again.

I was the kid who wondered, “why?” Why am I stuck learning these things in these ways? I participated in cyber charter schools growing up, and boy were those drab lessons. Consider the process of clicking through a unit of digital material.

Lesson 01: Overview. Lesson 01: Module Reading. Lesson 01: Learning Activity. Lesson 01: Comprehension Quiz. Lesson 01: Research Paper Draft. Lesson 01: Optional Explorations. Lesson 02: Overview…

Compare that to what my dad made me do. I recall it like yesterday: “well, if you really want to, come on.” He called down as I stood at the bottom of the ladder. I marveled at how quickly, how easily, he scurried up there. Tool belt, nails, hat, and all. Much like a monkey, he just did it. He didn’t hesitate- he didn’t survey. He knew the ladder, he knew himself. I asked for help. He came down, talked me through it, built my nerves up, and followed me up the ladder. Each rung was like heavenly ascension. I was becoming a man, I thought- or at least I think I thought. There we were, on the roof of our house. My older brother already hard at work, scurrying about being almost as quick and with almost as much ease as my dad. A slab of shingles here, a row of nails there. The two of them were hard at work redoing our roof. And there I was. A king among men. Six years old and my dad trusted me (shhh, mom musn’t know). We three kings slaved about that roof and I learned oh so much. How to hold a hammer. What angle to hit nails. Why shingles lay on top of one another. How you decided which end to start a row. Wow. Six years old.

Lesson 02: Module Reading. Lesson 02: Learning Activity. Lesson 02: Comprehension Quiz. Lesson 02: Research Paper Bibliography. Lesson 02: Optional Explorations. Lesson 03: Overview. Lesson 03: Module Reading…

Wait, I can?! I remember asking. I felt my most recent question was more ludicrous than the question that had just preceded it. “Can I ride on the back of the truck on top of the luggage as we drive over the mountainous terrain of Haiti?” Of course, dad said. There I was, twelve years old, strapping in for a bronco of a ride on the back of some 1980s Ford something-or-another rolling (read: bumping, careening, speeding, screeching, and generally flying) through the mountain on our 3+ hour drive. I made it. Dad was probably driving my truck. Mr. Ward was on the back with me. I considered myself the luckiest of all. The wind keeping me cool, the open scenery, and the fun conversations. All because I was given the chance to try. “Of course.”

Lesson 03: Learning Activity. Lesson 03: Comprehension Quiz. Lesson 03: Research Paper Second Draft. Lesson 03: Optional Explorations. Lesson 04: Overview. Lesson 04: Module Reading. Lesson 04: Learning Activity…

Imagine my disdain. Compare these environments. The field, my dad, the experiences were all trials that taught me and grew me. They were rich and lavish educational opportunities that I was given the chance to have. Dad was much like Edison- as long as I didn’t cause him any paperwork (i.e. E.R. visits), I could try and fail as much as I liked.

Yet here I was in my state-regulated, sanitary educational process being conformed to an image. Whose image? I still don’t know. Sir Ken Robinson provides some insight on this matter though:

Robinson rightly points out that we’re sending our 21st century children into a late 19th, early 20th century education system. The philosophies that undergird Education in America are archaic in comparison to what we know. You could not cite the research that birthed the industrialized education system today because it would not be considered authoritative (what’s the standard today? 10 years to be relevant?).

The Mandate Method only ever makes it so far anyways. Bosses, directors, presidents, senators- these people can say “because I said so”, but my father never did. Imagine living in a world where we do what we’re told because we’re told, when your household simply does not work that way. In fact, my dad was the epitome of sticking it to the man. He aced the SATs in the ’60s, and yet flunked college. He helped build some of the prototypes for computers and intranet that are the bedrock of the Web today, and yet he never saw a dime. All he wanted was the experience- he lived to learn.

Here, my man Propaganda throws down a verse about what the Board of Education could learn from all of us who are bored of education.

For instance, look at Antero Garcia’s (2014) insights on the subject of Connected Learning. Garcia identifies the role of the learner to associate content being retained with topics, skills, or studies that are interesting to the learner. Imagine connecting what you want to learn about (roofing or Haitian geography) with the actual content you need to learn (learning to roof and traveling through Haiti). This association, this connectedness, is prevalent in our personal lives and in our informal education. Why shouldn’t we integrate it into our learners’ education? Garcia references James Paul Gee’s claim that the future is shaped by workers who are “shape-shifting portfolio people”, and frankly, I must say the future is here. Many of my successful peers have already had two careers by the time they are in their thirties. There’s a business-owner in Lancaster who decided in his thirties to just start a distillery, even though he himself is in computer sciences. Why? Why not.

And yet, all of these thoughts aside, I’m not here to tear Education down. Much like Martin Luther, my digitally nailed theses here are not intended to destroy. I hope for reform. Luther aimed to reform, reshape, rebuild the Catholic Church. Like him, like Propaganda, like Sir Robinson, like my dad, I hope that we can all take a step forward with the best intentions and even better efforts as we look to change the inside of the classroom.

I come not to abolish the classroom, but to fulfill it.

WVHI