I’ve never really enjoyed school, since I also don’t equated a 4.0 with being smart. I’ve seen many who speak of how perfect their grades are, yet can’t carry a conversation on anything except what they have learned from with in the pages of a text book. I guess my train of thought is a bit outside the box. Honestly, what more can you expect from someone who’s sister always asked, “What do you think?” That was the one question my sister Lila (Lee-la, pronounced with a latino accent) would ask me, when I tried to amuse her with some new random knowledge school had instilled in me. She would not except, “because, that’s what the teacher said!” Such a response would end our talk, real fast. And no, Lila wasn’t evil. Her feelings was, that you should have a complete understanding before you go reciting what others before you have said. The upside is that once you are able to explain something in your own words, you are in a better position to learn, unlearn, or relearn, any false or misinformation. Have you ever seen a someone argue over something they learned at school and their biggest point is “that’s what the teacher or book said.”
Information is power, and that power tends to flow in one direction in the classroom! That is, from the top of the class to the bottom. Our children sit in nice uniform grid like fashion. The only analogy I can think of is The Price is Right’s, Plinko game. The teacher stands at the top and grabs their “knowledge”, the plinko chip and drops its down for all the children to process. Some get it, others don’t. This format doesn’t work if a teachers goal is to encourage critical thinking. Since you know as well as I do when that the plinko player places that chip, their aiming for the middle where the biggest prize resides, aiming straight for the middle does nothing to foster critical thinking. To inspire critical thinking one has to engage in an exchange. The issue with this is, that in order for it to work one has to be able to relinquish some control. It needs to be more like hot potato where the information is going back and fourth vs the plinko chips being dropped down the grid.
Funny thing is, that being back in school after a decade and a half off, I’m still confronted with Professor’s who play plinko with our education. I had one professor who would give us a chapter to read at home, and during class we’d read that same chapter in class. She would then proceed to ask us questions about the chapter, and I kid you not, not once did she encourage the class to use their own words, but rather, “quote THE TEXT.”
What about those who where clueless about the text to begin with! I’ll tell you what I learned, absolutely nothing. At no time, did I feel challenged, I read the first two chapters and never again looked at the book. When I voiced these concerns with the Professor, her response was, “some don’t understand the reading” which meant to her we had to re-read the text, (which many did not understand), out loud together, and this would some how clear up any misunderstanding anyone had? Really, what about just explaining the text to us in her own words, use your educational skills to help access what we were actually having trouble understanding and fill those gaps. Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I’ve always been under the impression that our text books severed as one point of reference and the Educator served as another, and not to be considered one in the same. To make matters worse this was my education professor, not some random BS class used to fill basic credit requirements. How could she honestly be teaching us the importance of engaging students when, she herself stood atop of that plinko board just dropping chips really thinking the entire class would get it.
The only benefits of using the plinko method is that the grid is set, all there is to do is drop the chips of knowledge. This system has been in practice for way to long, and while it worked wonders for the industrial age when our concern was produce qualified factory workers who followed directions, it is no longer functional for the information age, where the ability to think outside the box is an essential skill today. While things are changing and I have met many educators who encourage students to think for themselves there are still many, who rely on a dated system and feel that since it has work that it means it will continue to work.
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