It made me cringe but led to an “aha”

It’s Sunday afternoon and I’ve just finished putting away all the things from our second Ultimate Youth Night. This night is a opening evening for youth in our community to come together in a safe and supervised setting to enjoy movies, games, gaming and music. Our first event had about 50 youth attend from 7:00 to midnight. For last night’s event, it was decided to try to include some of the younger students in the school so we had two different parts to the evening. The first part was from 6:00 to 9:00 and was for any students from K to 5 accompanied by an adult. For a first time try, it was okay with about 15 kids attending with their parents.

The second part of the evening was for youth from grade 6 to age 18. For this portion of the evening, we had about 55 youth come out and play games and hang out. When I left at 9:00, after my 6 hours of setting up and getting all the things organized, the place was rocking with Wii, Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Baseball, SceneIt, a the board games NHL Monopoly and Clue being played. We sold pop for a $1 and had free chips and such. This round we had many more girls attend and participate. We’re happy with what is happening but now we know it is time to make this a sustainable project – one that is run by youth with adult assistance. Our plan is to create a committee of 10 or 12 youth and have them appoint a chairperson and organize these evenings with input from the overseeing committee, of which 3 of the youth will sit on.

So, what made me cringe? Well, it wasn’t this. It was a conversation that I had with a grade 11 student on Friday who, during our discussion, told me that we were equals. I’ve spent the entire weekend thinking about that comment. Now it makes me cringe for a few reasons. First off, it creates a false sense of being equals in a manner that is not possible. As much as schools need to open up and allow students to be part of some of the decisions, there are still responsibilities that youth, even those who are mature, should not be made to shoulder because they are still youth. A second thing that came to mind is the false sense that there is an equality of decision-making ability that just isn’t there. Schools are responsible to every help every student to do their best given the tools and personel available to them. As an administrator, part of my mandate is to try to ensure that this does take place and, if necessary, to take the steps to bring this to fruition. Lastly, it creates unattainable goals that no matter how much we, as educators, do, we won’t be able to meet. As much as I would like to see schools change, there are some things that youth should not be made to deal with as they navigate the path to adulthood because, to tell you the truth, I’m still learning and growing into after 17 years in education.

While I spent time setting up for the youth evening, I began to realize that the wrong person was doing the setting up – this event needs to be organized by the people who know what they want to do. Instead, as the adult, our group needs to take care of the things like accessing grants, finding a permanent storage place for the equipment, accessing facilities, organizing chaperones and so forth and leave the actual setting up, doing and taking down to the people who are participating. Last night we had 5 game machines with projectors being played while music, games and other activities were taking place. This made me think that maybe I’d been going about things at my school all wrong.

Application to Education

For the past 3 years, the staff has been trying to figure out how to deal with a number of issues that have been constant problems. We’ve tried a few different things but usually end up at the same place we began. As I thought about what this student had said to me, I realized that there was a lack of information on the part of the students. Instead of explaining and discussing the workings of the school with them, we’d been telling them how things worked and what was going to be expected of them. This sometimes worked and sometimes caused problems, especially for me. Just recently I’ve been running into all kinds of difficulty with students being late and cutting class. Suffice to say, not everyone is on the same page.

Here I am trying to enforce rules that students have no input into. Now, some of them are from our provincial Education Act and are part of the law. Actually, all of them are related to this. My plan, fool-hearty as it is, is to dialogue with students from grades 9 – 11 and have them set out the parameters for their behaviour while at the same time putting the responsibility for classroom management of these things fully in the hands of the teachers. To do this, I plan to bring these students together for an afternoon this week to work in groups, with a teacher in each group, to suggest ways to deal with the issues that result from the rules that are given to us.

I plan to divide the students into groups, having each group brainstorm ideas for dealing with the problems making it clearly understood that this process is a way for them to take ownership for themselves and create the expectations for the school. I know that this is a huge gamble and could turn into complete chaos but I trust that the students, once they realize that if they take this seriously, will be taken seriously. The final expectations will be organized and voted upon through secret ballot. Of course, I will have veto power over any unreasonable suggestions but I’m hoping students will monitor themselves.

