We continue our critical discussion of education versus schooling in my composition course. The latest conversation has centered around three texts: John Gatto’s “
Against School” and “
The Seven Lesson School Teacher,” and Alfie Kohn’s “
What Does It Mean to Be Well Educated?”
Of the three, Gatto’s pieces are most provocative–or at least I thought they were until I saw the majority of my students reaction (or lack of reaction). It was depressing (or fascinating, depending on your point of view). The funny (or depressing) thing is that the very behaviors the students exhibited in class–apathy, boredom, distractability–are exactly the pathologies Gatto offers reasons for in his writing. I would think if the students read the work, they might gain some insight on their own conditioned responses resulting from twelve plus years of institutionalized life. Their utter indifference, though, kept most from reading past the first couple paragraphs.
The aim…is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed and train a standardized citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. –H.L. Mencken
It was unnerving to feel Gatto’s words offered up as an indictment of public schooling in this country, while simultaneously observing firsthand the products of such a system sink back into their seats, passive and docile. What could I say or do to jar them out of their comas? They seem to be quite unaware of the forces institutional life have on them, and yet exhibit it through and through. They say nothing, though, neither denying nor confirming its influence. They just sit. After some prompting, one said he was bored. I asked him what he thought about Gatto’s comment on boredom in “Against School.” Then I read Gatto’s comment to him because he had not gotten that far in the reading.
One afternoon when I was seven I complained to [my grandfather] of boredom, and he batted me hard on the head. He told me that I was never to use that term in his presence again, that if I was bored it was my fault and no one else’s. The obligation to amuse and instruct myself was entirely my own, and people who didn’t know that were childish people, to be avoided if possible. (33)
At this, he shrugged, and said. “Well, I can’t do anything about this. I have no choice. I have to be here.” I quickly reminded him of his choices. He could, of course, leave. Or he could participate in the discussion rather than tune it out. He could have done the reading, and, as a result, begun to consider ways to break away from tired roles. (Is this logic circular?) Or he simply could choose not to be bored. At this, he slunk back down in his seat and became quiet. My attempt had backfired. I had become that teacher, chastising the slacker student, thereby widening the gulf between us. This was not my goal.
What accounts for this utter helplessness learned by so many of our students? Is our system as Gatto describes it? One “deliberately designed to produce mediocre intellects, to hamstring the inner life, to deny students appreciable leadership skills, and to ensure docile and incomplete citizens–all in order to render the populace ‘manageable’” (36)? This sounds like the stuff of good conspiracy theory, and yet it rings so true. I have observed this time and time again first hand. It’s like the scene from The Wall when the uniformed kids with facial features literally blotted out march methodically in single file through the factory school, dropping one by one into a giant hopper to be ground into meat for mass consumption.
As out there as this film is, it really strikes a chord. Now if only my students could hear it resonate.
Tags: apathy · film · learning · schooling · teaching · video
The topic for the day is argument. I was up late trying to figure out a fresh way to approach this topic with my students (suffering from a little teacher’s block). I wanted to balance my desire for a more democratic classroom (one that resists heavy-handed lecture) and the practical need to get them quickly to an understanding of the basic principles behind effective argumentation and persuasion. The thing is I didn’t want to tell them anything and I didn’t want to presume to know all there is on the subject. I wanted them to create the content for the day’s lesson, at least partly. Here’s what I came up with.
- Students formed groups of three and were given large sheets of paper along with the requisite crayons and magic markers. They were instructed to make a top-ten list (Letterman-style) of tips on how to argue. (In other words, how do you get other people to listen to you and accept what you’ve got to say?) I stressed that they have fun with it.
- After some time, students posted their lists on the walls around the classroom. Then each group presented their lists to the class, and we used the lists as departure points for discussion on what works and what doesn’t when arguing. Invariably, some of what students put on their lists is way out there (designed to be funny), but is very useful to discuss things like logical fallacies and unethical or tyrannical communication tactics.
- During the presentations of each groups list, I found it interesting and helpful to work towards some discussion of the difference between quarreling and academic argument. Also, I pushed a recent interest of mine regarding the popular assumption that argument must be agonistic–that argument must strive for the defeat of one’s opponent rather than for achieving common understanding and for revealing the truth of the matter. The discussion can be very interesting and enlightening around this subject.
- Ok, eventually (in the next class meeting), we were able to segue to a discussion of Aristotle’s artist proofs or persuasive appeals (logos, pathos, and ethos), as just one useful way to talk about persuasive tactics. As a class, we went through several examples or arguments in various media (assuming that all things are arguments), and asked the question “How is this argument constructed?” for each. The three examples that were particularly useful were a video clip regarding school from Professor Michael Wesch of Kansas State, a clip from Elie Wiesel’s speech “The Perils of Indifference,” and the slam poem “Totally Like Whatever” by Taylor Mali.
- As an extension of this discussion (given the theme in each of the arguments mentioned above), I found it useful to discuss the general sense of apathy or indifference I often observe in students. This, of course, can be tied directly to argument making, but can also be a much broader discussion. I chose to make it a little broader as it connected to the larger theme of our course–the aims of education.
Tags: apathy · argument · lesson plans · presentation slides
Re-vision. Re-seeing. Looking and then looking again. Shifting points-of-view. Repositioning vantage points. Is what we see truth or mere convention? In my composition class, I’ve been introducing students gradually to a deeper understanding of revision as a concept of rethinking, as opposed to simple editing. We’ve been using Adrianne Rich’s essay “When We Dead Awaken: Writing as Re-vision” as the basis for this discussion. I facilitate with
these slides. Here’s how we went about it in class last week:
- As students walked in, I displayed McArthur’s Universal Corrective Map, pictured below, and asked that they freewrite on what they thought and felt about this map.
As usual, this really bothered some folks, resulting in comments like “that’s just wrong.” Others demonstrated a real misunderstanding of the physical universe, saying things like “that’s not how the world looks from outer space–it’s upside down.” This in itself created some nice discussion, but once I showed this clip from the TV show West Wing, things really heated up.
- From here, I paraphrased what Rich says about us being “drenched in assumptions” of the world and our place in it and that we must question those assumptions. Then we did a little group work where groups drafted discussion questions on Rich’s essay “When We Dead Awaken,” swapped questions with other groups, and then dug into the essay (using the discussion question along with other prompts I provided).
- After some time, groups shared their insights with the rest of the class, but the discussion didn’t get as deep as I would have liked (due mostly to a lack of preparation on the students’ parts). I’d hoped to get to another activity which would force them to “work” the text a little harder, but we ran out of time. We’ll do that activity next class. Time permitting, it could have been an extension activity for this class meeting. I’ve described it briefly below.
- Extension Activity: It’s called “Read, Summarize, Extend, Answer.” Project passages from the essay on the screen at the front of the room, toss a ball to some unsuspecting student and ask him or her to “read” the quote directly from the screen. That student in turn tosses the ball to another student who must “summarize” the quote using words of his or her own. After this, the student tosses the ball again to another person who must “extend” what the previous student said by adding other ideas, insights, connections, etc. Finally, this student tosses the ball again to another student who must answer a question displayed on the screen below the quote. (This question is designed to have the student make a connection between Rich’s essay and other texts and ideas we’ve been discussing in class.)
Tags: lesson plans · maps · presentation slides
