My Learning Manifesto

Are You Experienced?

I believe a person’s life is defined by their shared experiences. There is a reason why a kid on a merry-go-round cries out to their loved ones to look at them. Would they be so apt to go on or enjoy the ride if there was no one to be a part of that experience with them? You could go to the extreme end of that idea: what if a person lived in complete isolation, never meeting or knowing of another person? What would that life look like? 

 Ever since I was young, I loved to teach. The interaction with people, with the idea that I could be helping this person or making a difference in someone’s day, was one of my favorite types of shared experiences. Along similar lines, I believe the most important aspect of education is experiential learning. Experiential learning is the reason we still do long division in school even though we have calculators on our iPhones. What we learn from long division, algebra, geometry, calculus, and many math functions is the basis for logic, arguments, critical thinking, and problem solving. It allows us to dig deeper into the uses and philosophies such as the concept that if A, then B; and if B, then C; therefor if A, then C. 

What are we actually learning in schools? Why do we have to take English when we have been speaking English our entire lives? What percentage of people that take chemistry junior year use the periodic table ever again? Does knowing the history of Leif Erikson enhance our being in any way? Probably not, but the experience gained from doing the reading, the projects, preparing for assessments, and everything that goes into the process of learning the lessons might – even the rote memorization!

If not for the idea that the process of the lesson is often more important than the lesson itself, we would have very few substantial reasons to do most of the things we do in a school setting outside of the vocational specific classes. Even with the vocational tracks or majors like Engineering, Pre-Med, or Pre-Law, how many of the 1st year students that start those programs end up being architects, doctors, or lawyers? How many Education majors actually become teachers? One study reported that “45 percent of workers report that their job is only partially related or not related to their field of study” (Robst, 2007) Though not peer-reviewed, an article in the Washington Post says that “only 27 percent of college grads have a job related to their major.” 

Experiential learning is why the curricular activities like athletics, performance arts, community outreach, clubs, and studying abroad have a place in education. You may have noticed that I called the activities “curricular” as opposed to co-curricular or extracurricular. To call them co-curricular is to create a mind and body dualism, which in my opinion is contradictory to why I believe we go to school: the experience. Each of the curricular activities in that first sentence have aspects of learning that you do not often get in the classroom, that I would argue are more important: teamwork, how to be a leader, how to follow, getting outside of your bubble, trying new things, winning, losing, pushing yourself beyond what you are able, competition, and of course creating interpersonal relationships. What is troubling to me, is the fact that two subjects that are being dropped from many schools’ curriculum, Physical Education and Music, I argue are the two most important subjects when it comes to the students’ health and well-being. The video of Sir Robinson's talk above is a good depiction of how education is more than just classic academia.

To me, the objective of the educational and learning experience is to enhance and develop a healthy mind, body, and spirit, while creating active citizens in the community and positive agents of change in the world. The medium to this objective would be to provide tools to others that allow them to become intrinsically motivated, life-long, transformative learners with strong skills in intrapersonal communication and relationships. My personal goal in teaching and learning is very simple: to be happy, and to help others lead to a life with the goal of happiness, whatever that might mean to them.

The Times They Are a-Changin

When I graduated high school, the use of email in the educational setting was a novelty. My first year in college was the first time professors at the University of California, Santa Barbara required email accounts, but the school did not yet provide the accounts for you. We used compact disks to download the dial-up AOL internet connection which took minutes to load over the phone line attached to the wall. I cannot imagine life without a smart phone, so it is crazy to think that the first iPhone came out only 11 years ago! Now, I am starting a graduate school program where the entire master’s degree can be earned without ever having to physically see another person!!!

Even though we have textual discussions, not being able to truly interact with people is the part of this experience that I will have the hardest time with. I am of course not counting the cycle of higher-education-induced institutional racism/discrimination, as well as how much money not-for-profit state universities make, but those topics are for separate blog posts.

Outside of online courses, there is the aspect of students physically using electronics. More pertinent for this post though, is the exponentially growing technology in the classroom used by teachers and coaches. Being able to create different ways to present material to be more efficient, extensive, and engaging can be quite a commodity. One challenging part of using technology is keeping up. Yes, technology can make things more efficient if you know how to use them, but if iPhones just came out 11 years ago, what is 2029 have in store for us, and can we all learn fast enough to continue to upgrade?

Staying with the times is not just going to be a test for the teachers, but for the parents as well. Combined with core standards that are far more comprehensive than what many parents had learned, and the increasing need for both parents to work more, the traditional models of homework will have to change too. 

Some school subjects have the ability to use the flipped-classroom, where the students learn the lessons at home using digital resources, then come to school to do work. The biggest advantage of the flipped classroom is being able to have guided discussions and activities in the school setting, so you can dive deeper into the topic. There are many drawbacks however. Some families cannot afford the technology needed. Most schools have a plan to help provide the materials needed, but it does not always work out that way. Another issue is that part of the reason teachers started flipping their classroom is because homework was not being completed well enough or at all. With the flipped classroom, many students are still not doing enough at home, then go to school and participate in discussions and activities of a lesson they never learned.

I was a teacher in a lower middle-class high school for one academic year. It was known by the teachers that homework was rarely done by many of the students. There were a few sophomores in my class that had not passed a class since the sixth grade, but because it costs too much to hold them back, and they are required to be in school, they just kept getting pushed along. Because there was perceptively no consequence to failing, some students at some point stopped caring about their letter grade, and the teachers had their hands tied. Do you give them homework knowing it will not get done, or do you enable them by slowing the lessons down and do everything in the classroom? This is not an easy answer, but I have been a “somewhere in the middle” kind of person. Our job as teachers is to find a way to create an environment of balance, and an atmosphere that encourages the growth mindset, using personalized differentiation and a healthy student-mentor relationship.

Teach Your Children

In my opinion, our job in education is not to make people smarter, but to help people create experiences that lead to a healthy and happy life. Interpersonal relationships and shared experiences are a great medium to accomplish this, but in a classroom setting, you have limited time and resources. With the use of digital learning, teachers have the ability to efficiently tailor lessons to suit the individual needs based on achievement and aptitude. Assessment can be much easier to track and administer.  Digital learning also allows instructors to be more creative helping keep students interested and involved. We will be innovative by continuing to incorporate the newest work, findings, and trends, using the expansive database of the world wide web.

“If we don’t start teaching our kids a better way of dealing with each other, humanity will never succeed.” -Graham Nash

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Works Cited

Crosby, D., Nash, G., Stills, S. (1970). Teach Your Children. On Déjà vu [Vinyl Recording]. Los Angeles, CA: Atlantic Records.

Dylan, B. (1964). The Times They Are a-Changin. On The Times They Are a-Changin [Vinyl Recording]. New York, NY: Columbia Records.

Hendrix, J. (1967). Are You Experienced?. On Are You Experienced? [Vinyl Recording]. London, England: Track Records.

Nash, G. (2013). Wild Tales: A Rocke & Roll Life. London, England: Penguin Books.

Plumer, B. (2013). Only 27 Percent of College Grads Have a Job Related to Their Major. Washington Post. Retrieved from: www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/05/20/only-27-percent-of-college-grads-have-a-job-related-to-their-major/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.048f762a7b0a.

Robinson, K. (2016). Do Schools Kill Creativity. Ted Talks. Retreived from www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQzC7ubJriE

Robst, J. (2006). Education and Job Match: The Relatedness of College Major and Work. Economics of Education Review. 26(4), 397-407.