First Person
4 Things Teachers Shouldn't Be Asking Their Students to Do
By
Justin Minkel
Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben could have been speaking directly to teachers when he said, "With great power comes great responsibility."
As teachers, we can make kids do almost anything we want. They’re smaller than us. We have all kinds of power over them, from getting them in trouble at home to taking away the things that make school tolerable, like going outside for recess or sitting with their friends in class. But just because we can make our students do what we want doesn’t mean we should.
Children aren’t just smaller versions of adults. They are their own kind of being. They need to move, talk, question, and explore more than we do, because they’re in the midst of that mind-boggling explosion of cognitive, physical, and social-emotional growth that marks childhood in our species. When it comes to behaviors like staying quiet or sitting still, it doesn’t make sense to hold young children to norms better suited to adults, because the way they experience the world is fundamentally different from the way grownups do.
In school, we often ask children to do things that are unreasonable given their developmental level. Worse still, we sometimes ask them to do things we would never expect of adults.
Take these four examples.
1. Silence
Many schools expect a monastic code of silence while students are traveling the halls. The rationale makes sense at first glance, and it’s one I’ve explained to my class many times: "Other students are working right now, and we don’t want to disturb them."
Still, if I were a kid, I’d wonder: "If that’s true, why aren’t teachers silent in the hall?"
Every time I run into a colleague in the hallway, we talk together while we walk to wherever we’re going. We chat about anything and everything, from the chances we’ll get a snow day tomorrow to the latest season of "True Detective." This kind of conversation doesn’t seem to bother the kids working in classrooms off the hallway. Why would the voices of kids be any different?
Chatter in the hallways, or even the squeaking of wet shoes on the floor as a class returns from recess or P.E., doesn’t seem to bother most students. In fact, the only occasions when I’ve seen kids completely distracted by what’s happening out in the hall are those times when a teacher is reprimanding his or her class—often at a far greater volume than whatever commotion their students were causing to incur the reprimand.
We should take a close look at the times we expect kids to be silent in school. We need to distinguish between those times it’s truly for the good of the students, and when it has more to do with the appetite for control so deeply inculcated in adults placed in charge of children.
2. Sitting Still for a Long Time
"I literally sat down the entire day, except for walking to and from classes. We forget as teachers, because we are on our feet a lot—circling around the room to check on student work, kneeling down to chat with a student … we move a lot. But students move almost never. And never is exhausting."
For young kids, sitting still is even harder. There’s a lot we can do to make it easier on them.
• Build in strategies like
Total Physical Response for learning vocabulary, so students are moving while they learn.
• Let students get up—without raising their hand for permission—whenever they need to get a book from the class library, grab a pencil, or just stretch their legs for a minute.
• Above all, keep the teacher talk time to a minimum. A useful guideline is that students should be able to listen attentively for their age in minutes—five minutes for a kindergartner, 15 for a sophomore in high school. Save most of your words for conversations with students one-on-one or in a small group. Children, like adults, learn the most when they’re engaged in meaningful work—not sitting and listening while the teacher does all the talking and thinking.
3. Forced Apologies
I have definitely been guilty of this one. I’ll break up a heated argument, then immediately demand that one or both kids apologize to one another, while their faces are still flushed with emotion from their recent conflict.
The early-childhood program my daughter attended never made the children tell each other, "I’m sorry," because an apology extracted by an authority figure isn’t a true expression of remorse.
Forced apologies don’t seem to offer much satisfaction to the child who receives them, either—seeing the other child mutter "sorry" while glowering at his shoes pretty much never makes the recipient of the apology feel better.
Turbulent emotions take a long time to settle. We need to give kids that time.
4. Zero Tolerance for Forgetfulness
My friend and 1st grade teacher Cameron McCain has a great line when teachers start grumbling about our students: "It’s like we’re dealing with a bunch of 7-year-olds around here!"
His point is well taken. I get frustrated when Josh, who has been in my class for 17 months now, still forgets to check out a book or do his lunch choice when he gets to school. But like most adults I know, I’m a lot like Josh. I once turned on the coffeemaker without putting the coffeepot in first. (I didn’t realize what I’d done until hot, fragrant coffee started splattering onto my kitchen floor.)
I forget sometimes that not only are my students human, they’re really young humans. When they lose their lunch tag for the third day in a row, or ask the exact same question two other kids asked 30 seconds ago, we need to take a deep breath and offer them a sizeable dollop of grace.
Kids Are Kids. That’s Exactly Who They Should Be
We need to think hard about the demands we place on our students. Just because they obey the strictures we lay down doesn’t mean those edicts are fair.
