Proof that learning doesn't have to be a lecture

Posted on 2nd Feb at 7:57 AM

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Copy-pasted from my LJ because I'm lazy and...it says what I want it to say.

I have a class called School and Society that I take every Monday and Wednesday. I really enjoy the class, but I often feel like me and about four other people do all the talking and everyone else just sits there. Our professor, he asks us to call him Tom, gives us articles about studies on classrooms to read and think about and then we discuss them in class. Sometimes I feel a little confused as to what he wants us to consider, but I do try to at least speak up and get conversation going (and it's always the same people talking while everyone else just sits there). And it's not like we hog the conversation, because there are long periods of silence where NO ONE says or does anything. I don't say anything because I'm honestly waiting for SOMEONE to disagree or agree or whatever and just say something about what THEY think. Well, just recently, we were given an article about a study that Sirotnik discussed and how he feels that schools and their curriculum are "mediocre" because it's often a passive experience for students. They sit there and just listen to the teacher talk at them and they're rarely asked to think for themselves or encouraged to form any sort of opinions, social skills, or...well, anything! And our class as a whole all agreed that that was not "good education." For about 20 minutes, myself and a few other people keep throwing our opinions out. When someone new speaks up, I try and respond, but everyone is just sitting there either looking bored or "trying to hide." So, we all agree that asking the teacher to just talk at us is bad, but the 20 of us are pretty much all sitting there and forcing our professor to do just that. Finally, we lapse into silence, and I realize that while we all agree that the sort of thing we're doing is "bad", we're not doing a thing to change. And that's exactly what is infuriating about Sirotnik's article too, that none of that mediocrity is new. So, we're pretty much falling into the same pattern that we all clearly agreed was wrong and bad, etc.
I kept looking over at the other people in the room, praying they'd speak up, because I didn't want to just keep talking and keep this cycle going. No one stepped up for what felt like hours. Finally, I just spoke up saying, "Do you all really agree with that stuff? I mean, I feel like it's just a few of us who keep talking here and I really, honestly want to hear everyone elses opinion!" And no one says anything. Some people look offended, I guess, but I really didn't give a shit.
So Tom stands up and says "Well, I guess that's all we're going to get through today. I'll have a reading assignment for you on wednesday. Good job, Christine and a few other people." And then he walks out of the room. It is 20 minutes early and he just walks right out.
Five of us, just five, ended up staying behind and talking about what the hell just happened and we all agreed that he was definitely angry that for a group of about 20 teachers, we were pretty sorry excuses. No one was taking the initiative and practicing what we preached. Its one thing to talk about students taking control of their own education, but until we learn how to do that for ourselves, how the hell are we supposed to expect our own students to do it?!
It was incredibly frustrating and the five of us all felt really bad and kept talking about what we should have done and how we felt about the class so far and the lack of participation and then, as a group, we all went down to apologize to him.
He said that we all have bad days and today was just a bad day, but I feel like even that had a deeper meaning, or maybe I'm overanalyzing it. But still, you can just say it was a bad day, but maybe Wednesday will be a bad day too and the next week and the week after that. When does it stop simply being a "bad day" to being "bad teaching?"
I guess I'm not totally innocent. I'll admit that I'm hesitant or angry at times because I want more guidance from a lot of my professors. But maybe they're doing me a favor (or maybe they're just bad teachers, but that's another story entirely). Maybe they're trying to free me from the mundane and mediocre routine of just sitting and being talked at and being a passive, apathetic victim of my education instead of an active and vital part of it. And why do teachers and students keep falling back onto the mundane? Because it's easy. Because it's familiar. And that's what made what happened in my class all the more frustrating. We pretty much all came out and (more or less) agreed that it was bad education and the only reason it kept happening was because it was easier. And then we all sat there and only a handful of us had the sense to feel guilty about it.
...the upside to this all is that I got to talk to Tom after class and I guess my paper is right on track for what he expects.
You know, on the first day of class, he said that we're going to save the world when the semester is over. So every day he asks us at the beginning of class what we want to do for the day (and he is usually greeted with silence ). And at the end of the class he usually says something like "Well, I don't think we saved the world today, but we're getting there. What do you think?"
What do I think? I think I want to save the world. But I can't do that until I can get out of this habit of mediocrity and start working to change things.
Um, I had something about flutes, 'cause I was listening to NPR but...I forgot it. Whoops!

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