I received an email from an ex-student who moved to a large city in another state for his freshman year of high school. A brilliant kid who was an absolute joy to have in class. I will always remember the presentation he did comparing and contrasting the different eras of music, playing samples of each on his flute. I have been thinking for a while about what kind of introduction or conclusion I could add to his letter below, but I think any of my words would just detract from the power of his. Full disclosure here—the letter is heavily edited. I did not change any of his words, but I did omit any sentence about me and parts about his band experience. I did get his permission to re-print the letter on Blogush.
Here is what we are doing to the cream of the “creative class:”
…education is very different here, and I felt something wrong in the classroom when I got here. It’s is seriously, and I am not exagerating, like CMT(CT Mastery Tests) day everyday here…the teachers, I don’t know how to explain it. They are not human, nothing is human. The tests, I do not even want to get into. They are Scantron, in other words, ALL bubble in because, and I quote a teacher, the teachers simply do not feel like grading papers. I have yet to write an essay here, or really write anything. Everything is multiple choice which just takes out the human in teachers I think. Well, I think that’s enough of bashing teachers…I am doing so much reading as I don’t read enough in school hahaha. I just finished Animal Farm which I loved. Such a great book. I also re-read 1984 and I found a lot of new stuff in it I hadn’t seen before. Last week I bought Fahrenheit 451 which was grand. See, the way novel reading goes at this school is they give us the book, they play a tape which reads us the book and that’s all. The teacher simply watches us. I don’t know, maybe I am just a complaining teenager which is fine…
I want to write back something that gives him hope. This is a great mind that should not be wasting away in a classroom coloring in bubbles on a test. What do I say? Would you give him advice on how to keep his mind active by doing things outside of the school? or direct him to take action and attempt to change the current academic environment? What would you do?
9 responses so far ↓
He’s not going to be able to do much about the lack of essay writing opportunities… and it sounds like he’s managing to read some classic stories all on his own. If there isn’t any hope that he can transfer to a different, more challenging school, I wouldn’t advise him to try to change the current environment. He doesn’t say much about the other students… which I found interesting. Perhaps it’s one of those vicious circles where the kids don’t do much and the teachers think the kids aren’t capable so they dumb down the expectations, so the kids don’t do much …
Tell him to keep active on his own. He certainly won’t be the first student to survive an environment that isn’t very stimulating. Is he able to stream into some more challenging classes?
It’s sad to think that’s his reality. Tell him to start scoping out universities now!
If you were going to advise him to “take action”, what action could he possibly take? You don’t want him refusing to take a Scantron test, do you?
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I would tell him to seek out an elective teacher–music, art, business, journalism, even home ec, and see what they could offer him. We see this with our foreign exchange students who come as seniors and are given very easy classes. Some of them take a business class and find that it really challenges them more so than their mainstream classes which are just as your student describes.
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Tell him to take the GED and not waste the next 3 years on incarcerated stupidity?
Turn him on to TED Talks?
Tell him to contribute his email, revised a wee bit, to Students 2.0?
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I agree with Clay’s advice (by the way, I got here via his bookmarks). And to give your ex-student a road map of alternatives, send him a copy of Grace Llewellyn’s Teenage Liberation Handbook.
Also, since he liked 1984, suggest Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother which is in bookstores, but can also be previewed or read in full online for free.
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Just though I’d send along a little more information about Llewellyn’s book. Here’s a page from the publisher with the table of contents, some excerpts, some reviews, and notes from readers. And here’s another review.
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Roberto, When your comment passes the spam filter, I hope others follow its links. I just watched the Carl Honore “Slowness” TED Talk, and look forward to exploring more.
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The links Clay refers to are here.
Clay, my message over on del.icio.us wasn’t clear about the content of my first comment on this post (which has now made it through and is above). The links you mention were for a comment on another blog. I’ve been having trouble getting link-loaded comments through filters everywhere lately. Sorry for the confusion.
Paul, apologies for cluttering up your comments.
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When I was in university, there was a popular bumper sticker that read “Subvert the Dominant Paradigm”.
I would advise him to take his teachers and his school to task (respectfully, of course!) and encourage others to do the same. It sounds like he’s got plenty of time on his hands…
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“Subvert the Dominant Paradigm.” That has hung on my classroom wall for years and travels with me to new schools. I’ve modified to to make it mine: “As a general rule, I eschew rules.”
As for your boy, continue to advise him that passions are not always found in school and that what he has a lot of fun doing now may be an avenue to a future passion. I had a professor who saved my life with this statement when the Teacher’s College was trying to flunk me out:
“Just do what they want you to do for now, and when you get out, do what you KNOW is right.”
Maybe his “for now” is a daily occurrence.
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