Someone Enlighten Me. PLEASE!
April 26th, 2010I am forever intrigued to figure out the thought processes of some of the teachers that I experience. Phrases like, “What is best for the children” are thrown around like grass seed on a freshly prepped yard but too rare is it that someone is willing to learn about weeds, chemicals and watering in order to make that grass grow. “Just tell me what to do” seems to be what they are thinking, but not saying, when we sit through meetings about the latest teaching fad. Each one promises to be “what is needed” to fix our ailing schools but, for some reason, they continue to come and go. Some come back under new names. Some even come back as their former selves.
All of these fads are simply “techniques” of applying what educational and brain research is discovering. Someone reads the research and then devises a nifty way to package it as an “out of the box” ready to use “strategy”.
Okay. I have a silly question: What is wrong with cutting out the middle man and simply reading the research yourself?? I mean, teachers are forced, more than any profession I am aware of, to constantly retrain themselves year-in and year-out. Constant in-services and constant college courses—many useful and many questionable.
Without understanding the research motivating the development of a specific technique, the teacher is left wondering, “What part did I do wrong?” or “Does this technique really work?”. If they understood the research, they would see where things are going wrong and can, quite often, simply adjust the technique to the situation.
Rather, I am not convinced that most teachers have this desire to understand the research—”Just tell me what to do to make them learn.” When urban legends pervade educated professionals as the truth and they even PLAN based on it, I seriously believe something is wrong.
Ask an elementary school teacher, “Does a full moon affect the behavior of the children?” You guessed it (maybe you agree with them!), they most likely believe it does. Some plan their next day based on the fact that it is turning to a full moon!
When asked about this full moon theory, they often have no other evidence than “I teach them 7 hours a day, you only see them for 40 minutes.” Convenient to the promulgation of urban legends, these same teachers are ignoring that just 5 days ago they were complaining about crazy behavior and asking, “Is it a full moon?” So repeated patterns of poor behavior are arbitrarily assigned reasons until there is a “full moon” and then THAT MUST be the cause of THIS particular day! Non-sense.
What bothers me is that people thinking this way are also rationalizing on what is the best way to teach the children.
Fine. Many years of experience has a lot to offer in the way of success. You learn the “tricks of the trade” to get the information in and out of the children. But does that alone define what is “best for the children”??! I think not.
Please do not get me wrong. There are some fine, fine teachers that sincerely want to understand what it takes to be a great teacher. Time will get them through their journey and I have the deepest respect for them.
For the “moon affects behavior” urban legend, try this link:
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/moon.html
Robert
