A Forum for Community Issues : Gripe : ‘Is Hands-On Learning Sending the Wrong Message?’

My recent experience as a substitute teacher for grades K-12 in a Southern California school district raised some important questions about the state of public education: What constitutes learning and how do we make the learning experience meaningful to our children?

For learning to take place, what is being taught must be relevant. Classrooms are full of the most attractive gadgets. Posters, maps, globes, pictures, colorful charts, puzzles, board games, building blocks, aquariums--all designed to make learning accessible and fun. No one denies the value of putting together an electric circuit, as I watched a group of fourth-graders do, with pieces of wire, a battery and a toothpick, to learn about the world around us.

But I fear that by moving the playground into the classroom to make the educational experience relevant to their life outside school, we unwittingly seem to be sending the message that learning, per se, is not fun. I fear these gadgets limit our students’ understanding of what is relevant to what can be touched and/or experienced visually. They imply that anything requiring conceptualization and imagination is simply not worth the effort.

My experience with junior high students seems to support my theory. At this level, it becomes increasingly difficult to use hands-on methods because subjects become more abstract. For example, in English, students can no longer read storybooks with pictures but take on novels and are asked about their comprehension. As a result, these kids are far less curious about learning and are far more undisciplined.

Instead of acknowledging that something is wrong, some schools hide behind euphemisms and label the more obnoxious students “the active ones” and give them special privileges. One unruly seventh-grader was allowed to play his favorite video game on the computer at the back of the room despite the fact that the noise disrupted the rest of the students who were supposed to be working silently.

Many of the teachers I talked to are well aware of the problem, and though visibly angry and increasingly impatient, say they feel trapped in a system they cannot change. They note that administrators often pay more attention to things like new policies on classroom discipline.

The bottom line is that we need to redefine what makes learning meaningful. We need to push students beyond the fun part, past the minimum-effort level to the limits of their capabilities. This is not confining their independence. It is creating an atmosphere that promotes disciplined effort and critical thinking.