Amateur Education
If you haven’t had a chance to browse over to Students 2.0, you really need to check it out.
We are students: the ones who come to school every day, raise our hands with safe questions, and keep our heads down. Except, now we have a voice—a strong voice—to share our ideas through a global network.
As educators we spend a lot of time and effort trying to connect with one another – what are the best brain-based strategies, what resources, which web sites, aligning curriculum to state standards and classroom management ideas.
But we don’t often actually talk to our customers.
Our students have some definite opinions about the process and, based on those posted by the authors at Students 2.0, many of them are pretty good. Recent posts have focused on such topics as plagiarism, unrealistic expectations for college-bound HS kids and 21st Century creativity.
recently wrote on what he calls “Amateur Education.”
One by one, we file past the teacher-turned-prison-guard. As each of us passed, she engages us in a confirmation ritual. “Work?” “Check.” “Book?” “Check.” That is the last word uttered for one and a half hours. For this period, we must sit silently with heads in books and work, where our mouths are conveniently positioned to be incapable of questioning.
Arthus continues in his post describing the present educational system as one that spends much of its energy working to find ways to get kids to enjoy school.
Complicated assessment patterns are devised to be carrots for students to
do their work.Meanwhile, sticks of punishment are given to those who do notdo their job.
We are widgets in the machine of school.
But he continues and says that type of system doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense.
. . . students are treated as if they already do hate learning. Grades, forced study times, detentions, and graduation requirements are all safeguards built to force students into learning . . . By treating students as if we hate and will avoid learning at all costs, we will hate and avoid learning at all costs.
Arthus spends some time describing a system he calls “amateur learning” that sounds a lot like the Turning Point Learning Center charter school that I was able to visit earlier this week. Lots of choices, independent study, group work, lots of available resources and some freedom to screw now and again.
Schools must make a choice: do they want to try to stuff as much learning as possible down students’ throats or do they want to give students a hunger for learning?
I don’t want to be a professional student; I want to be an amateur learner.
Some very cool stuff over at Student 2.0. Don’t miss out on what they’re saying.
History Tech 
I came across your blog and have really enjoyed your posts. I want to comment on your posts from February 25th and February 28th. I believe that public school teachers can and should incorporate strategies that are based on student interests, and engage students in high level thinking.
I’ve never heard of Student 2.0, but I am very impressed by the students and content of the blog. Asking student’s to provide substantive input about what they would like to see in the classroom is a great way to include them in the learning process. This would be especially beneficial for secondary students and all students who have mentally checked out of the classroom “because they aren’t interested in the subject”.
The idea of student input is not new, nor is it a very complicated request. According to constructivist theory, learning is more effective when a student is actively involved in the construction of knowledge. Instead of having the students sit at their desks and passively listen to a lecture, why not involve them in hands-on activities of their choice. The teachers at TLPC Charter School seem to be doing this already. I love the idea of using technology (twitter, skype, and wikispaces) to connect students to their teacher, to each other, and to the outside world. I also think more teachers should have blogs, they allow students to access relevant information outside of class, provide parents with information on what their children are learning, and could be used for students to provide anonymous input to their teacher on what activities/subjects they would to learn in class.
The bottom line is that, like most people, students will perform better in school and be more engrossed in the classrooms if their teachers incorporate their interests. As for specific suggestions, I’ll leave that up to the students to provide.
I appreciate your input, especially the idea of every teacher having some sort of blog or online presence. We really need to do a better job of speaking the language of our kids.
Looking forward to reading more from you!
glennw