tüp walks into an empty classroom

i have 42 students in my speaking and listening class, from 7-9 on Thursday. today only 1 of them showed up for class.

4 groups of students came into my room about an hour before, asking if they had class. yes we have class. there is no reason for us not to have class.

the students are taking exams, 4 in total, over the next two weeks. for some reason, that means they will not be showing up for regular class, or that 1 of 42 is to be expected.

i don't know if i should blame the students or the educational system, but something is wrong here, and i'm stuck in the middle of it, wondering why i traveled halfway across the world and prepared a lesson and a creative assignment to walk into an empty classroom.

i believe in directly democratic education. i think good leaders lead by following and when i have power in a situation, like the classroom, i try to remember that. an ideal classroom, then, is run by the students' own intellectual curiosity.

but i can't practice democratic education if i don't have students, or if they democratically decide to skip class.

in my ideal classroom situation, students come not because of grades, but because they have something important to learn (it sounds obvious). John Dewey (who, ironically, visited Turkey and worked with Kemal Atatürk on modernizing the educational system) bases his educational philosophy on the idea of growing. education is growing. the teacher's job is to help the student grow and to create conditions for further growth (more learning) based on the student's own desires and curiosities.

i will admit that my class can be boring. some days i don't prepare as hard as i could have, some days i take on more or less conventional lesson plans, but really the problem is that either i don't know or don't agree with the reason students are in my classroom.

the Turkish educational system is like No Child Left Behind on steroids. the only real assessment is via standardized testing. just 10-15% of the students who want to go to a University are accepted and that acceptance is determined by a 90 minute standardized test (the test also determines which fields they can study in). the test is offered once a year and some students take it up to three times before being accepted (what do they do during that three years?).

before taking the exam, students go to Dersane school on nights and weekends for a year to prepare (usually while attending High School). Each year, families in Turkey spend more money than the Turkish Ministry of Education on Dersane, a school that teaches for and to the test (like the Kaplan prep classes- again on steroids). (with all that money they could fund real schools that fit every child who wants a real education.) I asked students if they learned anything in these schools besides how to succeed on the test, and they answered flatly, "no."

the now infamous William Ayers, in a recent interview, discussed the one thing that separated expectations of students in a Fascist and a Democratic society. students in both social systems, he explained, are expected to show up for class, do their homework, and respect their teacher. but in a Fascist society students are taught to conform, to believe that there is one universally true answer to every question- the type of reality one could use to fill in multiple choice ovals. in a democratic society, students are taught creativity, independence, the ability criticize and question, and to see themselves as part of a larger society, one that is historical, ideological, and complex.

let's make it clear that i'm not only critiquing the Turkish educational system. the United States, in the last 8 years in particular, is moving towards more standardized assessment, to teaching to the test, to the absence of history, complexity, and creativity- to simple minds and simple answers. the U.S. proclamation of democracy does not mean democratic education, far from it.

Alfie Kohn critiques the American education system for a "do this, get that" mentality. a system dependent on gold stars, As, and other meaningless rewards (like a well-paying job but no critical consciousness). Kohn on No Child Left Behind:

Let's be clear: This law has nothing to do with improving learning. At best, it's about raising scores on multiple-choice exams. This law is not about discovering which schools need help; we already know. This law is not about narrowing the achievement gap; its main effect has been to sentence poor children to an endless regimen of test-preparation drills. Thus, even if the scores do rise, it's at the expense of a quality education.

Genç Siviler, a student group for social justice, on the Turkish educational system:

Universities are lumber factories. This is the role the regime finds appropriate for them. You put different sizes of logs onto the chopping table and cut the standard sizes needed according to the demands of the country. This type of uniform production creates a human model that follows orders -- it does not matter whether it’s coming from right or left or center -- without thinking, and this human is ready to fight when called to duty. There is no creativity, no pluralism and no freedom of thought at universities.

i was the only teacher to not have an exam this week- high stakes testing doesn't fit with my educational philosophy. it is a good way to rank students, but that ranking will have little to do with their ability to act in society or to continue their education. for Dewey, education is in a lot of ways about the ability to continue learning- to grow and build on your education and apply it in real life. and standardized testing certainly diminishes that. all that buildup and then a purely meaningless release- an 83% and another round of memorization for all your years of study.

it is clear that my class, after studying all night for an exam, didn't have any motivation for the examless class. i can't fault them- the students are just being pragmatic materialists- there is no clear and quantifiable "get that" to the "do this" of my classroom, at least at the moment.

the question is what to do- do i punish my students with a written quiz, asking for 1,200 words in response to the question "what are you doing here?" and throwing out any student who speaks or looks up from their paper? do i not show up for class the rest of the week so they can feel what it's like to walk into a deserted classroom? (the students have a week-long break coming up in mid-December, but the majority of them, i'm told, will take an extra week off while i continue to walk into nearly empty classrooms- so i don't think adding to their lack of education is the answer). do i conform? make it easy on myself and start giving exams for people who don't think (most standardized exams are harder for those who do), and pursuing my own curiosities outside the classroom: reading, writing, working on art projects. a teacher with no ambition can gain a lot of free time.

and the sad thing is that the students respond so well to informal education when they are not bombarded by a series of exams (this assault happens 3 times a semester, leaving little time between to recover for real learning). my best classes have been done with students outside the classroom, in my office, or sitting down at their level and having discussions about topics important to their lives (like education, for instance) then i see them as creative and thoughtful- they are already so resistant to the form of education that demands sleepless nights of memorization and 50 minute sessions of pencil shaking recitation, i just wish they would show up for class and we could talk about it.