Listening to Student Ideas for Improving Schools

In addition to teaching courses in English/Language Arts, I also teach a college credit course offered by our local community college.  "Exploring Teaching" currently has 16 bright, enthusiastic juniors and seniors who are getting their first glimpse at the teaching profession while in high school.

One thing I know about kids is that if you ask them their opinion on something controversial, they usually have a strong reaction and rarely hold back sharing their thoughts.  So after an English department meeting one morning, I was interested in what my students felt they had missed out on in their high school courses.  What do they feel inadequately prepared for on the march to college? I lobbed them an easy hook..."School is boring, right?"

"YEAH" they replied in unison.  "Why?"

"Teachers just talk to us all day."
"There is no reason to get excited about the class when the teacher isn't excited about it."
"We don't do stuff that applies to our lives."
"We take a test, everyone fails, and then we just move on without realizing why we failed."

I needed to change the direction of the conversation before we spiraled in to a complaint session. So I asked them, "What does good teaching look like? You are all preparing to be teachers, so what would you do to engage your students?"

Their responses were delightful.  For forty more minutes, these students shared their thoughts on lectures, worksheets, collaboration, useless homework, technology, and test questions that don't make them apply their learning but simply regurgitate what they have heard. I was impressed! My talented principal and I reviewed the scribbling I was able to put on the chalkboard while trying to capture my student's ideas and enthusiasm.  What we were reminded in this time was that our kids care deeply about their learning. So much so that they will suggest even harder course offerings in order to feel academically prepared and challenged. It is days like this in the middle of the winter, when the kids teach me...that I feel so honored and excited by the very nature of a profession in which moments like this exist.