On Education

Here is an excerpt of an email I sent to a colleague:


Recently I’ve had a lot (and I mean a lot) of people saying things to me (not only students, but other staff as well), “when will I ever use this in real life?” and “when will this information be useful later in life?” Statements like these are usually made with a negative attitude. The thought is, “this information is not worth learning.” (An aside to this is, who are we to place value on certain types of knowledge and information? But that’s another discussion!) What it implies to me is that my life’s work is of no consequence. I’m appalled that both students and some staff have this attitude toward education.

While this attitude is extremely discouraging to me personally, we can know something about the attitudes of those who make such statements. To these folks being an educated person is not important. These folks assume that education and job training are the same thing; I maintain that they are not. It is my opinion that one of the most fundamental privileges of the human race is to expand our knowledge of the world around us, to become informed in the sciences (math, biology, geology, astronomy, etc.), to learn about our history, to become well read in great literature, and to become writers ourselves. In fact, I would not think it too preposterous to say that it’s not only our privilege, but it’s our duty. God created us all with minds that have the capacity to learn and expand; wouldn’t it be correct to assume that God desires that we learn?

Nevertheless, we as teachers are fighting a culture that does not value education. So I guess my takeaway is this: how do we change the culture? How do we create a culture where being an educated person is of great importance? How do we pass on to our students that being educated is valuable?

~

Here's something else to think about: is being educated important?

Non-Reality

We watch TV.

We play video games.

We email each other.

We watch movies.

We dink around on the internet.

We can virtually live our lives in apparent realities, which really are no realities at all.

What does this do to a person? What does this do to a collective society, where social norms are quickly and grossly eroded away? (Snippets of Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" quickly come to mind. Where do these grown men get the idea that having an illicit relationship with a teenager is ok?)

The other day at lunch we were talking about the impact that video games, TV, cell phones, and the internet have on young people today. We are the teachers; we are the ones that work with these kids day in and day out, hour after hour. And to be honest, when you think about it, it's quite scary what these non-realities can do to these kids.

Sure, we were talking about having to do the "song and dance" day after day just to keep these kids' attention. In the non-reality of TV, images change every few seconds, so the mind never has the chance to dwell (it never has the chance to think and reflect); it simply has to keep moving from stimulus to stimulus, processing a new image all the time. What does this do to the attention span of a student? It destroys it. In an entertainment-driven society, what does that do to schooling? It causes the student to view school as boring and a waste of time. The simple statement that this class or that class is boring implies that the student expects to be entertained.

However, what is more scary is the notion that these young people are actually incapable of discerning what is real and what is not; what is decent and appropriate and what is not; what is respectful and what is disrespectful. The stories started to come...'I heard about these kids that went out and killed these homeless people...and they didn't even realize how grossly wrong it is to take life like that.' And of course we remember Columbine and the various other school shootings that have taken place in this country.

Can it be that these non-realities can actually cause kids on a large scale to become socially retarded and morally bankrupt? Personally I would say yes....

BS

The Entitlement Generation

The other day I was talking to another teacher in my building about the typical woes of the education world, how that students today are not interested in working hard/thinking for themselves/taking pride in a job well done, etc., etc. He had mentioned that his brother-in-law referred to this generation of students (or perhaps young people in general) as the "Entitlement Generation." The idea is (and this theory plays itself out well, at least at my high school) that students aren't interested in working hard to obtain a good education; rather, they feel that they are entitled to certain grades and credits for classes without having to put forth any effort (or at least minimal effort, which translates into just "showing up") to earn these grades and subsequent credits.

Now, this certainly is not true for all students. However, the overriding mentality is that we as teachers owe them something. If the students miss a day, it is up to me to give them the assignment, the notes, teach an entire lesson to them at their convenience, etc. If they don't understand something it's my fault that I didn't teach it well enough. If they are bored with the class, it's my fault that I haven't done something (anything at all, including but not limited to, showing cool math videos (do any of these exist?!), thinking up cool projects to do (but if the projects require them to do complicated calculations then the project is not cool), doing songs and dances, bringing in candy, pop, cake, pizza, etc.) to make it "exciting."

Could it be possible that we as a culture have fostered this "entitlement mentality?" Is the "entitlement mentality" a function of today's American society? Have we really forgotten to show our children the importance of hard work, the satisfaction that comes from a job well done, the virtues of humility and politeness, and just the plain and simple notion of being a nice person?

I should probably say that I myself have been guilty of the same things, and by no means am I 100% qualified to point out the faults of our society, because no doubt, I am sure I've contributed to this quandary, at least in some degree. But it doesn't make it right. I know that at times, I feel like I'm entitled to this or that, but in reality (and here's where my Christian worldview comes in) I'm entitled to one thing: hell.

I really wonder if this "entitlement mentality" stops at 3:10, or if pervades every aspect of their (our) lives. My hunch is that it's a huge chunk of our American personalities (or more generally, our human personalities). I really wonder what that does to spirituality in America. I wonder if it makes their (our) receptiveness to the gospel of Jesus Christ basically nil. I would bet that it does.

This seems to me to be a situation well worth thinking about in greater depth....

Lighten Up!

Today I went to work (I'm a high school math teacher) and found my entire room had been TP'd.

A few weeks ago my homeroom class took it upon themselves to decorate the room for Christmas. I must say, the lights (some blinking, some not), the fake tree (with purple decorations and no star), and the "Happy Holidays" light are...oh should we say...a little on the tacky side. But it is festive nonetheless. And oh yeah, let's not forget the "Santa's Workshop" sign outside the door.

Anyway, I thought the TP job was performed by some nefarious foes, seeking to dampen our Christmas spirit with the dangling litter of toilet paper. After all, our "Santa's Workshop" sign has already been stolen (and returned) twice. And yes, they not only had spread toilet paper all around the room, and even around some of my calculators, but they also had hung the TP from the ceiling tiles--it was, needless to say, a mess; a mess that I did not want to clean up before school.

I got pretty angry about the whole thing. I found out about 20 minutes later that the plot had actually been carried out by members of my own chess club. My own custodian let them in, and a few of my colleagues had actually seen them the day prior doing the deed. As I thought about the whole thing throughout the day, I realized that I had overreacted. It was done in good humor. I should have left the mess (or should I say, the teens' morbid act of appreciation and kindness) for all to see throughout the day.

Then something else happened at lunch. I stepped into the men's room for a few moments, leaving my lunch on the table by the coffee pot. When I returned, I found my lunch to be missing. I actually thought, "Great...here I have another opportunity to overreact. Don't blow it this time." Sure enough, I blew it.

As it turns out, one of the other teachers hid it from me. As I went into another part of the office to locate it, it "mysteriously" reappeared where I had lost it originally. The other teacher thought it was funny; I didn't. After all, I only had 10 minutes left to scarf my lunch.

A couple of people got the best of me today. In our house when I was young we used to have a saying: "If you can't take it, don't dish it out." I learned that I need to lighten up sometimes!