Sometimes it feels like we have gotten stuck in too many broken systems, failing institutions, and flawed structures that are not serving the purpose for which they were designed. We know things are broken – we can see it plain as day – and yet we feel like those villagers who were too fearful or complacent to tell the emperor he has no clothes.
I am teaching a public relations course in a brand new building that was completed the month before my class started. It was touted to be an innovative, interesting building. “How exciting to teach in a space that’s been created with innovative learning in mind!” I thought, naively.
I can only say this – it is a remarkable disappointment. The first thing you notice is the institutional look of it. Bare concrete floors, stark white classroom walls, and nothing that looks warm and inviting – anywhere. The next thing you notice is the noise level. I’m not sure what the walls are made of, but when a siren goes by (which it does, often, as we’re on one of the busiest corners in the city), I have to wait for it to pass before I can speak again. Don’t even get me started about the jack-hammering on my first day.
As you look a little deeper, you notice the more subtle things. The lack of coat racks or lockers, for example – students (and teachers) have to lug heavy backpacks and winter clothes with them everywhere they go. And then there’s the lack of common spaces, lobbies, or even a cafeteria. Neither students nor faculty can gather in common spaces in comfortable chairs. It feels remarkably like they don’t want people to be communicating with each other. (After all, isn’t that how revolts form?)
As a teacher, my greatest issue is with the lack of flexibility in the classroom. I am a creative person teaching a writing class – I need a creative space. And yet there are essentially no options for innovative use of space whatsoever. I can’t even fall back on the oldest method in the books – gathering in a circle – because the desks are too rigid to permit it. And forget trying to put anything colourful on the walls to try to foster creativity – it’s against the rules.
I could go on and on (and sometimes I do), and you might think I’m just a complainer looking for a sympathetic ear. (After all, haven’t teachers been teaching in much worse conditions than these for years?) But I believe this goes deeper than simple complaints – I believe this is a symptom of an illness that we’ve allowed to run too rampant in our culture. I believe that we are failing our students by letting them know that this is the best they can expect in life. I believe we are stifling their imagination, and the work force that they will soon be part of will suffer for it.
“Look at these stark white boxes, students,” we’re telling them. “This is your future. Fit into the boxes as best you can and don’t dare leave your mark on the wall.”
Here’s the thing – institutions should not mold US to serve THEM. WE should create institutions that serve US. And when an institution ceases to serve us, we should abolish it, or at least do some serious reconfiguring.
This building is only one of the flawed institutions I’ve witnessed lately. One of my daughters is gifted academically, and yet she is completely bored at school, falling through the cracks in an education system that is teaching to mediocrity. And when it comes to health care, I could write a volume on the many ways that our health care system has failed various members of my family, mostly because there are lots of disillusioned people “just doing their jobs” in a broken system.
The question is, who tells the emperor he has no clothes? As a contract teacher, do I risk being seen as the “complainer”, or even worse, the “trouble-maker” because I believe we are doing a disservice to the students by not offering them more? As a parent, do I work my way up the school division hierarchy to find someone who will pay attention to the fact that the education system is doing our gifted students a disservice by boring them to tears? As a caregiver and family member of people suffering at the hands of the health care system, do I march into the halls of power and say “This is NOT GOOD ENOUGH!”
It’s easier just to pretend the emperor has on a beautiful handwoven coat.
And yet there’s a tiny voice inside me saying “SPEAK UP! Somebody HAS to!”
And so, this week, I’m letting that voice speak. It’s time to write some letters, speak some truths, and run the risk of offending the emperor.
I think Sir Ken Robinson would approve.
OH I SO agree!
I am angry at hospitals that do not offer a healing environment.
School environments that don’t encourage learning.
The fact that veterinary clinics that offer far better and more cheerful service than the average human-oriented walk in.
Buildings that are an affront to the human body (as you mentioned in here).
One size fits all desks…
I could go on!
It’s so important to speak up. Last week I spent some time in the new hospital here in Wellington and that space actually has been designed with human well-being in mind and what a difference it makes! To the staff, to the patients and to their friends and families who spend time there. Does the spaciousness, lightness and generally beauty of the building help with healing? I’m willing to bet money that it does.
Wow! As someone who has taught seminars in every conceivable sort of space–from hotel ballrooms with crystal chandeliers to tiny basement rooms with a resident mouse–I am so conscious of the importance of the environment.
