To Learn: License, no Freedom

Leaving the elementary school campus after a productive volunteer session I know there lies confusion below my satisfied surface. Satisfaction because I am practicing community investment in local education. Confusion because there appears a contradiction at the heart of the education of these young people: they will possess the fundamentals of adding and reading, but they will not be able to use those tools because of the tacit tyranny of the teacher, and the lack of application of lessons to their personal lives. Exposed to this contradiction and the unspoken nature the tyranny, almost certainly will leave me misunderstanding the hopeful potential for educating young people. The contradiction stems from the improbability of a teacher to engage students in interactive learning activities. The dysfunctional learning is a result: as soon as children recognize the classroom culture to be grounded in discipline rather than learning and group processing. Indeed, as much as individual students have learning styles so too does the group.

In fact, as a teacher we must lead the group in developing an empowering style of learning which will discipline the students to develop respectful interactive behaviors so that they can have fun learning together. The motivation of the students and teacher must be on critical thinking skills in all areas of study because it will reinforce the interests of the individual students to maintain a functional classroom and the interest to learn more about their lives. As it is, the motivation is to appease the teacher/to avoid punishment; it is her wrath and judgement that drives most students to accomplish the assigned tasks.

My mind snaps to attention as I see her ruler smack with a loud 'Thwack!' on her master text. The students report the work to her like cadets to a drill sergeant. Hands pop up and down, eyes remain to the front, feet under the desk, backpack behind the chair, all for the sake of discipline and order. It's this kind of compensation that inflicts the classroom and compromises the minds of the young people. Really what must be either agreed upon or thrown out, is whether any classroom style develops critical thinking or memorization of the material.

But, like an uninvited guest the curricular demands intrude and eat up time. We evade the truth of our confounding circumstance and wonder whether to confront the problem head on: the students are not learning to think. We must move beyond rote memorization to student investment in lessons. How do we encourage students to care enough to invest time and energy? Rooting the lessons in their lives.

I flash to my own experience in school. Classrooms silent except for the frustrated voice of the teacher. Knowing how to add but not knowing why it matters. Excited for the end of class but having no place to go once I was gone. Everyone leaves with less energy and interest in the subject matter than when they entered.

The legacy of permitted apathy begins everyday authority reinforces their control over curriculum and the culture of the classroom. Control must be carefully shared between both the students and teachers.