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Thoughts

Carpet Picnic

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CarpetTry as I might, there are some things I simply cannot teach without a fair amount of talking. I can throw in some visual stimuli, get the kids involved in discussion, add some inquiry and generally try and be student-centered…but there are just too many difficult ideas that need to be talked through. One such topic is the media concept of representation. In short, this is a consideration of the way in which reality is portrayed and distorted by the lens of media. A typical example, and one of great import, would be the way women are objectified by an industry led by men.

Whilst my course is officially titled “ICT & Media”, I am no media guru, and the students spend much more time on the ICT side of things. However, representation is one area I really want students to work on, as it is fundamental in becoming a critical thinker. For the last few years I have used the extended trailer of Miss Representation to look at this issue, and it has been generally successful. This year I had another video, The Mask You Live In, which I planned to add into the mix. I feeling pretty pleased to have two excellent, thought-provoking videos which looked at, amongst much else, both sides of gender in the media.

A few months ago, having seen a very impressive talk by Germain Greer, I was toying with ideas of how to be a better orator for these lessons that must be talked out. I came to the conclusion that if I sat level with the kids, we might establish a better personal connection. So, I dragged a group of Year 8s out of the classroom, and we had a lesson sitting on the lawn. This was great, but within 10 minutes everyone was mosquito-bitten and itchy, and desperate to go back inside.

In reflecting on this, it occurred to me that an indoor version of this might be more effective and workable during the summer months. This seed morphed into the idea of an informal “carpet picnic”, where students could bring in food, drinks, blankets and pillows. And what better time to try this, than in a lesson looking at representation. Being the end of the year, the kids are also desperate for something novel.

Having now tried this with two classes I can report it is an effective technique, and the kids really enjoyed it. Pleasingly, the discussion was deeper, and with broader involvement, than when kids sit at their desks. Some of the students really opened up, sharing sides of themselves that I had not previously seen. At times trading of food was distracting, but on the whole I think the experience was positive. In both classes, enough students made the effort to bring in blankets, and those without clearly wanted to share and be included. There were even some stuffed toys, as well as a pretty cool poncho, on display. In the end it seemed to be a cross between regular lesson and end-of-year party, with the students in a good, yet focused, mood.

Ultimately I was most pleased to see students take an interest in issues of gender, equality, diversity, history and their own place in the world. It was also nice that, on leaving, one student paused to say “thanks for this amazing lesson Mr. Parker”: as lovely as my students are, such compliments are a rarity.

The carpet picnic will become a regular feature next year, but come November I will definitely have the kids back out on the lawn.

Image credit: Carpet image shared by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay under CC0 (Public Domain)

My Resources, Thoughts

12 Hard Lessons

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Stop SignThe following 12 ideas are lessons I think we really should be teaching students to help them become healthy, sane adults. But for whatever reason, they are hard to teach and even harder to learn. How can we get these messages across to students without sounding preachy or just plain weird? Of course, some of these items will be controversial. Colleagues, administrators, parents and students may at various times disagree with the content, or even with the idea of departing from the normal curriculum. However, despite the risks, I think that students really do need to be aware of these ideas, and who else is going to broach them? The question is how…any ideas?

1. Guns are not glorious Violence is ugly, the sound and sight of violent death is terrifying. Yet the media and gaming makes it glorious, and kids (especially boys) buy it wholesale. I went through this as a young boy, and maybe it is just part of growing up. Maybe if I watched The Empire in Africa as a boy I would not have been so keen on violence.
2. Masturbation is OK It is fun, reduces stress and helps us learn about our bodies and preferences. Everyone does it, yet few talk about it, and so kids grow up feeling guilty. I know I did, and it took a long time to work out that it was not “sick” or “wrong”.
3. Your body is a wonderland You might not look like a model, but make no mistake your body is a wonderland. And you only have one. Respect it, love it for what it is, exercise to improve it, look after it. Your body will age quickly, drugs will screw it up more than you can imagine.
4. God may not exist Whether your god is a super-intelligent being, the mystic power of the universe or something else, there is a good chance it may not exist. No matter how much faith you have, we just don’t know. God may be useful, but we need to be open minded about it. And please, let’s stop killing people because their god is not your god.
5. Being gay is OK I can’t imagine growing up and being gay: the feeling of having something to hide must make the shame of masturbation feel like a walk in the park. And yet, being gay is just like being different in most any other way: it is something that should not really matter.
6. Failure is great In school we punish failure, yet teachers almost all know that we learn through failure. What we want to avoid is failure from which no lesson is extracted. Almost nothing of worth is ever created without some kind of failure preceding it.
7. Porn is not sex Pornography may be intriguing, entertaining and arousing, but it is not realistic. You might say porn is to sex what Hollywood is to everyday life: a grotesque caricature full of impossibly beautiful people. But seeing as pornography is so readily available, it is easy for boys and girls to grow up thinking it is a realistic version of sex: they are generally starved of alternative, equally rich sources of information? What happens when you grow up expecting your partner to act like a porn star? What happens when you grow up expecting to behave like a porn star. Certainly this is not how to learn the art of making love.
8. Don’t rush, it’s not a race All kids want to grow up, and kids today want to grow up faster than ever. The sad truth is that whilst adulthood brings certain freedoms, it generally takes away more. On the whole, kids are far freer than adults, and this freedom needs to be enjoyed, cherished and used to its potential. Youth is easiest to appreciate once it is gone.
9. Good grades aren’t “it” You can get good grades, and still fail miserably in the real world. At the end of the day, grades are a poor way of representing some part of a student, and certainly don’t reflect the whole. Let your students know that if they get good grades that is fantastic, but what about the things which aren’t usually tested in school? What about sense of humour, charisma, social skills, passion, creativity and all the rest?
10. School will not make you “world ready” In line with point 9. above, we do learn a lot at school, but we are certainly not ready to face the world when we leave. I am not sure we are ever “complete”, but certainly we are no where near completion at the point of exiting school, nor on leaving higher education. Students expecting this (as I did at 18 and again at 21) will be sorely disappointed when reality smacks them in the face.
11. History is important Of all the subjects I undervalued at the school, history has to be the most important. Maybe at 12 I was just too young to get it, or maybe the pitch was wrong. What I know now is that history is my personal story, and explains who I am and why I am the way I am. It teaches us how not to behave (plenty of role models there), what to expect from life, and the consequences of not sharing and getting along. What could be more important?
12. There is no “normal” The Hollywood/advertising ideal of happy, wealthy, beautiful, funny, amazing people simply does not exist in the read world. At the end of the day, we all have our flaws, and we are all different. There is no “normal”, just lots of variation. Students expecting to be happy all the time in an age of widespread depression is asking for trouble. Students need to feel comfortable being “different”, so they can talk about problems, and learn to deal with them before they escalate.

Credits: Rainbow and Stop Sign image by sandy.redding on Flickr shared under CC BY-NC-SA.