Stewart Emery wrote about that eloquently and says if you were a willow tree planted in the desert you would not reach your potential as a willow tree. Move to the river bank and you will. Trees can’t relocate, but humans can speak up.
Hope your voice is heard, Heather.
While I admire your courage in speaking up to the “powers that be,” I also think you ought to be speaking your mind to your students. Let them in on it. Let them know how sterile and unstimulating you find the space. Mention how daunting it is to creativity. And then, rather than giving your “power” away to those “in power,” invite your students to help you enliven the space. Bring colorful blankets, wear bright clothing, write with a brilliant spectrum of markers/pencils/whatever.
Sort of like a magic act — walking onto the bare stage, brightening it for a short duration, and then striking it all at the end.
One of the dictums for a good magic act is always “packs flat, looks big onstage.” Magicians are frequently on the road, and lugging big props and stage dressings around demands a lot of effort. So whatever can be made to collapse the size of a postage stamp, and yet fills the stage beautifully for a performance is the optimal set dressing.
INVITE your students to get creative with you to overcome the sterility. Don’t just go looking for a “hero” somewhere else to save you. All the creativity you require is Right In Front Of You. Invite it in. And help your students discover their own creativity, and their own *power* to make a difference — all without ever breaking the rules.
Now THAT would be a valuable learning experience!
-Vicky Jo 😀
Hello Heather, this is an extremely timely post, thank you for writing it. I agree completely with Vicky Jo; you & your students have the power to change your immediate environment – the classroom. How about an easel? It doesn’t have to be a huge one; one that sits on a desk/table is fine. Ask your students to bring in a picture of something beautiful/meaningful etc., every week, every few days & get a conversation going about the picture, even for 10 minutes before the formal class starts. Ask them for their favourite quotations, lines of poetry, etc. I believe that even thinking creatively can change the physical environment.
I wish I knew how you could help your daughter. Is there anyone outside of her school who could help? Is there anything she is interested in that her school subjects would assist her knowledge of? No doubt you have already thought of these things & more, so all I can do is wish you & her well & hope things get better.
Thank you all for your feedback and ideas.
Vicky and Kirsten – I agree with you wholeheartedly and I am doing my best to foster creativity in a non-creative space. To some degree, it’s working, and the students are energized by what’s going on in the classroom. (You should have seen the looks on some of their faces when I brought in a Tibetan singing bowl. 🙂
However, as much as it’s good to adapt to what’s available to us, I still think that at some point, we need to challenge the status quo and say “this is not good enough!” My issue with this is that it’s a brand new building and the university missed a golden opportunity to create a space that adapts WITH us. These things won’t change unless some of us are willing to stand up and say “perhaps there’s a better way”.
I’m sure you’ll manage whatever the environment. I don’t know what letters you plan to write, but I rather doubt that they’re going to change the classroom configuration in a brand new school. Is there an alternate seminar room you can book? Are there better empty classrooms?
While making the best of what is available is certainly a great talent and a useful tool, I very much understand your compulsion to stand up and say “HEY, this is just not working and there HAS TO BE a better way”. It’s frustrating to keep butting up against the same old paradigms that keep us stuck in the same old ruts and be told the same old story of this is just how it is. WHY is this how it is? WHY does it have to stay this way? WHY do we have to work within a system that is broken and keep bowing down to an emperor too blind to see that it’s his own hairy arse that is blocking the view?
Brilliant post, Heather! I read it before but didn’t comment. I think Vicky Jo has some excellent and creative suggestions, and I also agree with you that it’s time someone stood up and let the emperor know that he’s butt nekkid. It will take more than a lone voice, however. The students, parents and your fellow teachers will need to be persistent, but oh-so-worth it in the end.
Creativity and imagination are so critical to learning. Most every pre-school or early school classrooms I’ve seen have tons of things lying about the classroom that foster and encourage creative thinking. Where did anyone ever get the idea that a sterile, uninteresting environment was the best environment to raise our next generation after a certain age, or even to educate the adult population? To minimize distractions? Seems to me a short creative distraction could be more beneficial to problem solving in the workplace, than being forced to endure long, mind-numbing meetings where usually one or two people drone on and on about how the organization is going to solve any given problem, with no feedback or input from the employees. Gad, I’m depressing myself!
Anyway, as I said earlier, brilliant post! Hope things have improved!