by MOSE WILLIAMS
Without a doubt, the most discouraging thing I hear from my students besides, “Fuck this class!” is “I don’t care.” And I always think out loud to myself, “Yeah, that’s the problem.” WTF?! Still, I find myself continually trying to convince students that what I’m teaching is of the utmost importance and that they should sit quietly while I teach.
I tell them, “A responsible learner pays attention because it will help them in the future.” Really? Inevitable chaos (it’s all relative though, right?) ensues and I am stuck in that weird position of either getting all worked up/pissed off, or throwing up my hands and letting it go. I do both with regularity.
It’s at this point when blaming the system is an easy way to console myself. Why is it that so many students really don’t care about sixth grade math and aren’t fooled by all of the advanced psycho and social manipulations we use to coax them into learning?
Is it because they don’t have the freedom to discover their own interests? I can see it in so many of their eyes—that “I’ve been forced to sit still and listen to you people talk since I was six” look. Why is it so hard for the educational system to give students space to develop personal academic interests? Or maybe it’s that kids aren’t naturally inclined to learn as quickly as our technological-industrial society demands of them. And it is a pretty damn fast pace. All eighth graders are required to take algebra, and if you haven’t seen the kind of questions on the CST, then check it out:
If you’re a masochist, click here for more.
A person could get pretty deep into analyzing the social motivations and implications behind current school design—and maybe we should. Why is this not part of the current political conversation? Seems pretty necessary if we want to cultivate “Hope.” Despite the best efforts of some extremely committed educators, the results in this test-driven system are not satisfying. In Oakland, for instance, the drop out rate is on the rise, currently at 37%.
Not sure what to say, other than I’m pretty impressed with how well students and teachers are able to cope with a consistently high level of frustration in the current context. Or maybe that’s just my school…
6 Comments
March 25, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Funny (sad) story: There’s a game I play in the dance classes I teach where we reach up into the sky and pull down a star. I decided to play the game with my 2nd graders in Oakland and after we jumped up into the sky to grab the star, I had a number of students look at me with distress and say “I didn’t get one.”
They failed at a game that involved only their imaginations. Maybe they were trying to sabotage my game, but either way it’s sad that so many of those students expect to fail even when they don’t have to and also that they’re more comfortable solving multiple choice, test-prep problems than they are using their imaginations.
March 26, 2009 at 4:04 am
I think every teacher has felt this very same frustration when teaching students. Don’t the students understand how important it is for them to learn this? But you bring up an interesting point…maybe not only do they not understand the importance of what we are teaching, maybe they are the ones that are right. Perhaps what we are teaching is just NOT that important.
In this environment of high stakes testing, we are certainly returning to a undesirable test-prep focused way of instructing. Not only does this discourage critical thinking, personal development, and learning engagement…it also negates any unique skills, interests, and knowledge that our students bring to with them to our classroom.
We as teachers need the room to help our students develop these qualities rather than their ability to take a test on information of little relevance to their lives and experiences. To do this, we do need to analyze the social motivations and implications behind the current school design. It amazes me that there is NO discussion of this in any debates regarding NCLB. Instead, even the Obama administration is too focused on the surface level flaws of NCLB. We certainly need drastic changes in the way that we view education if we would like to see a more motivated and engaged student population.
If you are interested in reading those who are discussing change in the current school design look into the work of Michael Apple, Giroux, and Hursch. There are also many ‘Marxists’ out there in the field of education that have some interesting views on this matter.
March 26, 2009 at 10:06 am
I have no solution to your question. Imagination in children is something that must be valued and nurtured by adults in the lives of children long before that child reaches his or her first classroom. I can tell you that, as a developmental English teacher in a community college, I struggle also in my classes to ignite their passions, to have them consider what excites them and those things about which they care deeply. Many students when they reach college have no sense of their value as individuals, and thus no concept of their potential both as an individual and as a contributing member of society. It just may be that as our society has prospered materialistically and technologically (and this is the debate after all) we have generally abandoned the concept of our children as having great worth–as our most valuable asset, and they realize this. It truly “takes a village”–however we no longer value the village either…Generally, the task of convincing students of their potential then has mainly fallen on teachers. This is the question I ask myself constantly…am I up to the task?
March 29, 2009 at 3:22 am
Earlier this year I taught Tom Sawyer to my 8th grade LA/SS classes. One of the most obv. themes is the hypocrisy of social institutions. Twain satirizes the church, medicine, law and schools– drawing attention in a uniquely pedantic, insanely boring chapter that drones on and on detailing the curriculum of the particular 19th cent. small town school. You read the chapter and think, where the hell did that come from? and what does it have to do with the adventurous lives of these little guys? Then it dawns on you that, in all his cleverness, Twain’s point is just that. We as a class laugh at the chapter, feel sorry for those poor kids and their anachronistic schooling. And as an enthusiastic second year teacher myself, I have to ask myself how much things have truly changed in the 150+yrs since …Moreover, I wonder if I’m teaching the concept of hypocrisy while simultaneously highlighting my own.
Next week we begin To Kill a Mockingbird and the US Constitution and I plan to bring the issue of gay marriage into the discussion. But I, in my capacity as a teacher, am essentially not allowed to comment directly on the obvious bigotry and (in my mind) unconstitutionality of One Man One Woman (OR)/Prop 8 (CA)… Yes, I can draw parallels and lead them to draw their own conclusions, but that would mean that I have to pretend like both sides of that particular issue have merit and applaud my students for simply taking a position if they so choose– even if their position is bigoted. “Open your copy of Mockingbird to page 45,” she said, feeling not unlike a cog in a hypocritical machine.
Hi Mose. Cool blog.
October 13, 2009 at 7:41 pm
I’m am a student teacher right now and I’m saddened by what I have been seeing in classrooms. I am seeing brilliant students being belittled by bureaucrats that evaluate them on a narrow scale of achievement. I don’t know if I can be a part of this system. I’ve been having trouble sleeping and eating because I am so upset by how students are treated. Why are we forcing this useless information on them? Why are we separating them from the rest of society for 12+ years? I’m considering just dropping out. I have no money and no plan b…
October 14, 2009 at 9:21 am
as a teacher I also see brillant students being challenged to stretch their thinking. We need to step away from this view that students are learning when they are listening. Instead we need to engage, discuss, move, challenge, and have fun.
I know when I go to trainings and am expected to sit and listen, my mind wanders after about 5 minutes. I tap my pencil, fold little pieces of paper into origami masterpieces, take several bathroom breaks, write notes to my colleagues– I turn into my students. However; at workshops, interacting in small groups, my ideas may be challenged, expanded on, and discussed. I am interested, focused, and even though not always on-task, I am learning.