Filtering by Category: Life Reflections

How to Cultivate Curiosity and Stop Stupidity (Part 1)

April 30, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

Cultivating Curiosity and Stopping Stupidity

“Oh My Gosh! Look at this puppy. That’s so cute.”

— A male student in my 2nd-hour chemistry

Curiosity is a choice. So is ignorance. Thus, the only person who can make you stupid is yourself. Not your parents. Not your school. Not your friends. You.

Consider how easy it is to pick up a digital device and spend an hour watching car crash or cat videos. It's one thing to watch one cat video while taking a break from doing something meaningful. It's quite another to get sucked in. Crazy and cute appeal to the human brain, but don't always help it learn. Enjoying the neurochemicals our brain releases it's easy to spend mindless hours on self-entertainment forgoing self-education in the process. It takes mindfulness and self-control to do the opposite.

The Rise of the Digikid

It doesn't take much for an adult to get sucked into virtual nonsense but many of today's kids practically live on YouTube or Snapchat or in the virtual world of video games and other digital media. Fully developed prefrontal cortex and all, adults can reflect on the mind-numbing activities they partake in more often. The kids? Not so much. Johnny just spent 6 hours playing Fortnite after school and lost track of time. He's so hopped up on adrenaline that he's considering skipping sleep to study for that chem test tomorrow. His teenage PFC is like: Fuck it! I'll sleep when I'm six feet under.

Studies on the kids' use of digital devices and media are all over the place but the trends are clear. Every year, more kids are using digital devices and on average, they spend more of their time in the digital realm of the Internet. They are the digikids.

The Incurious Ones

All teachers and parents know the internet can be a blessing and a curse. Ian Leslie who wrote Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends on It claims internet usage can further widen the divide between those who want to learn, the curious ones, and those who are unmotivated to do so, the incurious ones.

This is because the incurious students choose to spend most of their online time seeking entertainment. As a result, they consume content that adds little value to their personal growth. Much of their plugged-in time is spent aimlessly pursuing and learning about vain things. They don't acquire knowledge and skills that better their lives because their curiosity muscles have atrophied.

The Curious Ones

These students keep asking questions way past their preschool years. Unreal, I know. They never stopped asking questions. Hopefully, they never will. These individuals are like that annoying 3-year-old in the back seat of your family sedan - the more questions you answer - the more they ask. The more they discover, the farther and deeper they want to explore. Embrace them. Even if their chutzpa makes you a little uncomfortable trust in this: They're not the annoying ones. They're just curious.

They use the world wide web to learn and dig deeper. They google something, then watch a video on it, then come running to you to discuss the things that intrigued them and to ask about concepts that elude them. They are the curious ones and they will save the world. So for world's sake: Let them! Embrace their curiosity or you might contribute to soul death.

Why Giving Up Curiosity Is Soul Suicide

Stagnation, the feeling of being stuck in a profession you're blah about, and the eventual resignation all result from abandoning our curiosity which diminishes our motivation and creativity. And though things we can't control happen to us all the time, it is ultimately us who give up our curiosity. This is soul suicide. We end up living a life filled with regrets about what we didn't do and excuses for why we didn't do it. Accepting that this is the way it's supposed to be is frequently an unconscious decision resulting from conditioning, becoming aware of it might be all that's needed to start reversing this conditioning. Of course, one has to act on this newfound realization because change comes from doing not design.

Awareness and Reawakening Curiosity

Luckily, curiosity doesn't die. Becoming incurious at different points in my life I eventually broke the pattern each time. Instead of disappearing completely, curiosity lies dormant, buried underneath a thick layer of apathy. But it can always be uncovered and reawakened; sometimes stimulated by a new interest; at other times induced by the shocks of life.

To be able to help reawaken the innate curiosity every human is born with it's helpful to look at reasons and circumstances that often lead to loss of motivation and apathy. This creates awareness that allows you to prevent incuriosity when children are young and work to counteract its effects in older kids or adults.

While poverty is often blamed for educational and professional success divide, it's important to note that many kids grow up impoverished in more ways than one. They might grow up in an environment that doesn't validate and support their curiosity. Their questions are brushed aside by well-meaning but busy parents. Their explorations and pursuits are first suppressed by parents and later annihilated by society's norms.

In today's technology-infused world kids exposure to this very world is different. We can substitute real experiences with virtual ones. But how does this affect curiosity? The internet can be used to learn but it's just so damn easy to pick up a device and continue clicking through the digital world of cute puppies, furry cats, and sneezing pandas that freak themselves out. How many kids instead of going camping and seeing that Peppa the Pig theater play or participating in dance or STEM classes grow up in front of the modern age pacifiers; the brain numbness-inducing TVs and iPads?

