There is no shortcut here, just innovation and hard work within the walls of each individual school.

Thanks for passing that YouTube clip along – it was exactly what I was trying to articulate!

What grade do you teach?

It has taken me 22 years to learn that voicing legitimate displeasure is a very different thing than raising hell to be a pain. Part of the problem is that students are reared to believe that being a good pupil, and ultimately a good person, is achieved by following directions. This is the opposite of embracing creativity. Operating under this paradigm, challenging your teacher, however warranted, says something about you as a person, not just as a consumer. It takes the support of a mentor or like-minded peers to give a student the confidence to stand up.

I would be surprised to hear that your student’s feelings do not align with mine. I have found that in speaking with my peers and other educators committed to making the classroom student-centric, like yourself, that there is a growing body of dissatisfied stakeholders. Without someone else standing up, most students accept these grievances by acting out, tuning out, and writing off continued education altogether. They aren’t wrong, but they are a bit childish. As the dissatisfaction grows, and if students can find a way to collect themselves and organize, I would expect to see students protesting and demanding not just marginal change, but disruptive innovation in the way education is delivered.

Cheers,
Allie

I find that most students, especially at the community college and university level, generally have a desire to learn. We use technology to demonstrate our lack of connection with our peers, our professor, and the material in the classroom. I can only speak for myself, but when I have a basic respect for the learning environment I do not disrupt my own education and the experience of others around me by abusing the use of technology. Granted, I am responsible for my own actions, but the professor is responsible for setting the classroom culture.

In the future, I see education becoming more of a customer-focused sector. At some point, educators will have to answer to student dissatisfaction. I will address this in my next post.