I wrote briefly before on how I think America’s education system needs to change, but I don’t quite know how. I’m going to try and develop a philosophy on “ideal education” through pitfalls I find in my own experiences – I’ll document my findings here.
Something that I noticed and began to focus on today was how teachers treat students, and vise versa; what kind of relationship is ideal in a learning environment? It seems to me that students prefer the teachers they can relate with, and who are interactive. People who show depth, not in just lecturing, but in personality and conversation, through the way they conduct class.
Teachers, on the other hand, tend to have somewhat of a more formal expectation. They expect students to treat them like a service, purely taking in the information that they offer and working to become familiar with it.
This is where I think a disconnect occurs. Teachers and students see each other on different levels. Teachers expect maximum respect from students, but don’t always offer that same kind of respect in return. Let me throw out an example….
Teachers are often very strict on cell phone usage in class, and sometimes for good reason. Most high schools ban cell phone usage in class altogether. Having said that, whenever a student is seen by a teacher to be using a mobile phone in class, the typical reaction by the teacher is to sternly demand that the student put the phone away, or to simply take it. I can understand that teachers feel offended when students aren’t paying attention to them in class, but is scolding students and confiscating their property the best way to handle this problem?
Consider the same situation in reverse; the teacher is now the one playing on their phone during class. What is the reaction of the students? Chances are they won’t decide to scold the teacher for not taking class seriously. If they do decide to bring the issue up with the teacher, chances are it will be with a tad more respect than what the teacher would give to the student.
My point here is that teachers should be expected to level with students, and treat them as partners in education as opposed to an audience of children. Otherwise, how does one expect the students to see teachers as partners?
On the same token, however, teachers should not foster a class of chaotic “freedom”. You cannot expect class to conduct itself with the teacher just playing the role of “the overseer”. There is a fine line between control and freedom that needs to be met – kids learn best by drawing conclusions themselves, not by simply being told them. Leading them to these conclusions is the challenge teachers face.
More thoughts later.