TVs have been around for more than half a century and every teacher has encountered students hooked on the tube. The effect was apparent. They didn't do the homework, complete the projects, study the concepts, learn the material, or pass the class. This is amplified today. As early as toddlerhood more and more kids are conditioned to live a life of media consumption. While this keeps them from bouncing off the walls it turns them into vegetables; organisms that don't take control of their life but rather let life happen to them. And no offense but as useful as plants are they're about as smart as the dirt they grow in.

I cannot know the exact childhood story of each teenager I encounter in my classroom but I see the effects of incuriosity every day and they are startling. Unless students are taught and shown how to use their smartphones for learning their first inclination is to use them for entertainment. Consumption of video, audio, and imagery via apps and social media is conditioned. With technology, fun became easy, no assembly required. But the kids of the past had much less access to instant gratification devices so dopamine had to be earned with curiosity and made with creativity.

Luckily, this is still possible today. We can choose to turn the devices off and go play with our kids in the real. The more exposure to things other than devices they have the higher the chance they will remain curious about everything the world is made of and life offers.

Don't Just Tell Them. Do It with Them.

It is up to us, the adults in their lives to do it. But we can't be punitive. We can't just take the devices away from kids and force them to read. We can't be passive either. We can't just tell the kids to do something else. Rather, we have to get involved in their lives more and find the time to experience life with them.

We need to get interested in the whys so we can find new and more meaningful hows. If we know the specific reasons for why our kids like a certain app or game or whatever, we can find new more creative ways of channeling that energy. Then, we can perhaps provide more productive alternatives to spending mindless hours doing one particular thing.

We can figure out ways to involve the gamer kids in creating content related to the games they play. How about starting a YouTube channel or a podcast giving game tips or reviewing games? How about a website that aggregates all the cool trends and pop culture things teens are into or focuses on one topic such as music, gaming, clothing, shoes, gear, or teen life hacks? We can watch TED talks they might enjoy with them and discuss them afterward or make our own video that addresses this or similar topic and put it on YouTube. We can agree to learn how to write apps with them and write an app with them. We can take them downtown and ask them to use their phone to navigate. We can take them camping and teach them how to gather wood and start a fire without lighter fluid. We can take a walk to the local park or hang out in the grassy area by the school building and make a map or draw different kinds of plants and bugs.

We can do many things with them. We can't just tell them to go do something.

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Hi! I'm Oskar.

I teach, write, speak, rant to make the world better.

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categories / Life Reflections
tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, learning, teaching, curiosity, cultivating curiosity, stopping stupidity

Personalization, Standardization, And Why Education Is No Equalizer

February 27, 2018 / Oskar Cymerman

“Injustice is telling them education is the key while you continue to change the locks. Education is no equalizer. Rather, it is the sleep that precedes the American Dream. So wake up. Wake up.”

— Donovan Livingston

The superintendent stands on the artificial turf field in front of a crowd of teachers sitting in the bleachers. Mic in his hand, he's talking about personalization of education.

The speech goes something like: We need to work to do this or that and ensure that every student attending our schools receives world class education he or she can take with them and use to be successful in their future.

It's hot and humid as you know what. It's the end of August and we're about to go to our prospective buildings and start working on unpacking the standards so we can smoothly transition into standards-based grading with hopes of delivering better common core curriculum which will hopefully lead to better scores on the standardized assessments.

But we want to personalize the educational experience for every student! the argumentative part of me exclaims in my head. The sup is talking about it right now. Why are we not jumping on that train right away? Why are we about to split and work on the usual status quo bullshit we'll just throw away for something better that comes along a few years from now? The status quo initiatives that protect entrenched interests and perpetuate inequity?

Yep. I said it. Standardization of education protects the privileged while the underserved get the shaft. The official story though, a piece of well crafted fiction, will always be that standardizing education creates a level playing field for all.

Cause I ain’t got a pencil

You might have seen this powerful poem written by a Baltimore student.

It's easy to see Joshua's poem as an example of how poverty affects students' ability to learn, and many school districts have responded to the problem of poverty by providing training to teachers so they can better recognize inequity in the classroom.

But there's more to this story. While the system appears to be hard at work on understanding of socioeconomic issues and inclusion of diversity in education it continues to insist on using a one-size-fits-all approach to measure student achievement. It even tells its students what pencil to use. It better be a non-mechanical wooden number two.

While appearing as heading toward progress, the system is built to punish those who don’t know how to wield the number two pencil. In other words, students who do not understand how to do well on standardized tests or resist them are left behind all the while those instructed on how to play the game well and to comply to the oft-outdated and unreasonable demands thrive.

Students are not allowed to prove what their knowledge and skills via other means; perhaps means that allow them to use their strengths.

Maybe that black boy is a great speaker and can communicate his world view and how he will be successful in the future orally.

Maybe that Mexican girl is great with her hands and can show how she can build a robot or make art or cook using her hands to prove that she will indeed be a productive member of society.

We call those things electives in education. Ironically, content standards at all levels dictate what classes that boy and that girl must take to be successful.

But the appearance of choice is no choice at all.

