LEARNING WHAT THEY LIVE : not what they're told

John Dewey argued that children learn what they live. Teachers can talk at youngsters about the virtues of democracy, for instance, but if they live in a despotic classroom, the kids learn to adapt to, perhaps even need, despotism. The person who taught me most about the value of freedom and democracy way back in the 1950's, for example, was my fourth grade teacher "Miss Weast, the big fat beast." That's what kids called her behind her back. Feared by all, respected by none, she extorted compliance via credible threats and controlled violence. A ruler across the back of one's out-stretched hands, was her favorite. In time she went too far, even for those antediluvian times. She held a youngster against a hot radiator until he was sufficiently compliant. His burns did not get her fired as you might expect. But she was transferred to another school. Not before she had taught us kids the dangers of unchecked power, however. 

Here's another example from those same 'good old days' of the 1950's. Catholic schools of that era featured overworked, under appreciated nuns who were known for bullying, slapping and otherwise mistreating the children in their charge. Perhaps what these nuns had in mind was making better Catholics. The actual consequences were far different. Kids learned all that talk about Christian love, mercy and forgiveness was just that — talk. They also learned it's not what people say, but what they do that counts. A valuable lesson, to be sure, but hardly a part of the official curriculum.

Here's a last and current example. Imagine a classrooms where chaos makes learning and safety impossible. Where vast amounts of faculty time is spent struggling to establish at least some control. Students who aren't bullies come away from that experience longing for anything that will end the chaos and make them safe. They long for order, even the order of tyranny. The bullies learn that might makes right, that rules don't matter and that those in authority are either chumps or spineless wusses.

Do children learn what they live? Count on it.