Monday, October 27, 2003
Studenticulture: Not a word.
Nothing like a school assembly to make one realize how vacuous and superficial the American media has rendered the youth of the nation. Such was the case on Thursday when last period was cut short so that all the ninth graders could hear the music of an authentic New Orleans blues musician. The performance, delayed due to general lateness to the auditorium, was actually very good, but I doubt that most of my students appreciated it. In fact, I found it hard to focus on the music with students talking or complaining about the heat. The concert had been preceded by a silly skit by the school drama group pushing students to expand their musical horizons beyond hip-hop, but given the fact that students in my class were laughing uncontrollably during a blues concert, I have a feeling the suggestion fell on deaf ears.
It was an experience which confirmed in my mind the persistent danger of the uncontrolled and unmitigated exposure to media which I fear has facilitated the near complete brainwashing of my students. My more left leaning acquaintances may wonder how I can so wholeheartedly embrace this established watchcry of the conservative establishment, and given my relatively short experience in the classroom, they might have some justification to their argument. I say however that even with only a few months under my belt, several trends have become all too apparent among my students, and the media is the entity that might most effectively explain the majority of them. This is not to belittle other socioeconomic, racial, or other factors that might have had an impact on modern society as a whole or the microcosm that is my classroom. Those are certainly important...but the specific issues with which I concern myself here, though perhaps created by those factors are almost certainly reinforced by the pernicious specter of the modern media.
Perhaps the foremost of these is the sheer egoism of my students...their self-centered view of the world. Aristotle had nothing on these guys...if it were up to some of my students, the sun would revolve around them. Now some might say that such is the typical teenage attitude, and in part they would be right. Clearly, my high school students, like their peers all over the world, are more concerned with their own personal and social development than with the content I am delivering in the classroom. This is understandable. This I can accept. What I can not accept is their setting forth the idea that they already know everything and refuse to believe that a teacher might know more than them. One of my students, who right now is failing my course, had the gall to tell me a few weeks ago that he knew more about science than I did.
“Oh,” I said. “Look...you are a ninth grader. This is your first high school science course. I am your teacher. I have taken 4 years of high school science and many years of college science courses. It is very unlikely that you know more science than I do.” (The student confirmed my point to be correct by showing he was unable to draw straight lines correctly with a metric ruler. He remained undeterred.)
How does the media play into this? (I can already see some of you wondering if I was planning to abandon my little thesis...) Look at the sitcoms or listen to the music that my students are exposed to on a daily basis. The protagonists of these t.v. shows or rap songs are all equally egoistic. Their adventures and experiences seem to indicate a world created for their amusement. The world is not a place to learn or grow, but to coast by on personality...with enough personality, money, fame, women, fast cars...all these things will come. They come to school to be entertained, not educated...and when they find the material boring, they stand up and put on a show.
This segues neatly into another issue, the disconnect between hard work and success. My students view the antics of sports stars, cinema icons, and musicians on a daily basis. They talk about them all the time. They see their success and wonder why they shouldn’t have an equally good shot. No problem at all there. But, thanks to a very limited media-guided perception, they also assume that such success will be automatic. I can’t tell you how many of my students think they are going to be basketball players someday, but I do know that those who do tend to think my class is less relevant than those who don’t. Most likely they are the ones who on a constant basis tell me that I am trying to fail them. Of course...that’s the reason I let you have full access to your notes! Because I’m trying to fail you! (My reasoning on this last point never seems to fully get through.)
And then there is the issue of authority figures. How many admired rap idols do you know who exhort obedience, diligence, or respect for teachers in their music? I have as yet not found one. and would imagine relatively few exist. Face it, that kind of message would not be popular. The consequences however are that students are instead encouraged to take the opposite approach to authority, constantly questioning and attacking it. They take personal offense at little things like wearing a uniform or being asked not to chew gum or just going to the bathroom before class....or doing classwork!
Moving back to that assembly for a moment, consider this situation. After the musician’s set, the drama group came on to give a demonstration of improv. They did an activity called the hotseat, where students in the audience were given a choice of three situations and they could vote which they wanted to see acted out. Needless to say the final one, featuring a student who socked the princiapl in the jaw, got near overwhelming support, and during the course of the skit any time the actress playing the offending student badmouthed the principal she was greeted with booming cheers and catcalls. The other student on stage, who was attempting to be a voice of reason, was similarly booed. Given that the principal was in the room, I don’t know how the students could be so bold. I also do not know what the drama group was thinking...by the end of that afternoon, part of me was seriously wondering if a riot might break out.
Anyhow, the point of all this rambling is that student attitudes towards stink and I feel that the media is if not responsible than highly influential in cultivating them. This is no doubt reinforced by environmental factors (family structure, etc.), but the media strikes me as a somewhat more malleable force. Less inertia than most other parts of the system. If change were possible, I think it might best be achieved through that avenue.
I remember reading that Dorothy Parker, pressed by some of her Algonquin Round Table associates to use horticulture in a sentence quipped that you can “lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.” If only studenticulture were a word, then I could achieve a similar level of erudite wit in making my observations, instead of merely becoming depressed.
