By Lisa Nielsen.
Jeff Bliss got our attention when he shared his frustration with his teacher, classmates, and the world about his learning environment.
The now viral video captures a room of passionless students, some with their heads down, some with a facepalm, some staring into space, all silently sitting at their empty desks seemingly disconnected not only from each other, but also from their behind-a-desk-fortress teacher.
Jeff Bliss: [I’m tired of] hearing this freakin’ lady go off on kids because they don’t get this crap. If you can just get up and teach them instead of handing them a freakin’ packet, yo. There are kids in here who don’t learn like that, they need to learn face-to-face. You’re just getting mad because I’m pointing out the obvious.
According to classmate Colleen Hunt, “Everyone at our school is proud of him for speaking his mind and not being rude about it.” Jeff reignited a national conversation about the state of the educational system, the seemingly indifferent attitude of teachers and an administration that could allow teaching (or lack thereof) like this to go on in the classroom right under their noses. But many of those who work in or with, attend, and/or have children in schools, understand that in many cases it is not the teacher or administrator, but forces outside the school that has led to the development of the packet-driven classroom.
With this in mind, fast-forward to Jeff’s test-prep classroom, under his teacher, Ms. Phung. There it is, the perfect packet-driven classroom. Rows of desks. Walls devoid of student work or learning materials. Students sit at desks clear of all but a #2 pencil so there is ample room for packets and scratch paper.The teacher distributes packets, reads instructions, but does not teach. If students ask a question, stick to the script. The lines sound something like…”Reread the question. Do your best.“ Gosh, thanks!
Here’s something many of us know, but rarely say out loud: when it comes to packet teaching you don’t really need a teacher. Not only is a teacher not necessary for a “Pedagogy of The Test,” their teaching services are prohibited. Even after the students have drilled, killed and bubblefilled, their own teachers aren’t even allowed to grade their tests as this too can result in cheating… and the reality is, test scoring doesn’t need humans anyhow. Even in the 80s when I was in school we had bubble scoring machines and we are moving toward automated writing, speaking, and scoring systems as well.
When we put this Bippity Boppity Boo all together, what we’ve got is a Jeff Bliss teacher whose job is to create a sterile environment, distribute packets, read instructions, keep kids quiet, and collect their papers at the proper time.
We then realize that Ms. Phung was a model packet-driven classroom teacher. This is part of the reason why there was such outcry by educators when Jeff Bliss expressed frustration towards the teacher. If she is like most teachers, she likely thought she had signed up for a very different job, but the job changed, and eventually, so did she.
The problem, of course, is that this is not what students want, this is not what parents want for their children, and this is not the work that teachers want to do. Jeff Bliss summarized what our students want and need.
Unfortunately, when our eye is so tied to the prize, and that prize measures how well students sit disconnected from the world, unable to speak to each other or even the teacher and fill in bubbles, we will get teachers like Ms. Phung and classrooms that house Jeff Bliss.
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-packet-driven-classroom.html