September 7, 2013
I began this Autumn’s lectures to my college classes by emphasizing the koan:
Nothing worth learning can be taught…
…and while I’ve had vociferous complaints from teachers over-the-years when I’ve suggested that I truly believe this koan (and some token disagreement from my college students) – this Semester’s crop seem to realize that what we internalize as meaningful, functional knowledge has been accomplished solely by each of us as individuals: the teacher is merely the conveyor and facilitator of the information. As there are no 2 snowflakes that are alike (none of us sees a color exactly alike, either); so too is it impossible to “standardize” education so that each student apprehends the information in the same way: Standardized testing forces the brain to converge on a single, best answer – when true education should be about expanding awareness.
I was recently introduced to “The Pollen Path” through an interview in my beloved Times. It goes something like this:
Oh, beauty before me,
beauty behind me,
beauty to the right of me,
beauty to the left of me,
beauty above me,
beauty below me,
I’m on the pollen path.
Now, if I’d known that Joseph Campbell had re-acquainted Americana with this Navajo prayer, I probably would have hooked into The Pollen Path a long time ago…as-it-is…my readers are catching me in a gestation period of how I might best assist the American public education endeavor and I’m not sure how I want to “ride” with the sentiments of this prayer. Is it perhaps a lovely expression from a life and world long since destroyed – subsequently relegated to naive romanticism?
Yet it would be lovely if we could teach each child what this poem intimates: That Life is beautiful and that the joy and art of living involves discovering Life’s beauty? Wouldn’t this be an education?!
But as Fish sang in “Misplaced Childhood“: this is no place for children! And it really isn’t anymore, is it?
Sadly, the two critical components for successful schooling are structure and discipline – and while many public schools do have structure, and some even have discipline – most public schools are bereft of both: they are institutions that continue to function in-spite-of-themselves.
And while Dante and I agree on much regarding education (Dante has suggested that we begin an education podcast) – we definitely disagree on the role of discipline in the classroom. Dante firmly believes that if children are successfully managed/disciplined; that “real” learning can take place. Meanwhile, I am convinced that no known form of disciplining would work in the current public school milieu; and, while I believe in a draconian vision of schooling that would definitely allow Dante to successfully implement his methods, my model proffers a daily structure not heretofore seen in American public schools.
As most-of-us-know, the LAUSD school board no longer wants a student to be suspended for open defiance – so I try to prepare my high school teachers for many the “Fuck Yous” they will endure in their teaching careers. Dante and I also concur on the craziness of this new edict…designed to keep an un-socialized student in class; and all-the-while, allowing the disruptive student to negatively alter the educational climate for others.
I, for one, am getting tired of seeing my tax dollars used to generate smoke and mirrors…