William Damon “Education and the Path to Purpose”
Damon believes that the most pressing problem in education today is student disengagement. And I think he is right. It’s an epidemic of disengagement, boredom and stress – a deadly combination that leads to drop-out rates on the one hand a sense of entitlement on the other. (“I worked hard and suffered in school so I am entitled to ….name that unearned privilege.”)
Damon makes his comments in his open letter to the next president. It’s a problem that he says it not confined to impoverished schools but rather one that is endemic across the academic spectrum including at some of the more prestigious and highly regarded institutions..
The cure he says resides in helping students address the “why” question about everything they do. “Why do people study math and science? Why is it important to read and write? To spell words correctly? Why do we expect you, and your fellow students, to excel in the work that we assign to you? The answer to such questions must be more substantial and more stirring than the generic response, “You need to do well in school in order to graduate and get a job.’”
Beyond those central academic questions about every aspect of the curriculum lies the broader purpose of education. We want students to develop a passion for learning and living as educated citizens and to contribute to their communities with civic purpose and a global awareness. For that to happen students need schools to be more than mere test prep training grounds. They need the opportunity to take on the bigger questions and consider the why and why not questions. In short they need the chance to engage meaningfully in the great conversation about meaning and morality, and set about the tasks of life with a sense of purpose and possibility
At PDS we could not agree more. And one thing is for sure – at PDS we don’t need to find the cure for student disengagement.
We don’t have the disease.
Josie–
Thanks for you nice appreciation for my blog project in your Kind Words posting, above.
Engagement, we all recognize, is essential. Michael Thompson helped expand my vision of this in Pressured Child- and as I shadow students at various high schools this fall, I am constantly watching for engagement. Taking from Thompson, I am determined to respect the significance of the students’ reactions, and that of my own gut. Are the students smiling or yawning? What is their body language? Am I engaged? Too often, I fear, we blame the kids’ boredom on the kids. No other “industry” or enterprise can afford to do this, but somehow it seems education is allowed to blame boredom on the bored.
The High School Student Survey of Engagement reports that some 70% of high school students are bored every day. (Is PDS using this survey? I am determined to do so at my next school, and take the results seriously). I am visiting very good schools, schools with great reputations, but as Damon says, I still see classrooms where students are bored.
Some thoughts, after three visits:
1. Questioning and Purpose, like Damon says, are essential. Teachers need to always be consciously asking good questions, and facilitating student quality questioning. And tell us what for– what real-world application or transfer will this learning empower us for?
2. Math classes– what is the problem? It has only been three schools for me so far, but the consistent theme for me is that Math is the least engaging. I am sure your school is doing wonderful things in Math, but I think we need a math teaching revolution. What does PDS do to engineer engaging mathematics learning?
3. There is a classroom mode, I find, that requires revisiting. I love a good lecture, I appreciate a well facilitated seminar discussion, and of course, the practice of collaborative groups engaged in challenging projects with teacher coaching is awesome. But the thing that is killing me as I visit classrooms is the mode of teacher going around a room, one student at a time: Johnny, what did you get for number 6? Sally, number 7? I have seen this, at good schools, far too often. The only persons engaged here are the single student answering the question, and the teacher. (And, and I love this, the only times the teacher bothers to notice the other 14 students in the room is when they are being disruptive, and the teacher looks up to glare!) I have seen this in chemistry, math, and foreign language classes. Part of the problem, I fear, is that the teachers don’t recognize how disengaging this practice is because the teacher himself is, during it, entirely engaged.
Thanks again for your wonderful blog– it is an inspiration!
-Jonathan