"Sit down, shut up, and listen."

I can barely begin to think about all the theory and methodology that has gone into all of the lessons I've received from teachers since age 3. I had always assumed that teachers just had natural tendencies that enabled them to effectively communicate with even the most difficult child, break up fights between stubborn youth, and manage to have an entire room of squeamish and impatient elementary students focus politely on what they were saying.
Of course, certain types of individuals are drawn to teach, be it as a result of their passion for the act or their skills in the action. Some people just have intuition about it; some people push themselves until their actions become habitual. Since beginning my internship with Project for Pride in Living, I have given a lot more thought to how teachers use theory and how that theory has significant impact on the way we view school, process the learning experience, and develop as students.

As we trained our volunteers throughout the last two weeks for classroom instruction, one-on-one mentoring and tutoring, and large group monitoring during other activities, I noticed that while some of the theories, responses, and behaviors we discussed and modeled are interesting in their intents and have the potential to be powerful learning models, they still drive home what I have learned as the mantra of the traditional school system :

“Sit down, shut up, and listen.”

(phrase courtesy of Professor Jim Farrell in a class last spring)

Of course, no teacher really uses this phrase when communicating with their students, but it rests in the foundation of almost every educational method we can imagine. What group of 20 seven-year-olds would ever naturally sit still and quietly pay attention to only one person without blurting out a thought or contribution? Kids should be taught and nurtured at the same time, and this method can really stymie creativity and squelch natural curiosity. We spend so much time creating this order and maintaining these systems that we almost ignore the amazing discoveries kids make and the ways in which they want to express their individuality and interest in different ideas. Can we really cultivate lovers of learning with this kind of a system?

At the same time, I cannot imagine how education would be effective in any other mindset without somehow having a 1:1 teacher to student ratio. There has to be some semblance of order, right? Or have I just been socialized to think this way?

I am still trying to evaluate how I feel about applying our new theories of management and teaching and how much I sense myself using this as my motivation in my classroom instruction and group mentoring. While I work to develop relationships and form real connections with the youth I am working with this summer, I will also work to understand my role as an educator and how I see different theories as being effective (or not!). I have not yet had enough time on site to have a sufficient macro vision of the methodology to truly think about its merit, but I will make a conscientious effort to better understand in micro situations how powerful my roots in this sort of “sit down, shut up, and listen” system have infiltrated my own ways of interacting with youth and how it affects the way relationships flourish and learning expands.