Deprogram/Reprogram

I am a high school lifer.  I taught in middle school for a few years, but most of my 17 years in education have been spent educating freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors.  This year being out of the classroom has led me to an interesting conclusion; teachers and administrators aren’t the only people in a school building that need to change their perception of education.  In fact the only difference between teachers and students is that teachers have sat in rows and taught students sitting in rows.  There have been many times where I’ve heard that teachers need to get out of their comfort zones and innovate in their classrooms.  How often do we consider students need to get out of their comfort zones?  There is a misguided, misinformed notion that if a teacher plans an exciting innovative lesson, unit, or whatever clichéd name you would like to give instruction that students will turn on this magical learning switch.  In the words of Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy, “That ain’t true!”  What needs to happen is a complete culture change.  Consider this: high school students have been programmed to learn a certain way since elementary school.  By the time they get into high school they’ve been so programmed to sit in rows and dialog with the teacher for at least eight years.  There are pockets of innovation on the elementary level—probably more so than secondary—but that is still the exception not the norm. 

I don’t admit to having all—or many—answers to all of the questions that plague our educational system.  There are issues with the way schools are funded.  We don’t address how schools in inner cities have been affected by vouchers and public charter schools.  Minorities are left behind at an alarming rate. Even the way school policy is legislated isn’t spoken about the way it should.  The truth is I don’t write, make, or argue policy.  I am a teacher.  I make lesson plans and assess student mastery.  This year, I assist teachers in the planning and execution of effective lessons.  What I can speak on is this lofty idea of deprogramming and reprogramming. 

The classroom hasn’t changed very much since the industrial revolution and that is for a myriad of reasons.  However, the marketplace has changed greatly since then.  Franklin Roosevelt famously said, “We cannot always prepare the future for our children, but we can prepare our children for the future.”  We don’t know what the marketplace will look like in the next four to six years, but we can prepare our kids by teaching them collaboration, flexibility, and thinking skills.  Does this mean more tech in classes?  Does this mean 1:1 or blended learning?  I don’t know.  What I do know is we kids need to know how to work well with other people and problem solve.  Kids need to learn logical and critical thought.  How do we do this?   

We need to add meaning and relevance to what kids learn.  There is much debate about the relevance of learning styles.  Although we might feel more comfortable learning a certain way, if there is something that we truly want to learn because we truly want to do it our brains have this way of adjusting to the modality in which the information is presented.  Consider this: Why are some students still uninterested and unmotivated when using all of these different learning activities?  They aren’t interested in the content being taught.  There are times where you have students that are simply compliant because they are respectful to the teacher and don’t want to get in trouble at home.  We still have too many students across demographic lines that are graduating from high school and not able to complete any post-high school training.  We have too many schools still instructing kids in too many rows with too many teachers not wanting to be trained in different teaching techniques. 

Let’s tear down walls in our schools—literally and figuratively.  Although the State of Indiana wants to roll out this career pathways agenda with too many questions unanswered, it is a sound and logical concept.  Does education have to take place in a classroom?  Why can’t a student be immersed in several different things to choose a career path?  Maybe a good idea would be to research countries that are innovating in the realm of education and try to do what they do.  To do this we need to deprogram both our students and our teachers.