We can’t expect the children in our care to behave like miniature adults. They need to move around more than we do. They need to make more noise than we do. They need to experience new concepts with their fingers, senses, and imaginative ability to consider not just the world as it is, but as it could be. Their curiosity, enthusiasm, and sense of wonder will never lend itself to straight lines and silent deskwork.
We spend so much time bending them to our way of doing things. We should pay more attention to theirs.
Justin Minkel teaches 1st and 2nd grade at Jones Elementary in Springdale, Ark., a high-performing, high-poverty school where 85 percent of the students are English-language learners. A former Teach For America corps member, Minkel was the 2007 Arkansas Teacher of the Year. In his instruction, he is focused on bringing advanced learning opportunities to immigrant and at-risk students. Follow him at @JustinMinkel.
COMMENTS:
Thanks for this article. So right, and so humane. I've always hated the authoritarian feel of silent lines in the hallway, or worse yet, the constant Responsive Classroom lunchroom training and loss of recess minutes because socializing kids won't stop, can't stop talking. On the other hand, I think the stress on silence is due to the fear in part on mass shooters and the need to be able to silence children and have them leave and go to places quickly. Less seriously, there are also many children who manage talk time and working time well, but others who are extremely poor at voice volume and transitions. I think flexibility works best, and although it's anathema in the U.S., stricter guns laws might allow for more freedom in schools.
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I disagree that the silence is due to fear. If that were the case then I would have been walking in quiet lines in school when I was a student. It was long before Columbine.
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Stricter gun laws? Seriously? Gun laws have precisely nothing to do with it. Kids being noisy (as they are prone to do, until they learn to regulate their own volume) are distracting to others and it's impossible to teach if everyone is talking at once. I say gun laws have nothing to do with it because when I was at school all these things were expected, there was no concept at all of school shootings, and we just did them.
I'm not sure what's changed - when I was 11 years old my standard class ran for 30-40 minutes and we were expected to sit still, be quiet and listen. Now apparently an 11-year-old is incapable of doing even half of that.
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You are a nice person, but you are in left field. The last silent school hallway I experienced was in a nun-run Catholic school 74 years ago that had 60 kids in a class. No public school hallway today is silent.
As for guns, we need a lot fewer of them and more rules about who can get them. But the latest mass shooting in Virginia Beach involved a "suppressor," which mutes the sound of gunshots. So we can forget about silent school halls enabling us to hear the sound of weapons being fired.
Otherwise, I am good with letting little kids move around more and sit less, have active recess time and not be strong-armed into making fake apologies to somebody who has just been a jerk. Mostly, I think little kids should be patiently and enthusiastically taught by someone who knows and loves the material being presented for mastery. School can be wonderful with a wonderful teacher.
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I disagree with Mr. Minkel in one way: it's unreasonable to expect any of those things for adults too.
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I agree with many of the thoughts in this article. Especially the comments about teachers talking in the hall. It bothers me every time I observe it, but then I find myself doing it too. On the other hand I see a difference between 1 or 2 voices in a hall and many voices. When teachers send groups to work in the hall and the students use normal conversational volume, it is almost always distracting and students need reminders to regulate volume. I work in a middle school and when we go as a group to another classroom I go over expectations after we "line up". "We are traveling as a group and our goal is to get to ______ quickly, without distracting learning that is going on in other classrooms. Keep pace with the people in front of you so we all arrive at the same time. Walk in a straight"ish" line on the right side of the hall so there is room for people traveling in the other direction. Use quiet voices, if you need to communicate with someone because many voices are always more distracting than a few." I think I may be the only teacher in my building who does this, but my students get where they need to be, and I rarely have to remind them about their volume or locate stragglers. I see this as similar to the zero tolerance idea. It's not about lowering expectations, but about being supportive in our responses.
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I think you are right-on! Even as a child, I could not learn in a noisy environment..some students can, some can't. However, most students are able to learn in a quiet environment. It is often necessary for me to close my classroom door, due to the noise in the hall.
I do agree that both students and adults should not be sitting all day long.
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Thank you for this reminder about our expectations. I know I can't sit still or be quiet all day either.
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It seems as if the big issue that this very good article has brought to the surface is about noise levels. I have been struggling with changes in noise levels in the school environment. The world our students live in is louder, with fewer opportunities for quiet. I witness an increase in stress levels and hyper-stimulation in children when they are over exposed to high noise levels for extended periods of time. It stresses their bodies and makes it more difficult develop self-regulation skills. Expecting silence is not realistic but what this discussion shows is that we need to examine the type of environments we are creating and steps that are realistic to give our children a living space that is balanced.
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There has been recent research that students need (fairly) quiet time to do their school work successfully. That includes my teenage son pulling those earbuds out when it's time to study.
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nmartin, I have to agree. Our students are losing the ability to even talk to one another without the noise escalating. There are times in life when we must be quiet, and it must be practiced. Students do need to learn about appropriate behavior for appropriate setting. Two teachers talking to one in another is not a valid comparison to 20 students all having their separate conversations.
