Quick Round-Up: Bad Selflessness, Bad Morality, Edublog Awards, and Students 2.0 Blog Countdown
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I’m off to Bangkok for the Apple Distinguished Educator 2007 Asia Institute in 24 hours, so I’m crazy rushed: sub plans for 3 missed classes, packing, the usual teachery stuff (gradebooks and other banes), prepping a presentation for how 1:1 is working (and sometimes not working?) at our school. (I really look forward, more than anything Apple, to simply re-uniting with International School of Bangkok’s Kim Cofino and Justin Medved to hone our collaborative visions about the 1001 Flat World Tales and Project Global Cooling, plus whatever they’re cooking up that I might support from Korea. I’ve missed these two since seeing them in Shanghai for the Learning 2.0 Conference in September.)
But here are a few things on my mind before I go:
The Wrong Kind of Selflessness
I don’t care how wealthy, “elite” (silly word connoting “more shopping power” in today’s age), and conventionally “well-educated” a student body is. If the emphasis is on GPA, SAT, Advanced Placement overload, and hyper-extra-curricularism for the sake of college application bullets (”I was in student council, Model United Nations, Cheerleading, Basketball, Debate Club, and Future Workaholics of America”), the result is often painfully obvious: all of those extrinsically motivated pursuits are a Faustian Bargain.
What is lost in this mad rush for the killer college app is this: the soul itself.
Okay, I don’t believe in this Iron Age concept. Let’s be modern and call it “the self.” It’s every bit as precious, without the theological baggage. I’m talking about the sense of who you are, of what you want to do, and the path of learning and creating based on those two senses - learning about the world the individual self is called to, and creating a worldview on that basis, and creatively contributing to that world at some point. I’m talking about your freaking life story.
It’s an opportunity cost thing. Our time is finite. 24/7 is a reality we so far haven’t transcended. And if you are being force-fed college application steroids every waking moment - classes in school, schooly extracurricular activities after it, SAT prep night classes after school and on weekends, other tutors and AP prep classes ditto - then what is not being fed, again, is the Most Important Thing: the Self, the Essence of your own genetic thumbprint, the special meat-package of who you are as an individual.
You may gain the Ivy League, but you lose your soul. You lose your voice, your creativity, your sense of wellness, wonder, and self-impelled exploration. Outside of that GPA, there’s not much there there. “Bookful blockheads,” to quote Samuel Johnson, with “heads stuffed full of facts” (to tweak Eliot).
My evidence? Try this: 30 students with MacBooks, most of whom are sincerely committed to a Project Global Cooling, but who are bewilderingly unable to produce a single short film about it, a single podcast, etc, in over three months. Let me translate: they have the money, the wealth, the grades, the intelligence; but when it comes to a simple “create something, play, produce, get fertile”? Nada. Too busy outside of our 40 minute/week activity block with all those Faustian pursuits. And, I suspect, too conditioned by a life of “schooling” to relax and create with that true artist’s
acceptance of failed sketches in pursuit of the successful one. Too success-driven (conventionally defined) to be creative. Too fearful of “failure” to create something that doesn’t work. Too over-scheduled to have time to even try. Shocking, really. And sad.
We celebrate one kind of selflessness, and rightfully so; but this is the wrong kind. It’s a selflessness, ironically, born of selfishness - of the desire (probably more parental, institutional, and cultural than anything) to get into a “top” college. What a devil’s conveyor belt we’ve built with our schools. Sell your soul, go to Harvard.
The Wrong Kind of Morality
Other bloggers know that curious fascination that comes while skimming your sitemeter stats for the search terms that bring visitors to your blog. Me? Since posting my “Teaching the F-Bomb” about my AP Lit students’ modern translations of the constant (but more sublime than today’s) cursing in Shakespeare’s King Lear, I’ve gotten a surprising number of hits from people who apparently consider student cursing a moral issue worth researching.
Again, how Iron Age.
