Larryferlazzo shared the following article with me, via Twitter. I want to mention this essay because it is well written and it affirms many things that I believe to be true concerning education. Written by Alfie Kohn in 2005, it is entitled, “Feel-Bad Education.”
The main idea of the article is that the modern classroom is not a fun place, intentionally.
Several passages in the article resonated with me, in part, because I have been recently contemplating the ideas of fun and games in the classroom. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an entry on this blog questioning my usage of games.
Kohn states:
That so few children seem to take pleasure from what they’re doing on a given weekday morning, that the default emotional state in classrooms seems to alternate between anxiety and boredom, doesn’t even alarm us. Worse: Happiness in schools is something for which educators may feel obliged to apologize when it does make an appearance. After all, they wouldn’t want to be accused of offering a "feel-good" education.
As I wrote previously, I always feel a tinge of guilt whenever I notice my students having fun or laughing. What if my principal walks in and thinks that the kids are just goofing off?
Alfie’s article suggests a religious underpinning, which is something I also alluded to.
There’s work to be done! Life (or learning, or whatever) isn’t supposed to be fun and games! Self-denial—whose adherents generally presume to deny others as well—is closely connected to fear of pleasure and redemption through suffering, and the whole package has a pedigree that is not only philosophical but theological. Who says religion has been banished from the public schools?
Near the conclusion of his essay, in reference to the state prescriptions of sterile dogma, Alfie makes a statement that mirrors my personal sentiment.
The irony is, appropriately enough, painful: Academic excellence, the usual rationale for such decisions, is actually far more likely to flourish when students enjoy what they’re doing.
I could have quoted more from Alfie’s eloquent essay, but brevity restrains me. I recommend everyone to read the original.
I really like the philosophy of using fun and games to motivate the students; however, I always feel guilty whenever I use games in the classroom. I know I shouldn’t.
There is a website called JamLegend, which is a nice emulation of Guitar Hero. In my Music class, I asked the students to sign up at this site and take their character to Level 2. The students really enjoyed the activity.
Still, I felt uneasy about the task. Would my principal approve? Would the other teachers approve? Would the parents approve?
Were the students really learning anything, any skills? I had to convince myself that the game was improving their dexterity (for guitar) and developing their sense of rhythm and music.
Essentially, any time that my students are having fun or enjoying themselves in the classroom, I feel a tinge of guilt. School is not supposed to by fun. It’s irrational, I know; maybe it’s a product of my Catholic upbringing.
An event later in the week did nothing to ease my conscience. I decided to have my Geography class play SimCity, because I think it teaches a lot about the way a city functions. Unfortunately, I had to abandon my plan when I discovered that the SimCity website is blocked at our school.
There are many game sites that are not blocked. The filtering program seems to be quite haphazard. For example, an online game, Evony, is not blocked, and many of the students play it during their free time and during lunch. Evony is a medieval type game where the player must build up their town and army, and manage resources. Hmm, maybe I can incorporate it into my History class…
