Too many times, I have heard teachers frustrated that students refuse to go along with their class and ‘won't play school.’ They won't turn in homework. They question the correctness of ideas being taught. They refuse to stay in their seat or get along with their classmates.
From early ages, we teach children how to ‘play’ school. Pay attention. Raise your hand. Ask permission to go to the bathroom. Do your homework. If you don't care about a subject, suck it up and pretend to be interested.
As adults and teachers (whether in life or in school), it is important for us to reflect on the way we educate our children. What is our education system and process teaching these young people? What habits are we instilling in our children?
These expectations that we have set for students to make getting through a class a breeze, are they actually teaching students how to be passive and blindly obedient?
On the one hand, I agree that discipline and order are necessary. However, these requirements are often times training our young people to silently obey with little understanding of why.
By stifling students' opinions and reactions, are we preventing them from learning how to stand for what they believe in? Are we restraining young people from expressing themselves? Do we stifle independence and creativity?
Not that I want to challenge the status quo too much (hey, I was raised to play school too), but what would our young people act like - what would our world look like - if children were raised and encouraged to take responsibility for their own learning, shown what it looks like to be independent, and motivated to pursue creativity and things they are interested in?
