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I’m glad I grew up when I did.
I was an Iowa farm boy during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, although
the violence and unrest seemed to be distant problems for other people, the
newspapers were filled with accounts of bloodshed, police dogs and civil
disobedience. Israel fought for national survival and the war in Vietnam raged on as protests against continued US involvement enveloped most college campuses – Cornell College was even the site of anti-war protests.
The pre-digital world seemed to come to a stop when
noteworthy events occurred. Church bells rang and factory
whistles blew when Doctor Jonas Salk finally cured polio. Rockets launched from
Cape Canaveral were a source of national pride and a giant leap for mankind, a
cause for widespread celebration.
Many of our toys mirrored the technological marvels of
the era rather than the fantasy-heavy (but non-sexist, non-racist, and inclusive) choices of today - and none of them had a reset button!
There were late-breaking stories that interrupted family
staples of Flipper and Mr. Ed. News icons like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley disrupted our quiet, bucolic life with
reports of a President being assassinated in Dallas, a march in Selma that turned
into a bloody rout for peaceful protestors by overzealous and bigoted police and Kent State, where overwhelmed and undertrained National Guard soldiers fired on
demonstrators.
A news junkie from a very young age, I clipped important news articles from the paper and watched the daily
news almost every day at 5:00 PM and again at 10:00 (if my parents allowed it). I began with a child’s
understanding of terrorism as it began taking center stage in the world
theater - an understanding that spurred further study throughout my adulthood. I knew the difference between the ANC and NVA and I knew where in the
world they were focused. I wasn’t a very good student academically, but when
given a chance, my passions erupted. The turbulent times we lived in demanded that
you paid attention instead of remaining complacent - regardless of your political leanings.
Kids today aren’t so lucky. Despite the ongoing war on
terror and widespread upheavals they don’t/can’t engage with the reality of
life. They are consumed by the Kardashians and American Pickers. Apartheid and Nelson Mandela are ancient history; Vietnam is as
relevant to them as the Peloponnesian War. Few teenagers have even a prosaic
understanding of what civil disobedience is and how effective it can be to
change unjust laws – Oh; they can regurgitate the story about Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King, but
only vaguely. The scary part is that they don’t really care! They would much
rather play on their cell phones than actually examine a historical event even
for a grade.
24/7 infotainment substitutes for real news and inundates viewers with repetitive images and hyperbole to the point that viewers frequently can't separate fact for opinion. Online "news" isn't much better with everyone trying to be the first with the most titillating headline, accuracy be damned.
From my observations, despite being “Digital Natives,” few
of students know enough about computers or the Internet to get beyond Google to
find something of substance. They’d much rather dawdle on Pandora or YouTube
than actually do an assignment. They’d much rather tweet than read (fill in the blank).
When I first started substituting, when I still held onto
the belief that I might actually get a job as a real teacher I built a very
impressive “Sub box,” it contained alternate lesson plans separated by
developmental level and subject matter, “sponge” activities used to help fill up
the inevitable time between end of the lesson and the end of the period as well
as the usual supplies that I would need during the school day – I quit carrying
that years ago. I discovered much to my chagrin, that students, especially high
school students, were not interested in ANYTHING that did not guarantee points
for their GPA. Since I couldn’t guarantee their regular teacher would give them
points – and to avoid giving the regular teacher extra work, I quit carrying them and began following the regular teacher’s suggestion
of letting students talk during any extra time. Sigh.
Once, I was filling in for a social studies teacher at a 4A high school, as I was giving the assignment, a flurry of hands shot up when I got to the part about when the work was due. Every one of the questions was about getting an extension! They hadn’t even started working on the assignment and they wanted an allowance to turn the project in late!
Another troubling trend is that many students go out of their way to defy authority at every turn, but rarely
when it is of importance. Although there are occasional reports of students
actually taking a stand for a worthwhile cause – even some I might not agree
with, it is the exception rather than the rule. They don’t like being told to
sit down, in a chair, facing the front, in their chair, awake, off the phone, close
the computer, stop talking, no you may not go to the bathroom, sit down, put
your phone away, listen up, open your textbook, etc. Like casting pearls before swine it's usually wasted effort. But, as I’ve said on more than
one occasion, “It’s your grade not mine.”
But grading seems to have become a thing of the past, too.
Teachers will even “cook the books” in order to maintain a better than par
average of passing students. Extra credit seems to be the order of the day,
something to drag that dismal F up to a D- and the mediocre C up to a B+. I get
it. It’s self-preservation, but it’s giving up because Little Johnny’s parental
unit will give you no rest until you treat him “properly.” Parents don’t seem
to give a shit whether their offspring can actually enter the workforce
someday, only that their name appears on the honor roll and that they get to
participate in the myriad of other activities that keep them out of their
parents’ hair – that is IF there are two parents! Usually, it seems, it’s a single
parent trying to get by and the fewer problems they have to deal with the
better. We had televisions, they have the internet.
Smart phones, computers and the internet are technological marvels that we could only dream of and by all rights should be a breakthrough in education, however, they tend more distracting than beneficial. Disinterested, disengaged, lethargic, dull, lifeless are words that I use more often than interested, engaged, energized, alert, involved when asked about many students. A good first step might be to ban cell phones from the classroom, limit online use to only what is needed and monitor their access. You might even require at least a few hard copy references for research projects.
Then there is the whole sexting thing!
Much like our generation wanted our MTV, “kids today” want instant (and continual)
gratification in the form of digital entertainment. I’m writing this rant after
two very distressing and depressing days “teaching” at the same 4A high school previously mentioned. I was covering for a different teacher who had three preps (taught three different
classes) and I got to see a fairly broad cross section of the student body and what
I saw didn’t impress me very much. The vast majority of students were obsessing
on their cell phones and a large percentage of them had ear buds either
continually stuck in their skulls or ready to be inserted at a moment’s notice.
I’ve had to tell students that they could not listen to music while they take a
test, nor could they have their phone on their desk while testing.
I’m sure some of you reading this blog are wondering “so
what?” and what's the big deal? It’s troubling on many different levels, at
its most basic, if students have their face buried in their phone or other device, they aren’t likely paying attention to instructions and invariably will have to
have the instructions repeated to them again, and again. Multiply that times
the number of students in a classroom you can quickly see how time consuming
that would be. Once again, I’ll toss this education obstacle at the feet of its
biggest sponsor – the parent(s). Even levelheaded and cogent adults seem to turn a blind eye to the problems they unwittingly condone with their insistence
that they have instant contact with their progeny. Many parents don’t think
twice about texting or phoning their little darlings during class to pass on
even the most mundane of messages – messages that certainly could be delivered by the front office during passing time.
However,
occasionally, and just often enough to refresh my desire to teach, I will have a
student – or two become engaged, ask probing questions, take notes and
generally pay attention. Until something better comes along, I’ll keep at it
and hope for the best. I will keep up my end of the bargain but will you? Will
they?
