On Monday, I was scheduled to proctor an AP exam in a specific room. Like any proctor, I dutifully carried my basket of AP exams up to the room....only to find a class in there. Taking a test. Evidently, no one had bothered to inform the poor teacher that there would be an AP exam in his room. I felt so badly, but eventually, my wonderful Assistant Principal figured out a way to get the AP exam moved to my room, which was free at that time. *sigh* For all that she was busy, my Assistant Principal had to drop everything to work on this problem, because someone else couldn't have been bothered to inform a teacher about a room change. This had, evidently, been happening all week.
This got me thinking about what I like to call The Goat Rodeo. If you are not familiar with the term, a goat rodeo is a situation that cannot be controlled at any time, no matter how hard you try. Just think, honestly, about trying to lasso a bunch of goats and get them to GO somewhere or DO something specific.
Our lives are busy. Our students' lives are busy. In order to get ANYTHING done, even in a mediocre manner, with so much going on, one MUST have good organization and prioritization skills. And yet, that is the one thing we "don't have time" to teach students. I've often heard teachers say, "Well, they'll learn them as they get more work." No, they won't. Like any skill, this needs to be taught and learned.
I had a conversation recently with my students about planning and logistics. We talked about how, in college, you absolutely must manage your time. There was no one telling you when to do things. YOU are in control of your own learning and your own schedule. "So," asked J, "When do we learn that?" I looked at him, with faux-curiosity. "We hear all of this talk about preparing us for college," J explained. "Yeah, but no one ever teaches us how to actually survive in college!" A added. M, the student-of-the-color-coded-binders, commented that her mom taught her how to color code, which had been a life-saver for her. Finally, one of my seniors had a profound insight. "Look," said C, matter-of-factly, "the hard truth of it is that teachers do everything for us. They treat us like...like perpetual fifth graders! That's how it works at other schools too. We can't bring them with us to college! Why do they do this? It hurts more than it helps." Everyone else agreed vehemently with her.
I do not talk about infantilization with my students. Never have. I do discuss organization. Nevertheless, my students, especially C, hit the nail on the head when they talked with each other about this issue.
When the students can see the problem, identify it, and talk coherently about it, we must address the problem. It is OUR responsibility to teach the children and "prepare them for college." So, maybe we need to go back to our roots and remember what life was like in college, especially our first year! How do we really teach those skills within the confines of the system? And how do we model those skills ourselves?
Aurelia, I found this very interesting. I have thought about this topic many times this past year (my first year of college). However mostly I have been thinking, "gosh I wish I hadn't blown off my high school english class, and had actually learned how to write that essay." But I also have thoughts about how much busy work I did in english class and if that had not been so, I may have had the opportunity to learn more. So I wonder if it is the teachers/schools that are not teaching the kids how to survive in college or the students not taking the opportunities given to them to prepare themselves. The comment about teachers doing everything for their students was very interesting for me. I am glad you brought this topic up because it is something very important that we should be thinking about so that students can not only learn the subjects we are teaching them but also life skills.
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