Authority, Compliance, and the Classroom
An insider’s critique of role-playing, authority, and misplaced educational ideals.
The Same Authority Problem
In quest of a change of scene, I later switched to yet another school to finish the courses required for certification. But this proved no escape from socially overbearing authority. In what is perhaps an occupational disease of those who preside over captive audiences, educators are perversely inclined sometimes to choreograph students in gestures only too well designed for tritely conforming teacher pleasers.
Kinesthetic Learning in an English Methods Class
One such instance occurred in a role-playing session for a course in educational methods. One of the students, already an in-service teacher herself at the time, stood in front of the class and led us in the activities of standing in the aisles and energetically pumping our arms back and forth. This was followed by jumping up and down a few times. Physical education? No. This was a highly progressive English lesson—one in which the kinesthetic experience was supposed to assist one’s comprehension of some grammatical point involving verbs. (I don’t remember what.)
Resistance, Correction, and Forced Participation
Almost wondering at first if this could be a practical joke or a hazing procedure, I decided to rebel by way of non-participation, but soon relented when the teacher corrected me in this. At the end of this active-learning experience, she asked me if I could furnish the answer to a question that she posed about the syntax thus impressed upon us.
“Not offhand,” I replied, quite annoyed but feigning a casual tone as best I could.
The Biology Lesson: Simulating Bird Flight
Then there was the in-service middle-school biology teacher who led us in the activity of standing in the aisles and flapping our forelimbs up and down as if we possessed the wings of birds. The object was to count the number of wing-flap cycles per minute for the sake of comparison with the extraordinary frequency of hummingbird wing oscillations. As if contemplation of the latter phenomenon would overtax middle school minds if it weren’t for this pedagogical advance.
Student Reactions and Quiet Dissent
Perhaps it was out of respect for the birds in general that none of us went so far as to voice the old expression that comes to mind. One fellow did go so far as to remark discreetly that the exercise was “obnoxious.” He restricted his participation to a fluttering motion of his hands alone—a form of cheating, but just enough kinesthesia to stay in compliance with the teacher’s demand.
Civil Disobedience and Institutional Power
I, however, chose the path of civil disobedience again, but soon gave in when the teacher scolded me for my non-compliance. Another self-assured progressivist, she was bent on a mission to straighten out her backward pupil. I should have just told her where she got off, although doing so would have constituted a violation of the rules established by the eminent Dr. Big, the quietly observing professor, the one I had to reckon with. (I was not the designated role-playing troublemaker.)
Academic Freedom and Its Irony
Uncontested academic freedom, that hallowed notion that apparently has its ways of going to the heads of some who scarcely deserve the privilege, is now the source of an irony. Respectably accomplished people occasionally pay tuition only to find themselves putting up with instances of domination. Few would ever tolerate their paychecks in the normal working world.
Driving Educators Away
Cases here are in point, so flagrant in their wackiness, their worthlessness, and their ignorance of decent social limits. The English grammar calisthenics and the flapping science lesson were excellent ways of driving self-respecting souls away from the teaching profession.
