It’s crazy to realize (or reflectively think about) that
John Dewey published How We Think
over a century ago, because a lot of his cautions about the way that school can
harm rather than help students are still very real issues in public
education. I feel like this quote could
be taken from an editorial on teaching on this very day: “The large number of pupils
to be dealt with, and the tendency of parents and school authorities to demand
speedy and tangible evidence of progress conspire to give it [giving the
correct answers rather than reflective thought] currency.” If anything, this sentiment is heightened,
since we have added the correct way to
think to the correct answers
problem.
Dewey’s points are some that we continue to emphasize as
methods of good teaching—prior knowledge is very important, students who don’t
answer a question immediately aren’t dumb, and there are many different kinds
of intelligence. He recognizes that all
children are naturally curious, and our job isn’t to create that thirst for
knowledge; instead, our role as teachers is to (and this is one of my favorite
quotes) “protect the spirit of inquiry, to keep it from becoming blasé from
overexcitement, wooden from routine, fossilized through dogmatic instruction,
or dissipated by random exercise upon trivial things.” As high school teachers, I think that we
definitely get the short end of this stick on this ability to protect the
spirit of inquiry because so many of our students have been forced into a
school environment where their natural curiosities have been forcibly shoved
into the recesses of their minds.
Standardized testing and harmful accountability measures have guided
their previous teachers to focus on following formulas with a sprinkling of
incontestable facts.
Instead of the true reflective thought that Dewey explains,
our students come to high school, ready to escape because the work of school
has become drudgery. Personally, I think
that the students sometimes think that all of life is drudgery, especially
since we present a college education as a means to getting a job where they can
make more money than their parents. We
(and I don’t necessarily mean only teachers) have taught students to define
success as monetarily outdoing the generation who has gone before. There is no spark of excitement in this
definition; there is only the drive to finish.
And what happens when students get to the point where they think that
they can’t properly mimic what is wanted by a test? They drop out, trying to get a head start on
the money-making necessary for the rest of their lives. Students tell me all the time that they could
make it if they drop out of school, citing the example of Bill Gates. I have to explain that Gates dropped out of
college, not high school. Also, their
example is telling, too; they don’t mention scientists or artists or others who
have dropped out. They talk about a man
who has made lots of money. Now, I know
this is a function of the economic situation that they have experienced, and I
don’t think anything is wrong with wanting to succeed in an economic sense. However, I do think that by playing into this
function of education, we are reinforcing the dominant powers of the society and
ultimately supporting drudgery for all.
I think Dewey would be very disappointed in this brutishness.
Just food for thought!
(I’m mostly posting this in reference to Dewey’s statements about Columbus’s
brave thoughts on the world being round.)
This has been an ongoing theme across the posts and class conversations, how we position education as instrumental preparation for the future. You build on that by asking about how we teach students to think about the purposes of higher education and a career or "job", often in a disrespectful way of their own families' work lives and situations. Your question is so important, how do we think with students about a vocation rather than a "job" that is inspiring, fulfilling, and useful to them, their communities, and the world rather than simply as something for economic advancement.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how to convince my students that high school isn't drudgery. I guess because most of the time, it is. Dewey would probably be disappointed in our brutishness. The worst part is, I think that the school system now, even with Common Core and TEKS and all of this insane culture of conformity being built around us, they think that they're doing it right. They read stuff like this and think "Yeah, that's exactly what I'm fostering in my classroom." They think that interactive notebooks and passing the STAAR are somehow falling within the scope of what Dewey was talking about. I'm still struggling with the concept of functioning within an administration that doesn't realize how wrong it is.
ReplyDeleteThat got depressing quickly. I think it's the weather. I just feel like these schools, the administration, the principals, and even many of the teachers, don't realize the drudgery that they've created. Or, worse, they have.