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This is true. Listening to music is not conducive to reading to learn.
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Number 2. Kids are not "sitting animals". My third grader's teacher wanted him sedated because "he wiggles".
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Most adults including teachers would not want to be held to mastery of these four standards. Then, why do we expect children to fully master them and resort to punishment when they don't?
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1. Silence.
My class of kindergarteners is encouraged to walk down the hallways of school not talking. Our goal is to get from point A to point B-usually on the other side of campus. Conversations slow us down and lead to other mischief. I have yet to have a parent say our method of walking down a hallway has had any effect on their child.
Students don’t need to have their mouths in motion all the time. While that may sound harsh to some, we do students a disservice by not having times of mindfulness. In times of chatter, ask a student what was just said. Most common response: “What?”
Students do not know the difference between noisy chatter and quiet conversation. If students are sharing ideas about what we are doing in class at the moment, conversations continue. Most often the chatter becomes a distraction unrelated to the topic. That chatter is redirected.
2. Movement. I would add The Learning Station and Jack Hartman to the list of music and movement for students. Most of us in elementary school know the wiggles and when to put a song on. The physical movement does help students refocus.
3. Forgetfulness. This is a tough one. In some respects, forgetfulness for students is growing because they don’t have to remember anything. Parents do it all for them. At the beginning of the year students will tell me, “My mom forgot...” After they hear me respond each time with, “That isn’t your mom’s job,” they now say, “I forgot.” My response to that is, “Thank you for being responsible and telling me. Bring it in tomorrow.”
Kids are kids. At the same time, adults are adults and much of our responsibility is to help and guide students in becoming respectful, responsible members of society NOW, not when they have finished their education.
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Re: forgetfulness and parents "doing everything." Having raised two kids--one highly organized and one completely oblivious to thinking ahead about most things, I suggest that sometimes it is necessary to think about what we are trying to teach. At one point, one, among many complaints about my son had to do with arriving at the various places he was supposed to be without his required "tools." (things like pencils and papers). In once conference with his one-on-one math tutor (one-on-one actually meaning he was one of several students, each being tutored in something different, in a very small space (I believe it was once a closet) with a professional whose field was not mathematics. This professional complained about him arriving without pencils. I happened to have a box of pencils with me and handed them to her. Please, keep these here so that he will always have a pencil. We could alternatively put together a plan to teach him to carry all of his needed supplies whenever he was scheduled for time in the closet. Or we could focus on learning math. Personally, I preferred that the time be dedicated to math.
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From my perspective, what you are talking about is a classroom (closet) management issue. We have a container of pencils in the classroom for student use. At the beginning of the year a student or two will shout out, “I can’t find my pencil!” My response: “How can you solve that problem?” Usual reply is a blank stare. Pencil box is pointed out and we go on with our lesson. At this time of the year the only ones shouting out are new students, who quickly figure out, after one discussion, where the pencil box is.
One year had a note from a fourth grader’s parent: “Please excuse my son from not having his homework completed. I forgot to have him do it.” The student’s smile quickly disappeared when I explained it wasn’t his mom’s job to remember. He was very capable of remembering himself. I didn’t receive another note as homework was completed on schedule.
Your son was an individual situation that needed more practical support and encouragement. I’ve had all kinds of students and parents over the years and each is a student by student find solution. I am seeing more students come to school with a helpless attitude versus being very capable of managing on their own.
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I am a regular sub for a HS sophomore class. My first introduction, I tell them "my room, my rules", and that if they need to go to the bathroom or for a drink, no need to raise a hand, just go. That approach shows respect and trust. Getting from one end of the school to the other in 5 minutes is tough, and there's really no time to stop at a restroom. Understanding and showing them you care is a big first step.
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I work as a music teacher for ages 3-14. While i quite agree on the pushback against the expectation that Silence and Stillness are directly accomplishable for students. I have witnessed first hand remarkable achievements when there are taught as worthwhile skill sets with discreet accomplishable components. There are many flawed assumptions about what it takes to have both relaxed stillness, and Silence. They are both practices that can be modelled by someone who knows from experience, in a daily way of what it is to aspire to Silence and inwardly stillness oneself. If a teacher doesn't have a language for their practice of Silence and stillness they will never notice themselves talking in the hall when Silence is trying to happen.
