Boys (and Girls) Need Hands-On Learning

I read this great article today in the New York Daily News. A former Bronx TFA corps member discusses the need America's young boys have for hands-on learning that encourages them to take things apart and then reassemble them.

I've definitely experienced this first-hand in my classroom. Whenever I provide experiments in class, the boys that are the worst-behaved (the fighters, the ones who use profanities, etc.) perform the best. Immediately, they become enthralled in the lesson and relish the opportunity to get their hands dirty.

I try to keep this in mind as much as possible so that my teaching doesn't become textbook/worksheet driven.

Boys will be boys - so let them build with their hands

By MATTHEW CLAVEL

Wednesday, October 17th 2007, 4:00 AM

Be Our Guest

It was my second year teaching in a Bronx classroom, and Timothy was one of my toughest fourth-graders. Prone to tantrums and showing dismal academic skills, he had already been in trouble with the police. I waited with dread for Timothy's reaction to our bridge-building activity.

Our lesson involved simple ingredients: marshmallows and toothpicks. After a quick overview of engineering principles, I split the class into groups, each of which was responsible for building a bridge. I would judge the bridges based on how long they could stretch when the desks beneath them were pulled apart.

I paced the classroom nervously for a while. Then I glanced at Timothy. Hunched over a table with his group members, he was entranced. He and his teammates were on their way to building a long, unwieldy looking, but surprisingly strong frame. The boy was a natural; I was stunned - and delighted. Timothy's bridge would be one of our competition's highlights.

That was seven years ago. I now teach fifth grade at an elite private boys' school in Manhattan. My students learn in a laid-back atmosphere. Our budget is generous, and I recently obtained permission to buy old-fashioned Erector Sets - giant boxes full ofthousands of metal and plastic pieces. After scouring the city forthese outdated kits, I managed to find some online. My homeroom quickly became enamored of them.

The fact that students in a poor public school and those in a wealthy private school both found themselves entranced by simple building exercises ought to tell us something: The powerful desire to engineer with one's own hands is a dying science and art among today's young people.

That's a sad state of affairs, particularly for young boys.

Imagine you are a boy in an inner-city neighborhood. You're interested in motors, buildings and cars as most boys are, but there's almost no focus on these kinds of things. Instead, you are subjected to long reading periods that focus on mundane texts. You see virtually no reason to stay in school a minute longer than necessary.

That picture is all too real. My large Bronx school offered few opportunities for kids to run around; during my first year, there was just one gym period a week. The idleness was particularly hard on the boys, who seem to need to blow off steam more than girls do. No wonder maintaining classroom order was a constant struggle.

Many at-risk kids are naturally handy and love to do what they're good at. But because we devote so little time and attention to manual and construction-related interests, we leave them adrift, antsy and hungry for something more.

Much is made nowadays of the economic demands of the new century - as though the only growth industries are software and microchips. But last I checked, the U.S. is going to need far more architects and builders as well. Look around: New York is in the midst of an unprecedented building boom. The U.S. auto industry needs help, too.

Weekly exercises with screwdrivers and Erector Sets would also strengthen teamwork. And kids would be encouraged to find solutions to problems on their own. In affluent communities today, the excessive presence of tutors has discouraged kids from thinking for themselves - and in low-income neighborhoods, too many kids fall behind and just give up.

Stuck with the mind-set that college is for everyone - and apparently oblivious to the fact that boys will be boys - we neglect vocational programs. As a result, not only will plenty of potentially excellent (and happy, and well-paid) plumbers, electricians, carpenters and auto mechanics never discover their calling - but millions of kids will grow up utterly unable to do or appreciate even the most basic manual labor.

I have not kept in touch with Timothy, but I hope he has succeeded. He would make a great carpenter.

Clavel, who was a Teach for America corps member for two years in the Bronx, now teaches in Manhattan. This is adapted from the forthcoming issue of City Journal.

Last week, Thomas Friedman of The New York Times wrote a very interesting opinion article about my generation. He discusses how we're creating a new life stage between adolescence and adulthood.

October 10, 2007

Op-Ed Columnist

Generation Q

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

I just spent the past week visiting several colleges — Auburn, the University of Mississippi, Lake Forest and Williams — and I can report that the more I am around this generation of college students, the more I am both baffled and impressed.

I am impressed because they are so much more optimistic and idealistic than they should be. I am baffled because they are so much less radical and politically engaged than they need to be.

One of the things I feared most after 9/11 — that my daughters would not be able to travel the world with the same carefree attitude my wife and I did at their age — has not come to pass.

Whether it was at Ole Miss or Williams or my alma mater, Brandeis, college students today are not only going abroad to study in record numbers, but they are also going abroad to build homes for the poor in El Salvador in record numbers or volunteering at AIDS clinics in record numbers. Not only has terrorism not deterred them from traveling, they are rolling up their sleeves and diving in deeper than ever.

The Iraq war may be a mess, but I noticed at Auburn and Ole Miss more than a few young men and women proudly wearing their R.O.T.C. uniforms. Many of those not going abroad have channeled their national service impulses into increasingly popular programs at home like “Teach for America,” which has become to this generation what the Peace Corps was to mine.

It’s for all these reasons that I’ve been calling them “Generation Q” — the Quiet Americans, in the best sense of that term, quietly pursuing their idealism, at home and abroad.

