What I Teach Doesn’t Matter (And Other Truths I Learned in 2016)
8. EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL
Fights over teaching evolution in science class and banning books from literature curricula are not new to the education world. But now even reason and facts are doubted, dismissed as elitist simply because they contradict and disprove so many myths, and it’s partly our own fault. If we teach our students to question long-held beliefs or hold those who are in power accountable for their actions, suddenly we’re labeled “controversial” and added to a watch list to be potentially targeted for retribution by conservative reactionaries. If teaching our students to be free thinkers and empathetic citizens can be labeled as controversial, then we don’t truly believe in education or a democratic society. Stand up to the misinformed and their hurtful actions and rhetoric. Embrace your role as a political entity and empower your students to become independent, thoughtful members of society.
7. FEAR OF CONTROVERSY
No one wants to upset others, and no one wants to be upset by others. And it’s hard to speak up in a world where everyone seems to act like rabid sports fanatics who hammer down dissent. Something is only controversial when it contradicts the status quo or challenges our long-held personal beliefs. But isn’t that what learning and education are all about? No, you’re not just entitled to your opinion, but you are entitled to a classroom culture that respects diverse perspectives and supports the evolution of knowledge. What role do we as teachers play in creating a classroom culture that respects diverse opinions? How often do we admit to our students that our own worldview may not be accurate and has been challenged? If we expect our students to accept new ideas, do we expect the same of ourselves?
6. THE POWER OF STORY
A recent study at Stanford found that most students don’t know how to identify fake news. As educators, we’ve never included media literacy in our curriculum in consistent ways, and the inability of students (and teachers) to critically vet sources of information online prevents us from understanding the world accurately. The only antidote for false stories and how to spot them is to integrate media literacy into our curriculum and to produce true ones. As educators, we should care about fact, reason and accuracy. So how are we helping students identify accurate stories and create and tell their own? How much time do we dedicate to learning how to read and author authentic multimedia stories?
5. EMPATHY IS THE NEW BLACK
The fallout from the presidential election and other events around the world brought clarity to me about why there is so much conflict and distrust in the world: a lack of empathy. In world that is more segregated than ever and where income disparity is high, we just don’t “get” each other because we’re never close enough to truly know each other.
Solving many of society’s ills begins with empathy. I’ve tried to build experiential learning into my curriculum with international documentary trips and social justice projects and so has a colleague at USC’s Keck School of Medicine. So the challenge is how to build empathy into our curriculum that begins with design thinking, and extends into all subject areas.
4. PASSION
I know that I put more effort into activities that I care about and find the time to learn new skills that make me better at doing them. So why do we assume that our students or our classrooms are any different? Google gives their employees 20% of their time to work on a passion project (Google Chrome is one of the results), and many teachers now do that in their classrooms, too. But why not make our classes 100% passion projects? Imagine the commitment level if we reframed our curriculum in ways that were meaningful to our kids. If they cared, how much better would they perform and behave in class? The same goes for teachers, who should be allowed their passion projects and to craft curriculum that is meaningful to them and their students.
3. TRUST YOUR STUDENTS
As each year goes by, I continue to believe more strongly that we need to respect our students, trust them to make their own decisions, and to let them learn from their mistakes since that’s where most real learning happens. We need to accept them as independent thinkers, and maybe even learn a thing or two from them.
2. WHAT I TEACH DOESN’T MATTER
The presidential election drained the blood from my heart because everything I took for granted as a teacher seemed to evaporate, as if no one cared about logic, reason or facts. This educational bedrock crumbled beneath me and left me in freefall. I had been clinging to my subject area content as if it were the only thing that mattered in the world, when in fact it doesn’t.
As much as I love what I teach, I now see my subject as a vehicle to greater learning about philosophy, ethics, civics and literature — in other words, being a good human being. There are fundamental skills and truths that matter much more to the world than the facts and skills I teach in my class: those that allow my students to make sense of the world, empower them to make ethical decisions, and collaborate with others to solve problems.
1. LEARNING AS A JOURNEY, NOT A DESTINATION
This year I’ve had the pleasure to work with four deaf and hard of hearing students in my Cinematic Arts class. The challenge of teaching a subject that is based on sound (think dialogue, music, sound effects), collaboration and production of movies with sound really forced me to rethink how I teach and what I expect of all of my students. Yes, the end result is important for every project, but maybe there is more importance in the distance a student can travel while learning your curriculum. What you or I might consider a small success can be a major success in the eyes of our kids, and give them the encouragement to keep travelling down the road of learning long after they leave our classroom and go out into the real world. My DHH students taught me that my learning isn’t done yet, and that I continue to travel down the path of becoming a better teacher and person.
