LEARNING WHAT THEY LIVE: the hidden curriculum

Years ago John Dewey tellingly observed that children "learn what they live." Teachers can gabble on and on about democracy, for instance. But if they run a despotic classroom, the kids learn to adjust to despotism. Possibly they even learn to need big brother. Dewey was precisely right. Children learn what they live. 

 

It's hard to overemphasize the importance of this "hidden curriculum." It is powerful yet often overlooked. Lessons unintentionally taught in this way can last a lifetime. For instance, the person who taught me the most about tyranny and abuse of power was my fourth grade teacher, Miss Weast . (Behind her back kids called her: "Miss Weast, the big fat beast.") Feared by all, this angry woman extorted compliance by means of threats and violence. A ruler across the knuckles of an out-stretched hand, for example. 

Eventually, she went too far. As punishment she held a youngster up against a hot steam radiator. His burns did not get her fired, as you might expect. But she was summarily transferred to another school. But not before she had unintentionally taught me about the abuse of power. I learned this lesson many years ago. But it still remains vivid.

Here's another example. This one concerns Catholic parish schools of the 1950's. In those places in that era some overworked and under appreciated nuns bullied, slapped and otherwise mistreated the children. My next door neighbor developed school phobia as a consequence. The girl herself had never been touched. But she still was terrorized by what she witnessed. I'm not sure what these nuns thought they were doing. Making 'better' Catholics, perhaps. But they certainly weren't making better Christians. What these kids really learned was that the sermonizing they heard about love, mercy and forgiveness, was only talk. They also learned that it's not what people say, but what they do that counts. Valuable lessons, to be sure. But NOT part of the official curriculum of any of those parish schools.

Here's a final instance. It involves the opposite circumstances that prevailed in Miss Weast's, classroom. Or those of bullying nuns. As part of my duties I used to occasionally visit schools where chaos made learning impossible and safety highly doubtful. Those in charge tried to manage the disorder. But they lacked the power and/or will to impose truly meaningful consequences. What do you suppose youngsters learned by enduring this chaos? That bullies rule? That might makes right? That trying to learn is futile? Take your pick. 

Do children learn what they live? Count on it.  

To examine these and similar issues further, see articles at www.newfoundations.com