The Daily Riff - BE SMARTER. ABOUT EDUCATION.

We've all been there: conferences where the lights are on the speaker at the front of the room.  We are there - admission either paid for by the institution, company or our own dime - to listen to an expert so we may learn something - to be better at thinking, knowing, doing and being - and to network.

We know we are there for only for a day or two so we will endure the odd sensation of being in a bubble.  If it's a three-day conference, attendees mainly pick and choose and rarely stay through every session back-to-back, unless they are on the conference committee (of course, we have to handle "urgent" business, which is always a convenient excuse to leave that under-water feeling, even when you end up in the outside area, talking with other attendees).

We know we won't have to do this mental bootcamp schedule for 9 months per year, 5 days per week, from approximately 8:00 AM to 3:00 PM, with approximately a 1/2 hour for lunch which really translates to 10 minutes to eat the time one gets to a place, and typically 3 minutes in-between classes.  If you are lucky, you will have a 45 minute PE period that actually involves major movement of muscles, rather than sitting in a room learning about good nutrition, while the cafeteria serves as much fat, sugar and white dough as possible, and the brownies from the weekly fund-raising bake-sale are wafting through the corridors.

Or, let's move to another scenario.  Have you ever sat in a classroom with a handful of adults - far less than the typical 25 students  - for a period of an hour or two?  The adults are about to go batty by the time the hour hand moves and most often blame it on the "small chairs".

Or, have you shadowed a typical school or a group for a full week?  Day after day, no sneaking out mid-class for a phone call . . .only allowing the breaks a student would get?  (I know, I know, students "get into trouble with too much free time" . . . hmmm). 

If not, imagine it.  Or, take some Ritalin or Adderal to numb yourself to the experience, if you can't control your inability to contain yourself in any of the above situations.

I can never understand how and why we expect students with far more energy,  ideas, natural creativity and far more everything, to be more "contained" in their behavior than adults.  Yes, we get the concept of discipline but not as in a torturous exercise that may not necessarily be relevant to a disciplined mind or a healthy one. 

Oh, and by the way, have you checked out the work desk series by "Relax Your Back" where the desk can shift to a standing position to relieve fatigue and back pain?  And all those fabulous chairs with ergonomic support and flexibility?  Guess only adults need to move and shift positions during the day - check this out from their site:

"A clean desk may increase your productivity, but our adjustable desk actually promotes circulation and relieves stress on your back and muscles. Experts recommend that if you work at a desk you should stand up periodically throughout the day."

Yeah, we know, there is more to worry about than kids' motivation or well-being - nothing to do with learning, right?  So when we stumbled upon this video link via a tweet from Nunavit Teacher, it just made us think of "those desks" again . . . but this post really isn't about desks.   Excerpts and video:

"Who seriously believes locking twenty-five students in a small room with one adult for several hours each day is the best way for them to be educated?  We already live in a world of disconnect, where the classroom has stopped reflecting the world outside its walls. . . .

The greatest hurdle in education reform is that society doesn't have a clear vision of what education is for .. . "

"If you put a doctor of a hundred years ago in an operating room she would get lost, yet if you placed a teacher of a hundred years ago into one of today's classrooms she wouldn't skip a beat."

"Moving From A One-Room Schoolhouse to a one-world schoolhouse is now a reality".
- Cisco

How's your back these days?
Video below runs a little over two minutes:

Orig. published in The Daily Riff July 2010