The Lost Generation?

In response to We Feel Lost, Will Richardson:

After reading Will Richardson's recent blog post, We Feel Lost, I began to really think about the role student attitude plays in engagement.  Richardson writes insightfully about a student's response to a recent school visit.  The student describes school perfectly.  He very well could be a student at Windsor High School.

 He wrote: We are the lost generation.  Many teachers think standardized tests, endless worksheets, and piles of homework are the answer. The other half don’t believe in homework, think standardized tests are moronic, and believe in activities that make us enjoy the lesson. But it’s too harsh a mix for either side to get its point across. So we end up with this generation who doesn’t care about education or can’t find a motivation to continue it.

The thing is we don’t care. It’s not because we don’t want to care, but it feels like we can’t care. One year you have a drill sergeant for an English teacher who jams vocabulary down your throat to the point you can’t think anymore, who constantly prepares you (not adequately enough) for the never ending flow of standardized tests that seem to be as common as the rising tide. Then next year you get a teacher who wants to teach, who loves to teach, who’s “untraditional”.  And you want to learn, you really do!  But all you can think when you raise your hand is “will this be on the test”. That’s all that seems to matter.

First period will take your phone on sight if it simply falls out of your backpack, while third period encourages the use of all devices. We feel lost. Half of the kids don’t want to learn because learning to them means: classwork, grade, fail- homework, grade, fail- test, grade, fail. It’s an endless cycle they can’t win. The other half of kids desperately wants to learn, but can’t find the motivation because their teacher could be so out of tune with how to correctly teach nowadays, that it sucks the passion from them.  

We’ve become divided. It becomes cool to hate school. To hate learning and education. I separate these by sentences because I believe they are no longer synonymous with each other. Kids love to learn. They hate school. School has become a life draining institution that takes passionate, longing kids and leaves them hollowed husks, begging for a passing grade so they have a slightly better chance to move to the next year. Too many have simply given up. Too many, students and teachers alike, have given up on each other, and the system designed to enlighten us, when in reality all is does is throw us into uneducated darkness.

I am compelled to include this whole letter because of how clearly it describes my daily struggle as a teacher.  Here is my reply:

The student's insight is fascinating--and so real. Our classrooms are islands. The glaring inconsistencies in expected behaviors, tech, and philosophy exist in every public school in America, but they also exist in colleges, courtrooms, dinner tables, households. My initial reaction is to pass judgement on the rigid, traditional classroom teacher, but the idea of teacher autonomy is too precious to me. So, after thinking about this, I have decided that inconsistency may not be a terrible thing. It teaches students how to adapt to different situations, to "code switch" and to figure out their ideal learning spaces.

Gertrude Stein's Lost Generation shares little with the Millennials or Generation Z. The actual Lost Generation was disillusioned because they lived through a horrible war, not horrible teachers. They were creative and edgy. They were risk takers. They read and wrote feverishly and thrived on experiencing culture, making art and learning from each other. The were inspired by each other and the world around them.

Attitude is everything and inspired learners make the most of every situation. Adaptability is as important of a skill as compliance (and this goes for teachers and students alike). Many of my students are plagued by an attitude of entitlement. Entitlement to a grade, or an experience, or to quick and immediate information. They are the NCLB generation and want things to be easy (worksheets and fill in the blank). Many of them resist any activity that involves thinking and creative problem solving, but some thrive on it. I wonder how much of this is simply developmental. Will this "I hate school" attitude change as students come up in Common Core classrooms? Will the inconsistencies diminish as the old school begins to retire? I truly hope so, but kids tend to hate anything they are forced to do.

The student is insightful, and I encourage him to be as solution orientated as that progressive teacher he writes about. Perhaps begin a survey, make proposals, present new ideas, bring attention to the issue. Change requires effort, and that next step is where so many of us fall short.