qm_winter_2016

Students Cannot Be Allowed To Choose Not To Learn By Edgar H. Thompson

When Jesse Stuart, the Kentucky writer and educator, was a young teacher in a one- teacher rural high school in Kentucky in the 20s or 30s, he believed that he could hike over the mountains to his parent’s home in the dead of winter. He wanted to do two things. First, he needed to bring back more books for his students whose intellectual skills were stretching

both his abilities and resources. Also, he felt their academic performance was so impressive that he believed they could compete academically with the big flagship county high school. He had a proposal to make about such a competition to the school superintendent whom he knew he could find in his office on Saturday morning. Stuart didn’t anticipate getting lost on top of the mountains in a blizzard with sub-zero temperatures. Had it not been for the dry clothes he was carrying in his suitcase and the shelter of several fodder shocks he found in a deserted corn field, he might have frozen to death. Ah, the hubris of youth. This story is one of the many anecdotes that Stuart included in his bestselling, award-winning book The Thread that Runs So True that was published in 1949. I was fifteen when I first read this book. I was impressed with the sacrifices Stuart was willing to make to help his students, and I was thrilled that his risk paid off. When I finished the book, I committed myself, in prayer, to a life of service and teaching, particularly in the Appalachian region. I achieved my goal. The world of teaching and learning that I saw myself going into at that time, is harder to find these days, but young people still go into teaching believing they see and feel the commitment that I saw so many years ago. In order to help our committed teachers continue their good work, they need help from everyone in the neighborhood: parents, students, and politicians. There are many things in schools—e.g., the emphasis on that which is mundane, repetitive, and routine driven by high stakes testing— that need to change. But for sure, we must communicate to all students that though learning can be difficult, it can also be joyful and thrilling. Getting to a point where this kind of positive experience can be achieved often requires ridiculously hard work. Students at all levels must be convinced, motivated, taught, and told that their job is to learn whatever their parents, teachers, and scholars say they should be learning in order to move forward. Most readers would not disagree with what I have just said. However, what is to be done when some students choose not to do what they are asked or expected to do. There should be consequences. In my day, such consequences were being grounded, being denied something I wanted until I adjusted my behavior, or being spanked—not beaten. Today, there is still a need for consequences, but often there aren’t any. The reason why there aren’t consequences goes back about 30 years. At that time due to fears of litigation, corporal punishment disappeared in Virginia’s schools. Nothing was created to take corporal punishment’s place.

As a result, to this day, if students say no, that is often the end of what educators can do. Whatever direction we go, when a pronouncement is made, a law passed, and a policy created, the problem has not been solved. All constituents—students, parents, educators, scholars, politicians—must keep talking about and evaluating what is important and keep at it continually and forever. The method and mode of learning is constantly shifting, and we must all keep up. We have to agree upon that which is truly right, that which is truly wrong, and that which is truly needed. I can tell you this with certainty— to improve schools and learning, we need more than just data. We need consequences beyond test scores to hold students accountable. Once we figure out what the accountability should be, then maybe we can figure out how to truly measure the successes and failures of all involved. Herb Thompson is a Professor Emeritus of Education at Emory & Henry College, Emory, VA. He is currently President of the Association of Teacher Educators –Virginia.

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V irginia C apitol C onnections , W inter 2016

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