Can’t we aim for a modern moral framework here? Instead of expending energy trying to stamp out certain vowel-consonant combinations that do no harm beyond ruffling a few Victorian sensibilities - and I’m not saying we shouldn’t teach the proper times and places for the use of colorful language - can’t we instead focus on student habits that do much more damage? How about:
- the throw-away packaging addiction (bottled water, fast food, etc)
- the consumer habits that support socially immoral practices (like buying diamonds, for example, or Nestle products that rely on child slavery in Africa - aren’t these worse than saying “f&#k” a million times?)
- driving two-ton pollution machines without a thought to reducing their use
I’m so tired of that hackneyed argument that “science without morality is dangerous.” The problem is more located in our morality itself. Whatever culture you’re in, it’s a safe bet that your moral framework comes from some variation of Iron Age goat-herder or nomadic
warlord. The moral issues they faced are different from ours. Joseph Campbell said it well:
For a civilization that has sent a man to the moon, it’s absurd to follow moral imperatives written before the invention of the wheel.
Or something like that. I paraphrase.
We’re in dire need of a revised Ten Commandments if we want our species to survive the 21st century at all. Resisting coveting my neighbor’s ass isn’t going to slow global warming or reduce the population explosion. (Actually, if “ass” meant what it means today instead of what it meant in Moses’ time - sorry, King James’ - maybe it would reduce population growth.) (That was a joke.)
But really. We’re educators. The next generation learns from us how to think critically about right and wrong, good and bad. Can’t we think critically about it ourselves? (And if Google brought you here because you’re looking for a way to wash your students’ mouths out with soap, I hope instead you’ll consider a bit of a moral paradigm shift, some soap for your own moral mouthings.)
More on the Edublogs Award Question
Darren Draper has an interesting comment thread about the value of the Edublogs Awards. I’m learning from it, and enjoying the debate. Worth a look. There’s constructive discussion about how the e-b folks can improve this shindig in future years.
Students 2.0 Coming Soon
I have a privileged, behind-the-scenes view of the planning going on for the Students 2.0 edublog launch. These young adults - disguised as mere “students” - are so brilliantly fun, smart, and creative, they intimidate me. And I’m learning a lot as I get to know them. (News flash: they’re smarter than me in a good number of ways.)
Watch out, edublogosphere. They won’t be raising their hands and asking for permission to talk here. Stay tuned for more.
Photos: 96dotsperinch and meeware1
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Clay,
I read a quote in the newspaper last week about a developer who cited Joni Mitchell’s “Big Yellow Taxi” lyrics
http://tinyurl.com/y99r6x
as justification for a new parking lot!
The world is changing, but not in a positive way. Small appliance repairman are rare indeed in an economy where it is easier - and cheaper - to discard broken items rather than to fix them.
I prepped for the SATs with a book of sample tests and a kitchen timer. My scores earned me a free ride to college and graduate school, and I didn’t have to sacrifice my life as a teenager to move towards my goals.
Throw-away electronics, throw-away youth.
“Don’t it always seem to go
That you don’t know what you’ve got
Till its gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot”
diane
diane
29 Nov 07 at 7:48 am
You know I agree with 90% of what you said Clay. I wish we were discussing this in the SAS cafeteria. It seems that we used to use learning as a pursuit in itself. You had to be independently wealthy to pursue knowledge - clergy or rich. Not much has changed really except maybe things have reversed. Now we pursue knowledge for the cash.
As for grades. Ahhhh my biggest peeve in education. We still use a scam to rate kids. Other than the work load, why can’t we simply tell universities if a kid is going to succeed or not for the program they choose? Yes or no. Can or cannot handle it.
I’d like to see a study [anyone seen one] that tracks the different entrance levels of students as they proceed beyond university. Maybe list their publications, money earned, contributions to society? See if there is some type of correlation between entrance ‘level’ and later success. I’m sure we could standardize for occupational earning levels, socioeconomics etc.
The part I have trouble with is “You may gain the Ivy League, but you lose your soul. You lose your voice, your creativity, your sense of wellness, wonder, and self-impelled exploration.” there is no evidence for this really. I’m sure many ivy leaguers go onto things they really enjoy and contribute positively. I also figure the ivy league may open up channels that encourage voice, creativity and the rest.