Electives are child's play. This is not real education our children are taught. There’s only one way and it involves a pencil and a series of multiple choice questions based on standards. Each question can only be answered in one way. You’re either right or wrong. There’s no middle ground. No compromise. No room for those who don’t understand how the system works or resist its exclusive ways.

So...

Why do educational powers that be starting at the federal level publicly talk up initiatives such as reducing educational inequity and increasing opportunity via initiatives such as personalization but then go back to working hard at preserving the rules and regulations that are at the heart of educational inequity and social injustice?

The state and district educational powers play the let's minimize the achievement gap game well too; hiring consultants and offering culturally responsive teaching training. Nothing wrong with that, but upon careful examination those who choose to open their eyes see the charade.

Personalization is the educational equivalent of fake news.

Aren't "standardization" and "personalization" polar opposites?

Meanwhile, we are encouraged to build relationships with students so as many as possible comply and buy into the status quo model of achievement that involves taking tests that measure their skills in using information that is mostly irrelevant to life outside of the confines of school.

Those tests are then upheld as indicators of future success, but it is an artificial measure created to keep the privileged in power and those with the wrong birthright in their rightful place. The few that undoubtedly achieve do so through compliance and acceptance of the rules and regulations established long ago; updated for the modern times but nevertheless continually upheld by the educational system of today.

It's a well oiled machine the haves have developed to keep most of the have nots having little. You could say it's brilliant if it wasn't so inhumanely premeditated.

So as I sit in my classroom writing this and thinking about the impending doom of the standardized test season, the Black History Month, and the still absent district action (not talk) regarding personalizing education for all our students I realize we are on our own.

I know. I know. The sups are just mid-level supervisors doing what the uncle tells them to do. That summer speech was almost inspiring though.

So we can listen to our superintendents telling us more stories about personalization while they budget millions for standardization for the modern age which has always been the government's grand design to perpetuate institutional prejudice and inequity or we can teach our students the right things.

We can show them how to attain knowledge they need so they can do it whenever they need it. We can focus on building skills that increase their chances of success. We can teach them to think for themselves.

You have the power to change lives. Use it often so they can change the world.

Oskar

Thanks for reading! If you found my article useful you might want to sign up for my newsletter below. If you are looking for a new book to help all students learn how to learn and gain success skills check out my books on Amazon.

Hi! I'm Oskar.

I teach, write, speak, rant to make the world better.

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categories / Life Reflections
tags / teaching teens, learning, teaching, inequity, social injustice, personalization, standardized testing, standardization

Are We Programming Our Students?

November 28, 2017 / Oskar Cymerman

I talked to a student the other day. He’s a high school senior. The conversation was about making a video I assigned as a classroom project. The students were to research and record a video on the learning strategy and his group chose active note taking.

So they proceeded to create a paper slide video which was cool. What wasn’t cool was the fact they put like a paragraph of text on each slide. And they used zero images.

So I asked him: Would you enjoy watching a video like that?

No, he said.

Then why make something like that?

Because that’s what teachers expect.

And I had to agree with him. This is what we usually want.

Let’s talk PowerPoint. We ask students to make presentations and put this or that information on them, usually a lot, but if you think about it, that is the worst way to make a PowerPoint.

So they proceed to put a crap ton of text and a few images on each slide. Then they read the text they wrote during the actual presentation or use flashcards to aid them while presenting. The images are there but misused.

You see, most of us teachers teach them to do it exactly the way we do it. When we lecture using PowerPoint we either put a crap ton of text on each slide and proceed to read it to students or even worse: We put a crap ton of words on each slide and paraphrase those words or say something in support of them. This causes what I call Brain Pain. Brain pain is cognitive overload we lead to when students don’t know what to focus on. Should they listen or should they read?

What’s worse, we program students to create the exact same ineffective mind-numbing pieces of garbage they see us create. I am guilty of doing this many times.

Think about it. PowerPoint is a visual medium. But we pretend like it’s a book or an essay we have to read to our students. We teach them to be boring and unimaginative. But there's a better way. And we need to model it to our students.

PowerPoint isn’t the only way we program such lack of creativity, but it’s a big one. Check out this post for 3 easy tips to improve your presentations. It contains a free lesson to help you teach students how to use PowerPoint the right way.

And in December, I will lead 2 workshops on creativity at the annual TIES conference in Minneapolis, so if you’re in the area I’d love to meet you.

Whether I see you or not, thanks for reading and remember that you have the power to change lives. Use it often.

Thanks for reading! If you found my article useful you might want to sign up for my newsletter below. I send it out on Wednesday and Sunday mornings. If you are looking for a new book that can help you add to your teaching arsenal and help teens learn check out my books on Amazon. Every paperback is $11.97 or below and every Kindle $2.99 until Sunday 12/3. You can take a look here.

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I teach, write, speak, rant to make the world better.

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categories / Life Reflections
tags / teaching teens, deeper learning, learning, teaching, cognitive overload, brain pain, Death By PowerPoint