In the 1980’s, there was a movie called, “The Gods Must Be Crazy.” The premise is that a group of contented San hunter-gatherers living in the Kalahari desert find a glass soda pop bottle.
Since there is only one bottle, dissension develops in the group with people arguing over who gets to use the bottle. Unhappy with this change in their previously peaceful community, they decide to rid themselves of this negative object, and one individual is chosen to throw it off the edge of the world. What ensues is an often hilarious adventure for the San man sent on this quest.
Though the portrayal of the San people in the movie is romanticized, the facts remain that the San (and other hunter gatherers) lived in small, socially cohesive societies, and there were often multiple adults for every child. The anthropological record says that it was approximately 4 adults to 1 child. Each child received a great deal of attention because there were many individuals available to provide it.
Every day, Monday through Friday, I spend my time with 160 middle-schoolers. Every 50 minutes, a new batch of 30 children enters my room to learn science, and when the bell rings, they leave to go to the next class.
Teaching middle-school is a demanding profession, but I usually enjoy being a teacher. But, something has changed as of late. It's not about “enjoy” or “not enjoy". It's that the system we have used in the past doesn’t seem to be working.
Each generation tends to say, “In my day…” and then they expound on how much better things were in the past. I don’t want to go in that direction. The past is over, and today is all we have.
But, I can say definitively that schools and child behavior have changed since I became a teacher, and I have yet to meet a teacher who disagrees. Though my school, my classroom, and my students are just a microcosm in the big scheme of things, they are a sign of the times.
The teacher shortage is real because there are genuine challenges in education. Being a teacher is often a difficult and exhausting task.
What are these issues that educators face? In sum: The system often doesn’t meet the needs of the children, and it often doesn’t meet the needs of the educators either. And, this is not for a lack of trying on the part of everyone involved.
I’m not trying to throw anyone under the bus. In fact, I’d say we are all riding in this bus together. We, as a society, are in the same boat (if I’m going to keep the transportation analogy going). These days, I’d say the boat is taking water, and we’re all just bailing it out.
Let’s just look at my own classroom. Children enter the classroom without the requisite skills to do the work required. This has always been true, but now the number of students who read far below grade-level and cannot compute is increasing. If this were the only issue, I would not be as concerned.
The problem is social-emotional. In many instances, a significant number of students lack interest in learning, do not show respect for adults, and do not feel a sense of connection to each other. Am I saying these are “bad” children? The answer is emphatically, “No”. They are not bad. They are children in emotional need.
When there are problems regarding children, there can be a lot of finger pointing. It’s the parents’ fault! It’s the educational system’s fault! It's the legislators! It's the teachers!
I don’t think blaming anyone is going to change anything.
So, let’s look at it from a totally different point of view. Let’s look at our biological roots. I am a science teacher, after all.
Biologically, we are not much different from when our ancestors were hunter-gatherers. We have gotten taller and larger and live in more complex societies, but our DNA is the same. If we are biologically the same, then how have we managed to change the child to caregiver ratio from a 1 child to 4 caregivers to 30 children to 1 adult?
When asking a radical question like this, often people will feel a strong sense of push-back. “But, I turned out okay,” they will retort, quite offended. Yes, many of us have turned out okay, but then let's turn the question around. Without any blame or rancor, let’s ask, “Do you (the adult) feel like you have enough time/energy/resources to fully and truly care for yourself (and your children, if you have them)?”
Of course, there are always those who are in positive situations who can honestly respond, “Yes, I feel good. We have enough. All is well in my family. We have no difficulties or challenges at all.”
But, as I look around me, at my co-workers, at my students, at my own family and children, I think, “I do think we need more time/rest/resources.”
I am a good teacher. I know this from observing children succeeding in my classroom and telling me that my classroom helps them. So, I will start the process. I will say, “The way things are at present does not meet the needs of my students. Doing things the same way will only exhaust me and still will not meet the needs of my students.”
I do not say this with any sense of despair. I do not say this with the idea that I will ignore my students’ needs. Instead, I want to acknowledge the problem and change my mindset.
What is the solution then? If I knew that, I wouldn’t have this dilemma.
The only solution I can think of is this: if what we need is attention then attention is what we must give.
I will give the students my attention. I will ask them to give me their attention. Later, when the day is done, I will give myself and my family my attention and ask the same from them.
Is there enough attention to spread all the way around? I can’t answer that.
But, what if we all did this: gave each other our full attention? What if we didn’t look at our cell phones? We didn’t think about anything else other than what was in front of us. We didn’t try to blame anyone else for the moment we are living. What if we just gave all our attention to each moment?
This isn’t really a new idea. Gurus, sages, and self-help books have probably been giving this same advice for as long as they have been around. It’s just that doing it is so apparently difficult.
But, maybe it’s like learning to ride a bike. You have to try, and if you fail, you can’t be scared to get back in the saddle. So, now that I have mixed all my metaphors and solved very little, I will bid you adieu and say, “Happy trails!” Till next time…
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