The Path of Least Resistance in Education
I had a nice conversation with a friend the other day about teaching and what students in High School and first year University actually know. What is their limit of knowledge?
This conversation was brought on because of a Facebook wall discussion about the 3OH!3 song "Don't Trust Me" which has the most offensive lyric "do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips". Apparently there is some confusion amongst the people who are listening to this song about who exactly Helen Keller is. There has been some consensus that she must have been a model for she talks with her hips. Sigh....
This apparently has been gleaned from many Google searches about how Helen was an "old" person, who "lived a long time ago", amazingly the work that Helen Keller did is not being pulled out of the Wikipedia entry by these students, just the dates. (WIKIPEDIA IS EVIL students, please DO NOT use Wikipedia)
This coupled with a former colleague stating that a class of students he was in at the university level did not know for the most part which side Canada was on in WWI.
Why is this? Well as I discussed this with the friend in question we started talking about religion, belief, etc. I instantly thought of the path of least resistance principle. As a physics principle, it states that movement through a system is always done through where there is the least amount of resistance or pull.
Education is similar, educators want to lay things out simply, in a manner that can be understood and accessible to largest amount of students. In library systems or IT this is also the case, you need information to be easy to access. I agree with all of this.
What I don't agree with is when path of least resistance becomes a way of avoiding education altogether. Somehow it has become increasingly acceptable to just believe what others say, without critically engaging with the material or problem that has been posed. Students taking their position in accordance to what the majority believes. I call this the "lemming principle". I saw this lemming principle first hand my first year teaching at University. I made it my mission to counteract this, to give my students the ability, the desire to think outside the box, to dare to believe and challenge popular conceptions, all backed up by supportable evidence of course. This is why Wikipedia is evil students, because anyone can edit the information and thus make it false, or give it the slant the author of the information wants you to have. Wikipedia is a cog in the wheel of the lemming principle.
I worry that path of least resistance is just easier for educators to deal with, not a lot of effort needs to be made, just let the students believe what they will, without consequence, without critical engagement.
So this is my challenge to all of you, educators, pedagogs, instructors, parents, students: Dare to challenge the constructs that have been presented to you and support those challenges. Coming to your own conclusions, discovering something new and something supportable by evidence is one of the greatest rewards.
This became even more clear to me last night when a former student of mine, Sam, discussed a possible essay topic involving Goblin Market, the sex trade, and craigslist. I'm proud of you Sam, keep up the good work! :)
This conversation was brought on because of a Facebook wall discussion about the 3OH!3 song "Don't Trust Me" which has the most offensive lyric "do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips". Apparently there is some confusion amongst the people who are listening to this song about who exactly Helen Keller is. There has been some consensus that she must have been a model for she talks with her hips. Sigh....
This apparently has been gleaned from many Google searches about how Helen was an "old" person, who "lived a long time ago", amazingly the work that Helen Keller did is not being pulled out of the Wikipedia entry by these students, just the dates. (WIKIPEDIA IS EVIL students, please DO NOT use Wikipedia)
This coupled with a former colleague stating that a class of students he was in at the university level did not know for the most part which side Canada was on in WWI.
Why is this? Well as I discussed this with the friend in question we started talking about religion, belief, etc. I instantly thought of the path of least resistance principle. As a physics principle, it states that movement through a system is always done through where there is the least amount of resistance or pull.
Education is similar, educators want to lay things out simply, in a manner that can be understood and accessible to largest amount of students. In library systems or IT this is also the case, you need information to be easy to access. I agree with all of this.
What I don't agree with is when path of least resistance becomes a way of avoiding education altogether. Somehow it has become increasingly acceptable to just believe what others say, without critically engaging with the material or problem that has been posed. Students taking their position in accordance to what the majority believes. I call this the "lemming principle". I saw this lemming principle first hand my first year teaching at University. I made it my mission to counteract this, to give my students the ability, the desire to think outside the box, to dare to believe and challenge popular conceptions, all backed up by supportable evidence of course. This is why Wikipedia is evil students, because anyone can edit the information and thus make it false, or give it the slant the author of the information wants you to have. Wikipedia is a cog in the wheel of the lemming principle.
I worry that path of least resistance is just easier for educators to deal with, not a lot of effort needs to be made, just let the students believe what they will, without consequence, without critical engagement.
So this is my challenge to all of you, educators, pedagogs, instructors, parents, students: Dare to challenge the constructs that have been presented to you and support those challenges. Coming to your own conclusions, discovering something new and something supportable by evidence is one of the greatest rewards.
This became even more clear to me last night when a former student of mine, Sam, discussed a possible essay topic involving Goblin Market, the sex trade, and craigslist. I'm proud of you Sam, keep up the good work! :)
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