Tag: learning

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The Joy of Teaching and the New “Ed Scare”

Fresno Bee, August 27, 2023

A new report from PEN America describes “education intimidation bills” in conservative states as part of an “ed scare.” They see this as “a nationwide effort … to foment anger and anxiety about public education; to restrict or prohibit instruction about race, sexuality, and gender; and to ban books that address these topics.” The result is a “chilling effect” that is causing some teachers to leave the profession.

Critics on the right have also claimed that speech codes, diversity training, and left-wing cancel culture have had a similar chilling effect.

These politicized discussions seem far away from what actually happens in classrooms. And they ignore the basic question of how teaching, learning and education work.

Teaching is a risky adventure. Teachers have the immense responsibility of nurturing diverse young minds. The human beings in our classrooms are real people, with problems, personalities and passions. You cannot predict how students will respond, what questions they will ask or what ideas they will discover.

Teaching can be a joy-filled activity. But it should not be taken lightly. It requires patience, spontaneity, humor and care. It is also nerve-wracking. Teachers don’t teach well when external stressors are thrown into the mix.

This is also true of learning. We learn best when the intensity of our curiosity blossoms. Fear and intimidation can be used to instruct. But mere instruction is mechanical and top-down. It is important to memorize formulas and information, and to learn to follow rules. But instruction does not develop the passions of the soul.

Authentic education is not merely instruction. It is not about memorizing a restricted set of rules. Nor does education succeed when it is based on fear and constraint. Discipline and punishment may work for circus animals. But to educate autonomous human beings, freedom must be wedded to the love of wisdom.

Genuine education is soul formation. As we develop habits of critical thought, we become autonomous rational human beings. Education ought to develop the virtues of free thought, while empowering us to create and discover new ideas. The human soul is a free and creative thing. Human beings are driven by wonder and curiosity. We are concerned with justice, goodness, beauty and truth. And no matter what teachers say and do, young people will think for themselves.

Curiosity and freedom are ultimately irrepressible. Consider the case of Socrates. He educated his students in the art of free and critical thinking. The conservative authorities of ancient Athens did not like this. They put him on trial and executed him for corrupting the youth.

But by canceling Socrates, the authorities were not able to prevent people from thinking. In fact, Socrates became famous as a martyr for free thought and critical inquiry. And the questions he asked remained on the table. His method of thinking did not belong to him, nor did his ideas. Rather, free thought is the common endowment of the human spirit.

Now consider the questions about race, gender, and sexuality that are provoking us today — and fueling the cancel culture of both left and right. By banning certain lessons, books, or topics, the underlying questions and ideas don’t magically disappear. Human beings will still have these questions and ideas. We would do better if we empowered students to explore them wisely and well.

Much of the current debate about education occurs at an abstract level, divorced from the concrete process of teaching and learning. At that level of abstraction it is easy to forget that teachers are mortal beings working without a net. Very few teachers set out to indoctrinate students into a political worldview. Mostly they love to see young people develop curious and inquisitive minds. We also forget that ideas have a power of their own. Students are going to ask tough questions and explore difficult topics, no matter what rules are imposed from on high.

Genuine education cannot avoid the hard questions. It must confront them directly. This is delicate work that requires caring and creative teachers, who need support rather than intimidation. The youth are thinking beings who need inspiration and guidance to become free and critical thinkers. Education happens best when teachers love their work, and when students are free to explore ideas.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article278587959.html#storylink=cpy

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Teaching and learning require love and play

Play learning

Fresno Bee, August 21, 2022

The headlines talk of failing schools, teacher shortages and lost students. There are controversies about religion, race, gender and sexuality in the schools. In the background is anxiety about violence. Education has become a battleground.

One solution is to simply ban controversy. In Texas, a school district removed controversial books from the library, including “Anne Frank” and the Bible. In Wisconsin, a school board banned flags, badges and slogans, including Pride flags, Black Lives Matters banners, and We Back the Badge signs. And here in Fresno, Bullard High School is planning to ban cell phones. An article in The Bee connected the cellphone ban to the controversy about racist photos taken on phones at Bullard High last year.

Schools have become a breeding ground for controversy. But let’s not turn schools into spiritless places where burned out teachers and disengaged kids go through the motions of education. That old Pink Floyd video comes to mind, in which students plod into a meat grinder.

We are so focused on controversy that we often miss the good news. So here’s a bit of good news. A recent study by Paul E. Peterson and M. Danish Shakeel concludes that kids are learning more now than they did 50 years ago. They analyzed data stretching back to 1971 that shows improvement since then in math and reading. This echoes the fact that IQ scores have also improved over time.

Their study notes that this improvement is true across demographic categories. The researchers admit that COVID was a recent setback. But they conclude, “Contrary to what you may have heard, average student achievement has been increasing for half a century.”

And yet the prevailing image is demoralizing. Perhaps we are too focused on nitpicking diminishing returns. As things generally improve, you start to freak out about small setbacks and minor blips. But all of this nitpicking can be disheartening.

It might help to remind ourselves that kids are innately curious and that teachers love to help them learn. The culture war approach to school misunderstands teaching and learning. War destroys things. It doesn’t build them up. Teaching and learning come from a place of love, empathy, creativity and play.

This is an ancient truth about teaching and learning. Socrates thought love was the guiding spirit of education. He challenged his students to think about difficult things. And he chastised them when they went astray. But he also loved them and believed that his students had the potential to improve.

Teaching and learning require a playful spirit. Mechanical and compulsory training may work for animals and for human beings forced to master monotonous tasks. But human beings learn the best and highest things through play and exploration. Plato thought that we are most fully human when we are free and at play.

Only humans engage in sports, games, drama, storytelling, art, and music. These are all forms of play. They require practice and discipline — but they are supposed to be fun. Scientific exploration and philosophical speculation are similar. They are ways of playing with concepts, ideas, and with the world itself.

Play involves intense concentration focused on activities we love for their own sake. Genuine play is not done in order to produce some external result or because some coach forces us to do it. Rather, authentic play is self-motivated and free. We play with ideas and explore the world because we are curious and because exploration and creativity are enjoyable. Playing and learning are ends-in-themselves. We do these things because we love them.

That’s the key to teaching and learning. Teachers love teaching because they enjoy playing with ideas and sharing their love of learning with their students. And students learn best when they fall in love with a subject that inspires their curiosity and their innate desire to explore.

The good news is that kids are learning better now than they were a half century ago. Of course, there is more work to be done. But let’s stop freaking out and turning schools into battlefields. It’s impossible to learn or teach in a war zone. Education occurs best under conditions of peace, when playful and curious spirits are given the freedom to question, create, and think.

Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/readers-opinion/article264669234.html#storylink=cpy