E-Enjoyment, relevance, character development, attitudes.

Many students don't know why they need to go to school. Many
certainly would rather be elsewhere learning about what, to them, is
more relevant. Students are motivated when they recognize the
relevance of what they learn to the goals they consider important.

And people learn for enjoyment. The "purist" scholar recognizes the
exhilaration of learning for the sake of learning. One of the
problems of some educators is that they expect most of their
students to be this type, but, in reality, very few are. Even the
more mature learner in a university is there because he may believe
a claim, no longer true, that an academic degree insures his chances
for a suitable livelihood. And students frequently find they can
enjoy learning much more outside of the structure of an educational
institution. One of the solutions to the problems created by the
strict structure is allowing a student to design his own curriculum,
possibly in cooperation with a counselor who prescribes those
courses or educational modules that a diagnosis of the student's
educational deficiencies and objectives suggests. In such a flexible
system, the traditional required courses are eliminated. The critics
of this open system contend that it will lead to an inability on the
part of evaluators, such as prospective employers or college
admissions officials, to evaluate just how "educated" the student
is. But it shouldn't; what an applicant demonstrates that he can do
should be the sole criterion. There are better ways of determining a
person's ability than by reviewing his academic transcripts.
Required courses are mandated by laws which are written by
legislators who are influenced by lobbyists who are hired by
teachers. A recent report from the Association of American Colleges
acknowledges, however, that the free-elective "cafeteria" curricula
may be gaining wider acceptance: "Today there is so much confusion
as to the mission of the American college and university that it is
no longer possible to be sure why a student should take a particular
program of courses."

Dorothy and Raymond Moore, in their January/February 1987 issue of
the Hewitt Research Foundation Parent Educator and Family Report,
comment on effective, because more relevant, curricula:

     A curriculum is the content plan for that learning activity
     which we hope to accomplish. Some curricula are formal, some
     more informal. Math, for example, maybe (1) a textbook exercise
     or it may be (2) measuring hems, cutting apple pies, figuring
     the interest on our savings or profit on our sales . . .
     Although the first is generally followed in schools, the second
     usually insures much more meaningful learning at all ages.

Examples of increased learning effectiveness are provided by some
recommended reading programs which stress the value of reading for
enjoyment. In these reading programs, textbooks are replaced with
magazines, newspapers and paperbacks which are entertaining and/or
meaningful to the individual student. There are some students who
prefer to be considered non-readers in order to avoid having to read
that which is, to them, distasteful, boring, pedantic, meaningless
or otherwise unpleasant. Indeed, the mass media achieve advertising
objectives with adults through stressing the pleasurable benefits of
products; the same should apply to all as far as learning is
concerned. Are teachers so deliberately sadistic with students in
their charge, as a consequence of their own needlessly rigorous
academic training, that they inflict dis-pleasurable means of
learning on them? Or are teachers subconsciously recognizing that
school was difficult for them and want to make certain it is
difficult for their students? Some instructors may make an academic
discipline unnecessarily rigorous in order to be able to gloat that
they were able to comprehend it and wish to see their students fail
in order to maintain the instructors' own egos. If a student is
motivated by knowing that learning is a pleasant activity, he will
voluntarily select reading material beyond his present ability and
succeed at comprehending it, even if he needs assistance. Reading
development is in three stages: for amusement, then instruction,
then critical evaluation. The fundamental skills are developed when
reading for amusement. Granted, success requires diligence--football
isn't easy--but when the student is motivated by recognizing the
enjoyment, relevance & benefits of even a difficult learning task,
he does not find the activity laborious. Learning, enjoyed through
entertainment, is valid and effective. Evidence: my son, Jeff, as a
turned-off, tuned out high school freshman who never got his
academic "want-to" fixed, took a general knowledge achievement test.
He scored above high school senior level on national norms. He
probably learns more being entertained watching TV game shows than
he learns at school.

There was a report in the early 1970's of an elementary school in
Massachusetts that resembles a castle. It was designed to make
learning an enjoyable experience. Students are not penalized nor
embarrassed by receiving low grades. Neither are there the
traditional age-grouped grade levels; students are grouped according
to what they know and can do, achievement and skill proficiency. One
eleven-year old describes the school this way: "It's not like other
schools where you have to sit in one seat all day . . You can get
away with a lot more stuff here, but then you learn a lot more, too.
Before, I didn't like school, but this is just like home, just like
your own place!"

Other innovative schools have made education enjoyable and relevant
by taking the students into the community to observe directly how
their education can benefit them. Information is provided by
vocational experts whom the students one day may wish to emulate:
bankers, welders, law enforcement agents, social workers, sales
personnel, managers, corporation presidents, entertainers, authors .
. . The list is endless. It is surprising that educators attempt to
teach students about the world by taking them out of it and
confining them to a drab classroom on a prison-like campus.

The traditional instructor, though, typically is most concerned
about protecting his or her job by insisting that vocational experts
are not qualified to teach. Here is an example of a note from one
such threatened community college instructor of typing written when
notified that a professional secretary would teach a second section
of the same typing course:

     Why do you think that just because someone can operate a
     "machine" that he or she can teach? Only a non-educated,
     non-teacher would assign a transfer typing class to a
     non-teacher. Has this individual taken typing method classes or
     teacher education classes? Has she read the numerous books and
     recent research in teaching typing and developing skills and
     techniques? No! . . . This course should be taught by an
     experienced qualified teacher . . .

The note quoted above was written by one who did not realize that
some of the most experienced and qualified teachers are those who
gained their experience and qualifications through on-the-job
training, not confined in a classroom.


