PETAL

A Blog Post Worth Seeing

Many of you have heard me talk about Dr. Michael Wesch, a cultural anthropologist at Kansas State.  He published an excellent blog post today that is well worth seeing by anyone who is interested in teaching today's college students.

One of the more interesting comments (among many) is the following:

Last spring I asked my students how many of them did not like school. Over half of them rose their hands. When I asked how many of them did not like learning, no hands were raised. I have tried this with faculty and get similar results. Last year’s U.S. Professor of the Year, Chris Sorensen, began his acceptance speech by announcing, “I hate school.” The crowd, made up largely of other outstanding faculty, overwhelmingly agreed. And yet he went on to speak with passionate conviction about his love of learning and the desire to spread that love. And there’s the rub. We love learning. We hate school. What’s worse is that many of us hate school because we love learning.

It will seem almost like a silly question, yet also a profound one, but what can we do to make school (i.e., our classes) more conducive to learning?  And more importantly, what are we currently doing to make our classes antithetical to learning?

Wesch contends that all we need to do is tear down the imaginary wall between the classroom and the "real world."  He may well be right, but he also recognizes this is much more difficult than it sounds.

What do you think?

To view Wesch's blog post, click here.