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I Don't Need a Teacher; I have Google
from
"Enhancing Your Layered Curriculum Classroom: Tips, Tune-ups and Technology"

Dr Kathie F Nunley © 2011
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Chapter 8: I Don't Need a Teacher; I Have Google

Why is it that some kids are absolutely brilliant, hard working and industrious outside of school, but become lazy, apathetic students once they enter the school building?

"My kid is bored with school."

Ever heard that?

We don't have to look too hard to see how much has changed in the world that young people live in today outside of school. What pales in comparison is how little has changed in the world they live in, inside of school.

Just take a look at a current list of school supplies and we can see how little has changed inside our schools. The list of school supplies for an elementary school in Dallas, Texas for this next school year reads as follows:

36 number two pencils
pencil cap erasers
two boxes of 24-count crayons
one box of colored pencils
one red pen
one ruler
one pair of safety scissors
one small bottle of Elmer's glue
one yellow highlighter
one package assorted colored construction paper
one package: Manila drawing paper
one Mead cursive writing tablet
one black-and-white composition book for science
one package of lined 3 x 5 index cards
five pocket folders with brads
three packages wide ruled notebook paper
three spiral notebooks, wide ruled
one pencil case
one loose leaf three ring notebook
one box of Kleenex
one packet of Post-it notes
one clipboard

I attended elementary school in the 1960s. I don't know when you went to elementary school, but I bet whenever it was, you would still agree with me that the school supply list when you were in elementary school looks almost identical to what's on there today. With the exception of the Post-it notes, and maybe the missing Big Chief tablet, I'd say that sadly, the list looks all-too-familiar.

When I walk into an elementary school today, I also recognize the environment. There is a large analog clock on the wall, colorful bulletin boards constructed out of butcher paper and cut out construction paper, laminate individual student desks with work storage areas in them, laminate chairs, sitting on a linoleum floor, a whiteboard with the alphabet written in cursive running across the top, a wooden teacher desk in the corner with the computer on it, bookshelves lining one wall filled with a variety of children's books, a large basket in the corner with playground equipment such as rubber balls and ropes.

Other than the fact that the chalkboard has been replaced by the whiteboard and there is now a computer sitting on the teacher's desk, the classroom looks very much like it did when I was in elementary school all those many decades ago.

I fear that a visit to my former high school would not present a much different story.

Let's compare this to the world outside of the school building. In the 1960s I shared a room with my sister that had pink walls and one window. I had a dresser, a small bookshelf with a piggy bank and some books from the library. After the fourth grade I also had an instant-on radio. The instant-on part was advanced technology, as prior to that I had to wait for the radio to warm up.

My house had one color television set which sat in the living room on a TV cart. We had our choice of three channels to watch, which consisted of game shows in the morning, soap operas in the afternoon, the nightly news at 6 PM, and a variety of different programs in the evening. Once a year, they ran the Wizard of Oz, which was always a much-anticipated event.

If you were ever lucky enough to stay up til midnight, you could hear the local television station play The Star-Spangled Banner, broadcasting ceased and the screen went to a stagnant test pattern. "Thus ends another day of broadcasting…"

If I needed to do research for school, my mother had to drive me down to the library where I would walk through the stacks or use their set of encyclopedias. If I needed to speak to my friends, I could call them on the dial telephone that was attached to the wall in the kitchen. If I wanted to listen to music, I could play a record on the family console stereo system, which sat in the living room.

Today that kind of bedroom set-up and household set-up would only be found in a historical museum. The homes and bedrooms of today's students are very, very different. Nearly all of our students have a personal computer in their home. Some have their own personal computers or laptops, but most at least can share a family computer. The majority of them stay in touch with their friends either through social networking sites or by texting on their personal cell phones. The idea of going to the library to do research would seem ludicrous. In fact, it is the opinion of most students that if it cannot be found on the Internet, it is not worth looking for.

Television networks now run programs 24 hours a day with thousands of channels. Visual and auditory entertainment is available within seconds with the touch of a button. Access to information and entertainment is almost unlimited and instantaneous.

Fifty years ago schools were an exciting place to be. It was the place that we could go to meet and chat with our friends. Books filled with information were stored in a library just down the hall. Sometimes, if you were lucky, there would be a filmstrip to watch during social studies class. And if you were really lucky, you got to be the chosen student who would sit beside the projector and flip the filmstrip to the next frame when the record player sounded the tone.

Teachers were a wonderful source of information. The pictures in the textbooks provided us with a way to see our world, and even a brand-new box of 64-count crayons was an exciting possession.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out that a box of 64-count crayons can no longer compete with the excitement of video gaming, graphic-arts software, and media technology.

And yet somehow we feel students should willingly be excited about signing off of their computer games, leaving their media-filled home, taking the music ear-buds out, pocket their cell phone for the next hour, and sit at the same laminated desk used by their grandparents. Then pick up a pencil, get out a piece of lined notebook paper and listen to a teacher talk in front of the room while the big analog clock stares down at them reminding how long it will be until they can leave and go back home, where the fun and information is now kept.

From the book, "Enhancing Your Layered Curriculum Classroom: Tips, Tune-ups and Technology"

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Kathie F. Nunley is an educational psychologist, author, researcher and speaker living in southern New Hampshire. Developer of the Layered Curriculum® method of instruction, Dr. Nunley has authored several books and articles on teaching in mixed-ability classrooms and other problems facing today's teachers. Full references and additional teaching and parental tips are available at: http://Brains.org