2 Replies to “Pedagogy”

  1. Indeed.

    I’ve always considered school a curious institution from an evolutionary biological perspective. Meaning that proto-human children probably spent most of their time outside throwing sticks at each other or staring at monolith obelisks or whatever. We weren’t meant to be sitting still in a classroom for seven hours.

    Professionally, I am asked multiple times a day how to help kids in school. Everything from shyness to learning disabilities to dyslexia, to ADHD so bad that the child cannot sit in a chair for two minutes without getting up and interfering with everyone else in the class.

    Usually I tell them to become a drummer for an underground Memphis band. If that route is unavailable, I mention that our understanding of neurobiology is evolving quickly: there seem to be major issues in development of the prefrontal cortex and frontostriatal networks, with dysregulation of dopamine and norepinephrine common in those who meet criteria for ADHD. Medication doesn’t work for everyone, and it’s highly individual. But for many, the difference is night and day.

    We grew up in stricter, ass-kicking times. And some youngsters respond really well to limit setting. I probably laughed as much as Master Educator Renfield at this.

  2. I relate to ADHD youths. I can sit still and pay attention to good music, books, movies. Also good lecturers and teachers (both a rarity) especially if the topic interests me. Beyond those, I have the attention span of a gerbil. When I walk the halls during free periods, I’m amazed at what we force teenagers to sit through. But most of us adapt somehow.

    I guess terrifying ADHD kids into compliance might teach an adaptive skill, but the underlying problem is still there. While it isn’t a teacher’s role to treat ADHD, there are certainly more beneficent ways to deal with it.

    In an ideal world, all education would be interesting all the time. While of course there is a limited supply of talented teachers, some topics are just dry. You do what you can, but boredom is inevitable. I taught Latin for a couple of decades. While you can lighten things up, the dull stretches would annoy me. That said, there was nothing more fun than the end of Caesar’s Gallic Wars 16:6. After translating a rather dull summary of Celtic rites, we’d get to the Wicker Man: “some have huge figures….limbs made with osier wicker…which they fill with living men… then set them on fire.” Wait, SET THEM ON FIRE? They woke up fast.

    For the rest of the year, when a classmate was unprepared and unable to wing it, they’d say “ok, into the Wicker Man.”

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