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     "What, a university in the city?
     Why, the city IS the university."
                 -----Aristotle

     "Life is my college.  May I graduate
     well, and earn some honors!"
            -----Louisa May Alcott

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One possible reason that we don't hear more about schools that
provide relevant experience is that the student who has experienced
this enjoyable and effective learning method usually leaves it to
continue his education in a traditional school where he gets bored
and loses interest in education.

Or maybe there are strong but subtle forces that oppose such
innovation. Many excellent ideas and procedures have been proven
that have not been adopted by the educational establishment in
general. A study was completed in the California State Department of
Education in 1980 which recommended several of these innovations: no
high school compulsory attendance; parents would be given a choice
of where to send their children (or allow them to learn at home),
and personalized education would be emphasized. Much of the
education would take place in factories, businesses, hospitals and
professional offices, and those who work in such places would be
able to share in the classroom teaching: executives, medical
doctors, lawyers. The professional educator's role would change more
to that of counselor, mentor and process planner rather than mere
dispenser of information. In a report of the study, a department
official was quoted as saying that this, if adopted, may result in
many school administrators' losing their jobs. Perhaps this concern
is the primary reason the traditional ineffective system is
perpetuated.

An early 20th Century industrialist, cited by Dale Carnegie in his
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, said he would pay an
employee more for his ability to communicate than for any other
ability. More recently, corporate leaders recommended in "Investing
in Our Children: Business and the Public Schools" that topics other
than traditional curricular subjects be emphasized: teamwork,
honesty, reliability, communication and learning skills. Formal
academic training frequently stifles these valued attributes. One
educator-turned-businessman stated that he is much more comfortable
in business meetings and conventions than he ever was at educational
meetings and conventions because the attenders are much more
congenial, affable, sincere, communicative and gregarious than his
former educational associates. Such attributes are typical of the
effective teacher. I made the observation, when I served on a
faculty selection panel, that these positive personality facets are
apparently disregarded by educational administrators. An affirmative
action requirement limited our evaluation criteria to that which was
written on the job vacancy announcement, which mentioned nothing
about the need for rapport with students, enthusiasm, personality,
flexibility, creativity nor concurrence with the mission of the
community college. It did not address the most important criterion
for effective teaching, a personality suitable for appropriate
interaction with students. Other valued attributes stifled by formal
education are intuitiveness, social rapport, and the ability to
interpret personality subtleties, gestures, "people-reading" and
"body- language," if you will. For example, at a church social I
witnessed a randomly selected group of adults who had little or no
formal college education win in a vocabulary game over a group who
prided themselves because of their college education. The objective
of the game was to have one group present the other with words and
definitions to be properly matched. The college educated group knew
the words and definitions better, but the group consisting of those
not college educated detected clues in vocal nuances and facial
expressions of their opponents which allowed them to realize when
the correct match was mentioned.

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     "We have virtually eliminated from the public schools any
     effort to teach values of integrity, truth, personal
     accountability, and respect for others' rights."
                         ----------Warren Burger.

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Research has found that certain attitudes are greater factors in
determining success than achievement in school. According to William
Newman III of Pace Seminars, in an article "Star Traits" in the
October 1985 issue of Real Estate Today, these attitudes include
self esteem, development of responsibility, optimism, goal
orientation, imagination, creativeness, communicativeness,
growth orientation, trust, joyfulness and the courage to take risks.
Schools frequently damage incentive to develop these positive
attitudes. The school curriculum certainly contains no courses
specifically designed to enhance these important qualities.
Extra-curricular activities (music, sports, drama, e.g.)
unintentionally do a better job in training these attributes of
character than the structured courses do. Mr. Newman prefaces this
list of attitudes with

     All human performance can be reduced to four basic elements:
     talent, education, emotion, and motivation. A person's
     potential, which is a combination of talent and education, is
     meaningless until turned on by his emotions. And the
     combination of talent, education, and emotions produces
     attitudes that will activate motivation.

More concern for the educational needs of the student, rather than
devotion to specific subject matter, is necessary. Traditional
education's values may be entirely opposed to that which the student
considers consistent with his own self image. In the class I teach
in music appreciation, it is very possible that the majority of the
male students merely tolerate being there in order to acquire the
humanities credit required for graduation, because adopting such
refined "effeminate" tastes is contrary to their desired masculine
self images. Almost all teenagers, male or female, conditioned by
their peers to accept the values of popular culture, oppose the
objectives of the institution because it is contrary to the "cool" &
"macho" image they consider important.

Those who effectively learn must have a desire to do so. Glutting
students with obsolescent "facts" that are meant to be periodically
"regurgitated" must give way to refining in-put skills. Much of the
scientific information that I learned in high school is no longer
considered correct. I, and those in my generation, wasted time
learning them. With the current burgeoning of knowledge it is
necessary to learn how to scan and sift through huge amounts of
information in order to survive. During the Middle Ages, it was
possible for a well educated man to have available to him all of
mankind's accumulated knowledge. 97% of all the current information
available has become available since I was born approximately 50
years ago. Only 3% of mankind's present knowledge was available
then.

We educators need to replace traditional procedures with flexible
means of allowing our charges to keep up the pace as they consider
relevant. Only when they consider acquisition of skills and
information meaningful to them in their lives will they remember and
use them. We should not continue to waste time and tax-payers' money
futilely forcing them to accept our values.

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     "What one knows is, in youth, of littel moment; they know
     enough who know how to learn."
                         (Henry Brooks Adams)

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