Recent Rant

Here's an editorial I wrote recently, to be published in a local paper:

‘Tis the season of new beginnings for many engaged in academics. We look forward to this time as an opportunity to meet people, learn a little something, and, in general advance. As a teacher, I strive to deliver my material more effectively every semester. For me, it’s another chance to do better. Many students also approach a new term with the same optimism and enthusiasm.

For those readers outside the halls of learning, however, it’s just late summer. Those folks may bemoan increased traffic, the return of lumbering yellow busses, and pesky pedestrians at school crossings. Parents may be gnashing their teeth and pinching pennies as they pony up for supplies and tuition. I imagine some people far removed from academics simply do not ‘get it.’

I contributed a biographical tidbit for a class reunion write-up once. In it, I stated, “After suffering a lengthy bout of academia, Mark is now settling into a new job.” I did not attend the reunion, but a close friend did. He reported many concerned people inquiring of my health, “you know, after he had that…sickness or whatever.” My former classmates didn’t get it. They were so far removed from education, they thought I had actually been ill, when in fact, I had simply been caught up in a decade of college.

From my vantage point, the potential for distance between citizens and education seems to be an issue on both sides of the school yard. If education is happening inside hallowed institutions in some hermetically sealed environment, I question its value. When learning and teaching have become practices and professions isolated from the surrounding world, the ‘real’ world, what is really going on? Likewise, if parents or members of a community hold learning at arm’s length, it not only sends mixed signals to students, it also suggests that school lacks validity. Primary and secondary schools must be no more than holding pens, and post-secondary schools must simply be diploma mills and money pits

Why wouldn’t everyone care what happens in the classroom? The United States has mandatory school attendance for children, tuition assistance for college, and millions in tax dollars funding schools for one simple reason: education offers hope. Requiring and supporting schools, so the theory goes, has a payoff—an investment in the future.

I am one of those Ed-u-ma-cators who has always been in school. I’ve now spent almost 30 years involved in post-secondary, higher education. I am throwing that in, just in case you are a new reader. The rest of my readership is likely already braced for the rest. I realize as I punch this out on the keyboard that we all want to be validated in our lives and work, that we all hope what we do is relevant. In my field, particularly the Humanities, that’s not always the way it feels. We have all heard critics of education and can cite any number of examples of its failings. I’m worried what may happen to my children once they start school. Who hasn’t endured (or paid for) what seemed to be a worthless course?

Maybe that is the crux of the matter. If all of education were relevant, applied, and engaged in reality, maybe then it would be more appreciated. That kind of education would have an influx of private dollars, for corporations and philanthropists and every-day folk would all chip in. That school would have an open atmosphere of ‘educators’ of all walks of life coming in…and also an outpouring of direct benefits to the surrounding community. Students would be equipped in the classroom and in the field, and they would contribute substantively to their environs.

Such a symbiotic system of learning has been proposed and addressed by a variety of theorists and academics. Variations on the theme have been given flattering names, been campaigned for and against, and absorbed more than a little of our tax dollars.

I am a proponent of one of those theories, myself. It has a fancy name, and in many situations it’s federally supported. I know enough to know it is not the end-all, the panacea, but…try this on for size: service-learning.

This pedagogy claims that students can do altruistic acts in their community and learn from it. In other words, kids of all ages can volunteer and contribute, and their actions enhance their education. Likewise, their education can amplify their effects on the community. It teaches students to give back, it encourages relevance in the classroom, and it minimizes this distance between school and the real world. Chances are, it’s already being practiced to some degree in virtually every school. I hope service learning and similar strategies can bring people together over all these issues of academics.

Put all the tax woes, lofty theories, and issues aside this month. Do yourself and your school a favor. Check it out. Don’t haunt the playground, for someone will scream ‘pedophile.’ Don’t bolt right into the building unannounced—you could be considered a terrorist. (Isn’t it a troubled time we live in!) I recently visited a grade school and just the smells…floor wax, plastic aprons for painting, crayons…brought it all back for me. Attend a school function. Ask a student, “Say, what’s it like in there?”

The answers are pleasantly surprising.