The Learning


This week we’ve been talking about a news article about a high school teacher who made a kid sit on the floor because he didn’t like the sports team mentioned on the kid’s jersey. While the kid sat on the floor, the teacher told the other students to pelt him with wadded up balls of paper. In our talk about this text, we all expressed our anger at this out of control teacher. When I asked the sixers why the other students would comply with such a brutal request, many screamed out that they HAVE to do what teachers tell them to do. You can imagine my stunned reaction to that statement. I mustered a recovery and asked one pesky sixer, “Look, if I told you to walk over there and beat up Brian, would you do it?”
The sixer replied matter of factly, “Maybe.”
Capitalizing on a teaching moment, I gently told the sixer, “No, you should not beat up people even if a teacher instructs you to do so.” I really think I got through.
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Anonymous said…
Not wanting to depress you, you are wrong. Children are taught to obey authority (read: teacher, parent, adult) no matter what--except, of course, mine. They question everything; but is that good for the classroom? Where/how do we find balance?
11:53 PM
Anonymous said…
Well, I don't think you are wrong, but I have just caught up with your posts and found myself looking at that gash in the guy's head. Yikes. That is really gross.
Anyway, keep up the fine work in the classroom my friend. Hope to speak to you soon.
12:18 AM
cg said…
Yikes - That is why I keep on telling people that I dont want to raise a good little soldier. Integrity and respect as part of discipline is far more important than obedience, but as they say - where to find the balance.

Love reading your blog though and keep up your good work
4:26 AM
Anonymous said…
So these are the moral concepts that led to Ghandi, Martin Luther King (with a bow to Coretta today) I can see how it confuses kids though. First we tell them to obey then we say well, ignore that .. not always. Develop internal morality instead. Teaching seems like that. First we learn the atom is a nucleus with these electrons spinning around in orbit like planets, then we learn that.. wow its like that except totally different. I felt they lied to me the first time. The concepts tend to change so completely as we learn more details that we have to relearn everything
12:20 PM
LH said…
Welcome all. I'm heading out to a basketball game.

I think my sixer was joking about beating up his good friend at my request. We had a good chat about the article and I'm curious to read their responses to it when i collect notebooks. I'll keep you posted.
6:42 PM
Anonymous said…
My questions are, "Why, IF they HAVE to do what teachers tell them to do, WHY don't they finish their homework? WHY do they talk when classmates are talking? WHY don't they give their parents the notes I prepare? WHY do they leave trash on the floor? WHY don't they put a capital letter at the beginning of a sentence? WHY do they leave their books at home. Why don't they put names on papers?"

I know teachers have told them to do these things before and I tell them each and everyday. They don't do many things we tell them to do.

jeff
7:06 PM
Julie Anna said…
This is a huge issue with me. I want my sons to respect and listen to authority figures (me, teachers, friend's parents) but I want them to question authority figures at the same time if they think they are being told to do something wrong, or if they are really, truly being treated unfairly. Balance, indeed. I guess in the ideal case we would only expose our kids to authority figures who have the kids' best interests at heart, but good luck to all of us on that one. I'm a bit bent out of shape, though, about the teacher commenting on the kid's clothes. The long-haired boychild told me just yesterday that his teacher said to him that she "hoped this guys with long hair thing was over by the time she had kids." Fairly innocuous comment, except these are 15 year olds who are extremely self-conscious to begin with, and boychild was already feeling like this teacher did not like him. Barring an infestation of headlice, I don't think a teacher should cast dispersions on a kid's hair.
9:19 AM
LH said…
Hi Mr. Jeff, Your questions are very similar to my questions. The kids in my room way over in the "free spirit" side of the continuum. I think classroom dynamics go beyond obedience/independence. It's a complicated crazy place full of humans.
Julie, no one needs to comment on anyone else's hair. I teach a sixer right now who is growing his hair out and it falls directly over his 3/4 of his face. You can see the bottom part of his nose and his mouth, but pretty much nothing else. And though I support him in his hair growing project, I have slipped up a few times and said, "Hey, where are you pal???" I just can't get over not seeing his eyes. But I'm curious too about these moves they make. And bemused too. I like your son's hair very much. And everything else about him too.
5:34 PM
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