Down from the Trees and Up to the Moon

 Dr. Michael Wesch noticed that there were multiple aspects of our education system that were actually discouraging students from learning.

He took a look inside of a classroom that was supposedly set up for learning.

There was a large screen on one wall which was facing a room full of stationary chairs. 

This was not a room that was meant to foster learning, he decided.  It was a room designated for dumping information onto people.  

He got the impression that the most prevalent goal of the students that surrounded him was to just "get by".  Their concern was, what exactly do I need to do to pass this class? 

Which also lead to what Wesch describes as the "vaccination" notion; the students impression that they just have to pass a class to get it over with.  

You take it.  It's done.  You never have to think about it again.

And yet at the same time, students felt defined by the grades that they received.  Continuously earning C's or D's, with no chance of revision or redemption, discouraged students from trying any harder and made them think, "well, this is just who I am."  More often than not, those grades were not at ALL an accurate reflection of the student's abilities or potential.  

He encountered fellow faculty members who, when speaking about student's who were underachieving, explained it away by saying that, "some people just aren't cut out for school." Wesch was absolutely appalled.  He reminded us that the purpose of school is to learn.  So if we more accurately rephrase that statement then we find that what his colleagues are really saying is, "some people aren't cut out for learning."

Dr. Wesch offers up suggestions that he's developed through teaching and seeing the effects first hand 

An educators goal should be to inspire their students to leave the classroom with more questions.

"Asking questions, taking chances, making connections took us down from the trees and up to the moon."

What Dr. Wesch found to be the three driving questions for any student that he met were

1. Who am I?

2. What am I going to do?

3. Am I going to be okay?

A great teacher is someone who can help  students to address these questions

Instead of trying to teach students how to make a living, educators should structure their courses in such a way that they are providing their students with the resources they need to learn how to live a life worth living.

Change the grading system to accommodate students and encourage them to continue to try instead of give up.

He makes the point that, "we are more than our scores" and "learning is a lot more than what can be scored."

Welsch demonstrates the model he uses for scoring long-term projects and likens it to climbing a tiered mountain, where the top of the mountain is somewhere worth going.  His students are all climbing each tier of the mountain together and helping one another to get to the top.  If a student starts to fall behind, they are not given a failing grade, they are given a "Not yet, keep working at it". 

We can all learn from Baby George who, every single time he fell while climbing down the stairs, smiled and laughed at the misstep then got right back up to try again.  

"We keep on loving ourselves, even when we fall."