I Care: Let's Do Whatever It Takes, By Whatever Means Necessary

In Michael Wesch's article, "Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance," Wesch tries to describe a way of approaching teaching that he calls 'anti-teaching' because he has come to the conclusion that 'teaching can actually be a hindrance to learning."  He points out how he had found out his students at Kansas State University were disconnected to learning and he has been trying to find a way to connect them to both education and the world at large.

In his article, Wesch writes "if our students are 'not cut out for school', perhaps we have made the mold too narrow or inflexible, or more likely, just not meaningful enough to inspire a student to fit in.  That's the significant problems" (5).  This idea was interesting to me in a couple ways.  The first, "we have made the mold too narrow or inflexible," reminds me of teachers who refuse to try and look at students' points of view, and think their way of teaching is the only right way.  Any students who don't fit into their ideal are left behind.

At first, when I started teaching, I was relatively disturbed by teachers who thought like this.  Now that I have a few years under my belt, I can relate a little more to that attitude.  It seems like there are individualized plans or modifications for every other student.  It can become frustrating, and tiresome, when it seems like we're constantly trying to catch up on students who aren't exactly matching our effort.  Yet, as I continue learning more about teaching, these particular challenges can be the most rewarding, especially when the students start to come around, so I've been more patient with them as much as I've been irritated.  It's a weird dynamic, to say the least.

Which brings me back to the quote: the learning the students haven't been "meaningful enough to inspire a student."  This speaks to a more overall attitude and can seem like a somewhat easy answer - inspire the students and they'll follow - and it seems like a bigger challenge than a buzzword.  Wesch certainly takes us to examples where we can do this, although the challenge seems slightly overwhelming.  I tried imagining doing some of his classroom activities and thought about how difficult  it would be to get there, especially with MCAS/overall standardized testing looming over everything.

But, I'm sure it's not an overnight process.  Trying to understand the idea that "the medium is the message" helped clue me into some of the first steps I could take (6).  Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are becoming such a part of our society, yet aren't used much in the classroom.  Wesch points out that "at a deeper level these are little more than simple parlour tricks.  They make up a rather creative and interesting means of learning but not a reason for learning.  They do not address that most significant problem, the problem of significant" (6).

This is a common problem for teachers - the questions from students about what's the point of doing an assignment, how the lesson won't effect their lives, how they will never use this or that skill in the real world.  It's increasingly difficult, as Wesch points out, as we've become a fractured society and it's been more difficult to find a common narrative ground to lay education's significance on.  Wesch points out that we need to recognize that there needs to be a shift "from the national to the global" and "our grand narratives must also shift" (6).  

I watched a couple of Wesch's videos to further understand how to shift the narrative.  The first video was one discussed in the paper - "A Vision of Students Today."  

I wish I could say I was surprised by some of the statistics and anecdotes offered in the video.  I was an undergraduate only a few years ago and I could feel in my classmates a similar unease depicted in the video.  Many friends would voice these concerns.  I felt the frustrations as well, yet I think I had many professors who looked outside the box and were able to connect with me.  Some students don't have this occur and they don't look too fondly on their educational experiences.

I continued looking into Wesch and watched his hour-long lecture that further dove into the work done behind the first video:

Wesch was the keynote speaker at a conference in Manchester, UK, and I found this video struck a chord with me, more so than the reading.  He had so many fascinating ideas that I found myself jotting down throughout, things I had thought of but couldn't quite put into words.

He spoke about his studies in New Guinea and how he had discovered that the people there didn't actually have names.  There was a census done and it was reported that around fifty people had the same name.

I was particularly struck by this because here in America, it's almost like we have two personalities now, two names, so to speak.  There's the real us, the physical us, and then there's the Facebook/Internet alternative universe us.  And people in New Guinea don't even have licenses or ID's, never mind Facebook profiles!  Imagine that!  We're trying to find significance through technology, which ends up being a hollow, shallow existence.  Meanwhile, there are people on Earth living without Names!

There were plenty of other awesome ideas in the video, and I'm going to list them here in case people haven't watched it and are hedging on whether to or not.

• Media mediates our relationships.
• We shape our tools.  Our tools shape us - McLuhan
• Half of students don't like school, based on a show of hands in class.
• To be significant, you have to be on TV - or that's how people see the world.
• In the 1950's 12% of people considered themselves "important."  By the 80s, the number had risen to 80%.
• The search for the authentic self is where people are having issues.
• The medium shapes the message.
• Power corrupts.  PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
• "I care.  Let's do whatever it takes.  By whatever means necessary."

The last quote was what Wesch poses to end his presentation.  I thought it was particularly powerful quote and one that will leave an impression on me for a long time.