educational Article: Could School be Both Too Easy AND Too Hard?

I believe reading this article by Anthony Cody, "Could School be Both Too Easy AND Too Hard?," is important for educators and non educators alike - too often I believe we over simplify the difficulty of school and the concepts involved. Personally, I work to make my 7th grade social studies classroom about the skills necessary to succeed - attempting to have my students read, write, and think critically and independently. While student feedback is essential too often they want to explain a lesson was not fun - at times we must balance the fact that learning is not always fun during the process. But the mastery of material and the application of such learning is a great feeling.

This educational article was found at http://blogs.edweek.org/ Living in Dialogue Blog Section

This article makes many thought provoking statements like this one: "I also think we end up here with a far too simple concept of "easy" and "hard." I think the way we need to make school "harder" is not by increasing the number of facts that students need to memorize, or the age at which they learn math concepts. I think we need to deepen their ability to apply these concepts in meaningful ways." I recommend checking out the entire article here.