Liberating the Classroom

I had two interesting classroom experiences last week. Both left me with questions and hope for the future of education.

The first experience arrived as students were working on their Learning Targets. As per usual, the students were working independently to meet various standards with periodic electronic/personal interactions with each other or me. Then, a young man (new to my classroom) approached me with a question. I could tell by the tone of his voice, his hushed volume, and his shrinking presence that he wasn't entirely sure if this was a good idea. His request? He wanted to know, since he was up to speed with all of his Learning Target work, if he could read his book. We checked his Learning Record together to verify that he was indeed making acceptable progress, and I sent him off to read with a smile on his face. He read intensely for the next thirty minutes.

Afterward, I found myself wondering how it was that a student reading could be considered a bad thing? True, it makes sense that students have a broad range of content to learn, and not all of it can be addressed by settling in with a good book. However, what a blessing to have a student ask, almost plead, to be allowed to read his book and then be thoroughly and happily engaged for much longer than the typical young adolescent can bear. This bears further reflection.

The next experience was similar, though it didn't involve reading. A small group of students asked me for permission to work for a bit on a petition letter they were preparing for the administrative team. The students were seeking permission to use a sandbox computer "game" called Minecraft that is currently banned at school. Given their progress, and the real life civics experience their request involved, I granted permission. This weekend, I took my own journey into the world of Minecraft. It's actually an excellent game that features simulated environment planning and building. Like most interesting games, Minecraft is really about creating things and solving problems. There's a lot of that in the violence laden games that seem to be very popular right now, making me think that the challenge of problem solving is more of an intrinsic draw than the actual violence and graphics. When you first look at Minecraft, the graphics appear quite poor, intentionally boxy. Yet, there's much more than meets the eye. I found it interesting to use, and I admit to having a good time exploring.

Afterward, I found myself wondering why it is that us educators feel the need to restrict the classroom environment, especially in a 21st century where physical location becomes less and less relevant? We have no problem with extending the classroom environment into the "private" worlds of our students (aka - homework). Do we really need to lock students away from the world when they are in school?

Perhaps there's an opportunity revealed by both of these situations. Perhaps, we as educators should try reducing rather than raising the barriers between school and students' real lives. Perhaps there is a future for students where they can electronically check in on a friend in the middle of class as long as they are not distracting others from their pursuits. Perhaps there is a future where students are not only allowed but encouraged to explore, create, and problem solve using modern media. (Those are the highest levels of learning on the pedagogical scale, by the way). Perhaps in this future students will learn to make choices by, heaven forbid, making choices in a classroom that looks, sounds, and feels more like real life.

I find that future worth considering.