How the education system became a troll
Do not blame the professor for placing its body where it should be, blame the social acceptance of our teaching styles.
With our busy lives, humans today are constantly on the go. We complete one task followed by another and then before we know it the sun has set once again. The next morning we get up and follow the same routine we did the day before.
College professors are all very unique. Some more caring than others but nevertheless very wise and intellectual human beings. More recently, in my second year of college, I noticed a common trend when it came to teaching styles in the classroom and it was a sad reality. Students show up at a preselected time along with the professor, the professor goes to the podium, punches in a user name along with a password, brings up a file and begins teaching. The professor then stands behind the podium for the next hour with all the power. It seems that this very routine is followed in some way or another by most professors. They jump straight into the lecture, without a “hello” or a “how is it going today.” It does not have to be done this way though but its “weird” if things are not done in this way. For the longest time students are taught that school is a place to go to five days a week to learn. While in school, students are forced into classrooms, locked behind doors listening to someone who has all the knowledge. Students become soldiers posted to an assigned seat, forced to stay in the same room for eight hours a day. The teacher teaches, and students learn, sadly not much changes when students go on to a new grade level. College is the same. Just like a soldier, professors as Michel Foucault points out have
“become something that can be made; out of a formless clay, an inapt body, the machine required can be constructed”
Professor are not at fault but it seems that society has shaped the way that learning is accepted and it took me a while to notice this pattern. It wasn’t until I walked into a Sustainability Studies class where I was encouraged to talk and engage with the professor. To be honest, it felt weird, this teaching style was not what I was used to. This class made me realize how terrible my learning experience had been and the fact that I had bared with it for so long made me furious. Although I understand that I am in college and that I should put time aside to get to know my professors, when one has professors who lecture for an hour straight and allow for no questions or comments, it can be a hassle.
Even when students speak up or express their comments students often receive a very monotone and unwillingly answer. As I look around, the bodies in the room are not really there. They are all carelessly sitting in a chair waiting for a clicker question to appear since it seems to be that attendance can only be measured this way. Professors should instead value, experiences, comments, so that in this way students are more engaged with lecture. The sad truth is that guidelines are always in place specifically at a university with ten week sessions, its been constructed that the right thing to do is place the body where it needs to be placed. In a conversation between Bell Hooks and an interviewer in “Building a Teaching Community,” Bell Hooks points out that “pleasure in the classroom is feared. If there is laugher, a reciprocal exchange may be taking place” and that is seen as a result that students are not learning. In reality though, it shows that students are engaged and actively participating hence learning is taking place.
Teaching styles at many Universities today are a sad reality. Schools are constantly bragging about their great achievements, small classroom settings, and diversity around campus. What is not brought up is the the way that students are taught. With only ten weeks for professors to teach it seems that student have accepted the only teaching style offered.