But Generation Q may be too quiet, too online, for its own good, and for the country’s own good. When I think of the huge budget deficit, Social Security deficit and ecological deficit that our generation is leaving this generation, if they are not spitting mad, well, then they’re just not paying attention. And we’ll just keep piling it on them.

There is a good chance that members of Generation Q will spend their entire adult lives digging out from the deficits that we — the “Greediest Generation,” epitomized by George W. Bush — are leaving them.

When I was visiting my daughter at her college, she asked me about a terrifying story that ran in this newspaper on Oct. 2, reporting that the Arctic ice cap was melting “to an extent unparalleled in a century or more” — and that the entire Arctic system appears to be “heading toward a new, more watery state” likely triggered by “human-caused global warming.”

“What happened to that Arctic story, Dad?” my daughter asked me. How could the news media just report one day that the Arctic ice was melting far faster than any models predicted “and then the story just disappeared?” Why weren’t any of the candidates talking about it? Didn’t they understand: this has become the big issue on campuses?

No, they don’t seem to understand. They seem to be too busy raising money or buying votes with subsidies for ethanol farmers in Iowa. The candidates could actually use a good kick in the pants on this point. But where is it going to come from?

Generation Q would be doing itself a favor, and America a favor, if it demanded from every candidate who comes on campus answers to three questions: What is your plan for mitigating climate change? What is your plan for reforming Social Security? What is your plan for dealing with the deficit — so we all won’t be working for China in 20 years?

America needs a jolt of the idealism, activism and outrage (it must be in there) of Generation Q. That’s what twentysomethings are for — to light a fire under the country. But they can’t e-mail it in, and an online petition or a mouse click for carbon neutrality won’t cut it. They have to get organized in a way that will force politicians to pay attention rather than just patronize them.

Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy didn’t change the world by asking people to join their Facebook crusades or to download their platforms. Activism can only be uploaded, the old-fashioned way — by young voters speaking truth to power, face to face, in big numbers, on campuses or the Washington Mall. Virtual politics is just that — virtual.

Maybe that’s why what impressed me most on my brief college swing was actually a statue — the life-size statue of James Meredith at the University of Mississippi. Meredith was the first African-American to be admitted to Ole Miss in 1962. The Meredith bronze is posed as if he is striding toward a tall limestone archway, re-enacting his fateful step onto the then-segregated campus — defying a violent, angry mob and protected by the National Guard.

Above the archway, carved into the stone, is the word “Courage.” That is what real activism looks like. There is no substitute.

Fundamental Change

I write this at the brink of frustration and sheer exhaustion. I went to bed late last night after spending the weekend working on school stuff, got to school super early today, didn't take a planning period or break of any kind, stayed late today, and STILL have a 'to do' list that's a mile long!

We, as a society, have made the job of a teacher way too difficult to still expect the miracles we demand of them. And I'm feeling the brunt of this difficulty in my lack of sleep.

I don't write this to gain anyone's pity or sympathy. I simply want others to see how incredibly absurd the current state of our system of education is.

Even more so than last year, I've come to the ultimate realization that if we are going to strive for drastic improvements in our school system so that our children will be able to compete in a global economy, we are going to have to make some major changes on a very fundamental level.

First and foremost, we have to make the school day longer and shorten summer break. There's just no other way around this one. We don't spend enough time in school. There are numbers that show how far fewer days are spent by American students in class than our global competitors - I'm too tired to look them up right now, but they exist. Google them.

Second, we have to split the workload we give teachers in half--at least! I say this in all seriousness. When we give teachers 3 or 4 or 5 or even 6 classes to prep for, it is simply ludicrous to expect teachers to produce amazingly creative and hands-on lessons, stay on top of grading, have plans at least two weeks in advance, stay in constant communication with parents, and actually enjoy their jobs. There is not enough time in the day!

If I only did school work during my contract hours - the time that I'm actually getting paid to work - I'd be fired very quickly. Simply put, I wouldn't be able to complete any of the administrative mandates required of me.

If teachers are going to become better at their profession, they need more time for reflection, planning, parent contact, in-service training, and observation of colleagues' best practices. None of this can be done in the current system, when I for example have a mere 45 mins to plan for the next week, make all my copies, schedule and conduct parent conferences, read and respond to all emails (this is the only time in the day I'm legally allowed to read email), and take a restroom break. And that's only if I'm not called in by an administrator for a meeting during this time.

Teachers are miracle-workers, but they're not superhuman.

This is #1 and #2 on a list that I will surely be adding to as the year progresses (and I get more sleep).

More Clinton News

Today, the American Federation of Teachers, the largest teacher union, formally endorsed Hillary Clinton for president.

Hillary was quoted saying, "Teachers are on the frontlines of shaping the minds of our next generation. With every child they teach, teachers help to ensure a brighter future for our country. In welcoming every child through your doors, in giving every child a chance to succeed, it's our public schools and teachers that transform that rhetoric into reality every single day."

According to AFT, they "represent 1.4 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers, paraprofessionals and other school support employees, higher education faculty, nurses and other healthcare workers, and state and local government employees."

I'm pumped that Hillary got the endorsement and truly believe she is the best candidate to represent educators, but I wish she and the other major candidates would come out with a point-by-point plan for how they plan to "fix No Child Left Behind" as they so often are quoted as saying.