I think what erks me is how most people THINK they know something and love to talk out of their field. It seems a PhD in one field provides understanding in other unrelated fields. Economists thikn they understand climate change. Lawyers think they understand evolution. TV hosts think they know everything.
Seems we cannot allow experts to do their job. And lets face it, teachers tend to think we are experts. I hate to break it to you [us] but we’re usually not. For everything I know, there is an equal amount I probably teach inaccurately and ten times what I don’t know. Hence the awesome power of the web. SOMEONE knows. Its just not me. Or you!
I’m ranting!
Maybe teachers perpetuate the problem. We certainly perpetuate chalk and talk. By emulating that we are the fount of knowledge do we perpetuate the meme that we, and the students will, have all the answers? Thats a scary thought!
I actually think the model proposed by the movie ‘Accepted’ may not be all that misplaced.
Rant over. I’m outta steam!
J
Linzel
29 Nov 07 at 1:41 pm
Such a study, if it hasn’t been done already (no time to search now), would be interesting indeed.
To clarify on that 10% disagreed: I’m talking about the high school years as those that are Faustian. It’s the college application rat-race that robs the last four years of “adolescence” of the otherwise possible growth. Those pressures are weeds that choke out the flowers of learning. I’m seeing it all around me.
Clay Burell
29 Nov 07 at 2:02 pm
Excellent post. I couldn’t even come close to writing something like that. I really enjoyed reading the post and the insight you provide. Thanks.
ninja.s
30 Nov 07 at 3:44 am
There is such a study, Clay and Linzel. You can find about it here:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/Peabody/SMPY/
Granted, they focused on students who are intellectually gifted (SMPY stands for Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth), but the conclusions they have drawn have inspired me to change the way I think about students and people in general.
I think the problem of all the angst in preparing for college stems, in part, from what parents/society value in individuals. Somehow we’ve bought into the myth that if we are wealthy and/or well educated, we are somehow Better Than Average. While that is probably true economically, who’s to say that economics should be the measure by which I determine my worth? I have personally rejected that standard - probably because I can afford to do so. Maybe the discussion to have with your students is to ask “By what measures will you know your life has been successful?” It’s a question I try to remember to ask myself on a regular basis because the answer changes as we move through life.
I’m sure you know more than I do that it’s a battle that we cannot win without society changing drastically, something I don’t see happening any time soon.
Thanks for putting your thoughts into writing, Clay. You frequently give me a lot to think about. I appreciate that!
moseylissa
1 Dec 07 at 3:03 am
Excellent thanks ‘Lisa?’. I like how you are putting into perspective. I seemed to get on a rant and forgot that. Its easy to do isn’t it? I’m afraid you might be right that society is not changing much in that regard. There are some bright spots.
Keep the faith I suppose.
On a little note you all may want to try the webbrowser - flock. Its essentially a socially designed firefox. Its making blogging easy for me again. I tend to do it more often then. Lets see if I can get a readership list
James
1 Dec 07 at 4:57 am
It’s not research, but Malcolm Gladwell wrote a great essay called “Getting In,” about Ivy League admissions.
Also Clay, A student, one the student edubloggers from Honolulu, sent me a TED video, which I’m sure you’ve seen: “Do Schools Kill Creativity.” I loved it, even more for the fact that one of my students sent it to me. So I posted it as homework (although I’ve redefined what ‘homework’ means in my class lately). The student forum that followed was very though-provoking, so much so that I’m preparing a post with some of the discussion threads. The most interesting idea they was raised was that many of their teachers, like you, like me, try to get them to reject schooliness, yet they perpetuate it themselves. One student gave the example of the student-teachers-question-answer discussion. They understand, especially in an English class, maybe, that the teacher isn’t looking for the ‘right’ answer, but that their classmates are, leading to the one or two students that always have a comment. Thanks for the discussion.
PS - I have a class full of biology students looking to make real connections with international students working on sustainability. This is Terry’s class (we were trying to Skype with her a few weeks ago). I’m going to steer them towards PGC.
Chris Watson
5 Dec 07 at 8:04 am