Standing up for the hoodies

I recently took my students on a trip and was amazed by the reaction and obvious misgivings that people had for teenagers. These misgivings were not only apparent through body language but general rudeness! Why are our teenagers so maligned?

When we got on public transport, there were a good number of adults who moved away from us—we were not noisy--I can only assume it was because they thought the teenagers were trouble. Later in the day, we walked into a shop where the students were to buy their lunch. Students were only allowed to go in on their own and were followed around the shop by a security guard while they bought their lunch. Assuming that they were going to steal from the shop angered me.

Being a teenager isn’t all that easy. Some of course do steal from shops and this is wrong, but let’s ask why this happens. I suspect that the fact that they are being told about the latest must-haves being the source of happiness cannot help. I got one of my students to record an average school day for me:
Up at 6.45am; leave at 7am for school; basketball training at 7.15am; lessons at 8.40am; out again at 3.30pm, football practise until 5pm, home 5.45pm, couple of hours of homework, say, takes you to nearly 8pm. This leaves about an hour to eat the 5-a-day, relax, wash, catch up with friends/family and do chores if they are to get the recommended 9 hours’ sleep a night!

Then we give them grief when they want to chill out at weekends or holidays. Further, we have created such a horrible world, who can blame them for wanting to stay home and watch TV all day? As a result they get castigated for being layabouts and label-mad consumerists. As if the messages we are giving our teenagers through the media aren’t confusing enough, the struggle for maturity is no picnic.

Grades

Grades are good. They offer prompt feedback to students about their work, letting them know WWW and EBI. Further, everyone understands the currency of grades even if they disagree with the logic of the system. What’s key is dialogue with students about grades, the criteria used, and how they can be achieved.

At the moment, though, I feel that there is so much focus on grades that we are beginning to miss what we’re all about. The focus is very much on measurable outcomes and the pressure for results is high. Instead, we should strive for an environment in which students constantly reflect:
Who am I? What do I care about? What kind of a person do I want to be? What's my responsibility to others? What do I hope to accomplish? How can I do that? Etc.
We are currently having some real trouble motivating Year 11 students in the run up to their exams but I truly think that if we were engaging students in these types of questions all the time questions of motivation would be made redundant.

Culture and ethos

In 'An Ethic of Excellence: Building a Culture of Craftsmanship with Students,' Berger argues that ‘students adjust their attitudes and efforts in order to fit the culture. If the peer culture ridicules academic achievement—it isn't cool to raise your hand in class, to do homework, to care openly about school—this is a powerful force. If the peer culture celebrates investment in school—it's cool to care, this is just as powerful. Schools need to consciously shape their cultures to be places where it's safe to care, where it's cool to care. They need to reach out to family and neighbourhood cultures to support this’ (34). Perhaps this is patently obvious but it captures everything I have been thinking this year: that culture and ethos is more important than teaching and learning. That is, as important as teaching and learning is there is something that must come before it. Too many of my students have, underneath, a fragile sense of their own ability. Berger goes on to argue that it is through their work and focus on it that their self esteem will grow.