Last Monday I had twe-bate with Farhad Manjoo. Manjoo called Obama’s address to students “pointless” and “not worth” the political fight. Both of these notions, I tried to explain (very hard in 140 characters or less per rebut) are absolutely wrong-- by speaking directly to kids, Obama is involving them in making their own education decisions.
Enfranchising children in their own education is important, even if “token” because it reminds them that they are active participants in their own lives. The right responded in a way that could only be observed to be hysterical (in multiple form) and encouraged parents to keep their children at home on the day of the speech. Rush Limbaugh lamented that Obama’s speech was “robbing the kids of their right to be losers.” “Pointless” Mr. Manjoo? Making the right look like fools couldn’t have been scripted better (see Olbermann below).
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I can’t remember ever wanting to go to school. I recall wondering why I had to. I wasn’t bored at school, but I wasn’t particularly engaged either. I didn’t hate it and I definitely didn’t like it.
Obama’s opening remarks are important, “At the end of the day we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, the best schools in the world-- but none of it will make a difference unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities.”
My parents weren’t involved in my education. They both worked full time retail hours and assumed as a relatively intelligent kid, I was fine. They laid out my responsibilities to me: do your homework, do the best you can. After school I went to a care program. I was lazy with my school work and I did well but not the best I could have. I grew up in a relatively well-off suburb of Chicago, so I went to good schools and if it hadn’t been for the teachers I wouldn’t have done as well as I did. My parents could have been more interested but so could I.
But what about parents who can’t be more interested because they work multiple jobs and can’t afford after school care as a substitute? Or parents who are unable to get involved with their kids’ school because they face a language barrier? Both of these scenarios are equally likely in the US today with increasing numbers of first generation Latin American immigrants and a decreasing middle class.
I could have used some reminding along the lines of Obama’s comments on student responsibility, “I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself every single one of you has something that you’re at, every single one of you has something to offer and you have a responsibility to yourself to figure out what that is.... but you might not know it until you write that English paper... complete that science project.”
I’m no education expert but simply googling the terms “children active own learning” yields serious search results that all support the idea that kids (human beings in general) learn best when they are actively involved in their own learning process. This means not only relating topics to themselves, but learning by doing. These approaches are called active learning and constructivist learning.
How often are kids reminded that they are active participants in their own lives, their own education? It’s pretty cool that the President bothered to address kids at all-- let alone go so far as to enfranchise them. Enfranchise? It’s the choice thing: the President recognized kids as active participants in their own lives as opposed to responsibility-less minors to be governed by school, local, state, and federal regulations.
It may be a token acknowledgment but it’s an acknowledgment nonetheless that confers upon kids a responsibility and places an outcome in their hands. It means a lot more coming from the President than some hired-cheesy-greased-back-hair motivational speaker no one has ever heard of (let alone paying attention to in a school assembly). Thus, kids are actively engaged in the learning process slightly more than they were before.
Pointless? No, I don’t think so. Sorry @fmanjoo, you’ve missed the bear.
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