One day I was singing old McDonald with some 3 and 4 year olds. I asked what animal they wanted to sing and a girl said,"Unicorn!!!". I looked over at the teacher who knew what that meant, and she laughed at me. The Unicorn's sound is silence. It is the most silent of the animals. I explained this to the children. I have worked for 30 years as a professional musician, and I have, for years, pondered how to explain, with words, the peculiar quality of Silence which will so a 3 year old can have practical access to that high state of consciousness which is the main aim of real musicians. I looked around the circle and said,"To have silence you have to do 2 things at the same time: you have to be quiet, and secondly you have to really HEAR the quiet." We tried it. We even tried just being quiet without really hearing the quiet, a kind of distracted quiet. It was actually bizarre. Each of the 24 children in the circle could hear the difference. We even found that if only one of us wasn't hearing it, it wasn't the same. We then sang the song. "And on that farm he had a Unicorn...." It was amazing. For the rest of the year that class knew how to Do silence. We're they silent always when it might have been better - no. Could they find silence on request - yes. I tell this story because, in my experience part of this breaks down to teaching real experiences, not abstract principles. The Key to Silence is the holistic self-awareness which comes from the natural direction of attention towards hearing the self in combination with the environment.The steps to this are things that a 3 year old can understand if you can find the right language and the right game to play to embody the experience.
There is an analogous experience when a child realizes that stillness is not tense holding, but actually one of the most active mental states combined the most poised, balancing body.
Taking the time to understand what prevents a child from coming to both state of silence and relaxed stillness can uncover, at times, difficult things to confront. Real causes of anxiety come to the surface, or conditions of sensory-processing disorder. Because this is about the child's relationship with their self, it is something a teacher should have a language and a way of play, a game structure they have used and discovered for themselves, that can be shared from experience.
The last thing I'll add is that I've tracked children over the course of a decade who have been presented ways of finding these qualities within themselves and the children who have this fostered within themselves have, across the board, higher executive functioning skills. They are more aware of how their own presence is part of the achievement of their work.
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So helpful to think of these skills as something to be modeled and taught through meaningful experiences and not as a punishment imposed. I'm not a musician but I practice Yoga primarily to still myself in silence for the final three minutes. Most difficult part for me! Same with really hearing noisy nature. Renewing, challenging, purposeful practices.
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A fascinating and beautiful description of stillness and silence. Surely this is something that can be practiced, taught and emulated.
Another point not mentioned here, some schools get rid of alarm-style bells to mark the beginning and end of the day and each class period. Surely this helps create a more serene environment.
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So many of us can use this as a reminder, particularly this time of year! #CSC622700
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Interesting article. As a substitute teacher for the past 26 years, I have had to strategize how and when kids can be silent. The funniest method to get them to walk quietly through the halls to lunch or to a special is to place kids on mute with my invisible remote control. Kids chuckle at first, but when I demonstrate moving my mouth without making a sound they catch on that being silent can "be fun". The mute walk to our destination ends as I release the invisible remote as their proceed quietly into the cafeteria. It works every time.
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Nobody's advocating that kids be allowed to run wild and do whatever they want. Several comments seem based on that misconception. Others understand what he means and have shared their experiences.
Children must learn how to behave, but there's a difference between compelling them and helping them learn. If a classroom has rows of smiling, obedient, quiet, children who sit with folded hands as the teacher speaks, it's either an animatronic display, or something horribly wrong.
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Every teacher should read this! Number 5 should be-- no homework.
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Your adult conversation outside my door about True Detectives is disturbing students while they're working. How in the world does being an adult make any difference? Don't do it. If you're a courteous person who cares about learning outcomes in your building, keep your voice down and model that behavior for your students. I've challenged my principal over this and I'm challenging you. Be. Courteous.
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Great read. I also see the discrimination when it comes to professional development opportunities. As educators we learn about allowing students talking breaks, allow them to move around. Yet, when it comes to adult learning we are talked to and expected to sit for six hours, go back to the classroom and apply a skill with little to no practice.
I have attended many awkward presentations where I have felt as if I was sitting in the back of my own classroom. The instructor has to stopped or has been waiting more than a few seconds for people to stop their side conversations, people whine and keep asking about lunch time.
After attending these presentations I am reminded of how the brain learns best and acknowledge that as adults we are still learning and require some of the same learning strategies we provide our kids.
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Anybody can forget occasionally, but the students, who forget as a habit, unless it is due to a diagnosed disability, need consequences. Why should they bother to remember things if there is no consequence for forgetting. Forgetting homework or books 3 or 4 days in a row, even for children, is not acceptable. And yes, I would make exceptions for special circumstances parents have explained. In 30 years of teaching I have had students and parents thank me for encouraging responsibility and teaching ways to keep from forgetting.
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Very enlightening, empowering, and humanizing. Every teacher must read this article, reflect on our practices, and transform our classrooms into places of purposeful and meaningful knowledge acquisition, creation, and dissemination.
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LINK:
https://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2019/04/08/4-things-teachers-shouldnt-be-asking-their.html?intc=main-mpsmvs
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