Nothing like a school assembly to make one realize how vacuous and superficial the American media has rendered the youth of the nation. Such was the case on Thursday when last period was cut short so that all the ninth graders could hear the music of an authentic New Orleans blues musician. The performance, delayed due to general lateness to the auditorium, was actually very good, but I doubt that most of my students appreciated it. In fact, I found it hard to focus on the music with students talking or complaining about the heat. The concert had been preceded by a silly skit by the school drama group pushing students to expand their musical horizons beyond hip-hop, but given the fact that students in my class were laughing uncontrollably during a blues concert, I have a feeling the suggestion fell on deaf ears.
It was an experience which confirmed in my mind the persistent danger of the uncontrolled and unmitigated exposure to media which I fear has facilitated the near complete brainwashing of my students. My more left leaning acquaintances may wonder how I can so wholeheartedly embrace this established watchcry of the conservative establishment, and given my relatively short experience in the classroom, they might have some justification to their argument. I say however that even with only a few months under my belt, several trends have become all too apparent among my students, and the media is the entity that might most effectively explain the majority of them. This is not to belittle other socioeconomic, racial, or other factors that might have had an impact on modern society as a whole or the microcosm that is my classroom. Those are certainly important...but the specific issues with which I concern myself here, though perhaps created by those factors are almost certainly reinforced by the pernicious specter of the modern media.
Perhaps the foremost of these is the sheer egoism of my students...their self-centered view of the world. Aristotle had nothing on these guys...if it were up to some of my students, the sun would revolve around them. Now some might say that such is the typical teenage attitude, and in part they would be right. Clearly, my high school students, like their peers all over the world, are more concerned with their own personal and social development than with the content I am delivering in the classroom. This is understandable. This I can accept. What I can not accept is their setting forth the idea that they already know everything and refuse to believe that a teacher might know more than them. One of my students, who right now is failing my course, had the gall to tell me a few weeks ago that he knew more about science than I did.
“Oh,” I said. “Look...you are a ninth grader. This is your first high school science course. I am your teacher. I have taken 4 years of high school science and many years of college science courses. It is very unlikely that you know more science than I do.” (The student confirmed my point to be correct by showing he was unable to draw straight lines correctly with a metric ruler. He remained undeterred.)
How does the media play into this? (I can already see some of you wondering if I was planning to abandon my little thesis...) Look at the sitcoms or listen to the music that my students are exposed to on a daily basis. The protagonists of these t.v. shows or rap songs are all equally egoistic. Their adventures and experiences seem to indicate a world created for their amusement. The world is not a place to learn or grow, but to coast by on personality...with enough personality, money, fame, women, fast cars...all these things will come. They come to school to be entertained, not educated...and when they find the material boring, they stand up and put on a show.
This segues neatly into another issue, the disconnect between hard work and success. My students view the antics of sports stars, cinema icons, and musicians on a daily basis. They talk about them all the time. They see their success and wonder why they shouldn’t have an equally good shot. No problem at all there. But, thanks to a very limited media-guided perception, they also assume that such success will be automatic. I can’t tell you how many of my students think they are going to be basketball players someday, but I do know that those who do tend to think my class is less relevant than those who don’t. Most likely they are the ones who on a constant basis tell me that I am trying to fail them. Of course...that’s the reason I let you have full access to your notes! Because I’m trying to fail you! (My reasoning on this last point never seems to fully get through.)
And then there is the issue of authority figures. How many admired rap idols do you know who exhort obedience, diligence, or respect for teachers in their music? I have as yet not found one. and would imagine relatively few exist. Face it, that kind of message would not be popular. The consequences however are that students are instead encouraged to take the opposite approach to authority, constantly questioning and attacking it. They take personal offense at little things like wearing a uniform or being asked not to chew gum or just going to the bathroom before class....or doing classwork!
Moving back to that assembly for a moment, consider this situation. After the musician’s set, the drama group came on to give a demonstration of improv. They did an activity called the hotseat, where students in the audience were given a choice of three situations and they could vote which they wanted to see acted out. Needless to say the final one, featuring a student who socked the princiapl in the jaw, got near overwhelming support, and during the course of the skit any time the actress playing the offending student badmouthed the principal she was greeted with booming cheers and catcalls. The other student on stage, who was attempting to be a voice of reason, was similarly booed. Given that the principal was in the room, I don’t know how the students could be so bold. I also do not know what the drama group was thinking...by the end of that afternoon, part of me was seriously wondering if a riot might break out.
Anyhow, the point of all this rambling is that student attitudes towards stink and I feel that the media is if not responsible than highly influential in cultivating them. This is no doubt reinforced by environmental factors (family structure, etc.), but the media strikes me as a somewhat more malleable force. Less inertia than most other parts of the system. If change were possible, I think it might best be achieved through that avenue.
I remember reading that Dorothy Parker, pressed by some of her Algonquin Round Table associates to use horticulture in a sentence quipped that you can “lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.” If only studenticulture were a word, then I could achieve a similar level of erudite wit in making my observations, instead of merely becoming depressed.