I’m not sure if this is an “aha” or an “oh-oh”. However, I tire of the way things are working – trying to have students accept responsibility for what they are doing. Hopefully, this way, they will buy into what is going on. What do you suggest?

It’s societal

I’ve been in a discussion over at Infinite Thinking Machine with various people including Arthus who is “… a 14-year-old student in Vermont who has recently become actively involved in the online dialog about educational technology.”

Part of the discussion I’ve been having with Arthus and Steve Hargadon, of Ning Classroom2.0 fame, revolves around the need for schools to change. You can catch up on that conversation here. Part of the discussion has centered around the need for schools to change and for teachers to use more technology. Now, as many of you know, I agree on both accounts. One suggestion is that we need to increase the number and type of people involved in the discussion about schools and have more people who use and understand technology in decision-making positions. This is a good idea but I do not believe that, by having technologically savvy people in higher decision-making positions, it will somehow increase changes in schools regarding technology access, use or integration.

Societal Barriers

As much as many of us discuss within the small technological circle the need for schools to reform and the need for change, the reality is that the circle is small. Adding voices from someone like Arthus is a great thing to do. As I pointed out in the comments

we can have input from whomever we want but ultimately someone has to be responsible.Unless people fully understand this and are willing to give input realizing that their input is just that and may not be used, then we run the risk of people expecting things to happen when, in reality, they cannot….. Talk all you want, discuss all you want but until it’s your butt on the firing line about the decision that was made, don’t insinuate that those making decisions don’t know about technology or technology use.

I am someone who is in a position to make some decisions about what happens in schools. As much as I might like to see things change, there are other pressures that are also pushing and pulling for time and, depending on which one the media grabs or which one becomes a focus for the community, that is where many of the resources go. Is this always good? No. Is this what I want? Not always but it is the reality of what happens. You cannot point to any one level of decision-makers as most of them are reacting to societal forces that are pushing at them.

For changes, significant changes to take place in schools, society has to rethink the idea of school. Instead of people seeing students who are listening to ipods, texting and using laptops as youth playing with expensive toys, they need to realize that these tools could be powerful learning tools.For those students using the tools, they are but somehow we’ve made the internet something that has as many, if not more, evils than it has virtues. Media continues to portray and report the nasty and bad, which society is demanding they do, instead of the good. Now, those of us who see the potential of the tools and many of the students know this isn’t the case but for many parents this isn’t so. It is something new, different and, ultimately, something scary. For the adults, who can protect themselves, the internet is a wide-open playground yet with the youth this changes and becomes something else.

As Steve points out

I think part of the difficulty here is that the rise of the read-write web is probably going to have comparable historical and cultural significance to the advent of the printing press. I believe we are going to see some dramatic changes in many of our existing institutions.

Change is never easy and, I agree with Steve here, the changes are going to be widespread and far reaching. As adults, our natural reaction when we see something that we really don’t understand is to try to protect the youth. Is it any wonder that changes in schools are slow? This is a place where many of the adults can still walk into and recognize and, for the most part, feel safe. Despite all that is going on in the world around, schools and what takes place within them are still safe and recognizable.

Bring on the Change

For Arthus, and many other youth, they don’t see schools the same way. Their world has been dominated with change and with a global view of events and actions. Communication and socializing are all part of learning and understanding. Active integration of the tools is common. Using tools to create their own interpretation is not unique. Sharing with one another over vast distances is not a scary thing, it’s what they do. Instead of fearing the changes going on around them, they accept them as part of their way of life. Again, Steve comments

It may be that if traditional schools have difficulty responding to this massive change because of how they are currently structured–as you have pointed out well–we may find that some parents and students look for alternatives.

And indeed some parents and youth will make that move. However, as I point out,

“Society is basically happy with how schools run – they don’t want something radically different – “Hey, if it worked for me…” when, in fact, we do need something radically different. Something that would allow learners to access information, discuss topics – sometimes across boarders and oceans – create their own reactions that were “graded” differently than we do now. This would require that universities move away from how they accept students and, really, completely turn over the entire idea of education from top to bottom.

Such a monumental change requires more than just technology savvy people in decision-making positions. It requires a societal shift in the idea of what “educated” means. For that to happen, people have to become uncomfortable with the way things are being done and that will take time no matter who is making the decisions.