Xavier.

If this is so — if the problems of the classroom have their root outside the classroom — then the solution will not come by change in classroom technique.

I don’t think Treisman lets us off the hook in our role as teachers to the same extent you do. As a teacher, I can’t ensure students are well-fed, living with a supportive family or included in a positive peer group outside my classroom. Agreed, there. But this particular post takes teachers to task for their conviction that some students are simply beyond engagement. That attitude lies completely within a teacher’s own purview. It should be challenged and corrected.

I do understand why that assumption would be present here. This is a place where teachers congregate (I among them), and we of course look to change what we control.

I do grant that there’s some truth to this assumption. Some technique is better than others, and we teachers ought to all strive to continually improve in this regard. But the primary cause of low student achievement has its root cause outside the classroom. This is documented is great detail in Uri Treisman’s 2013 “Keeping Our Eyes on the Prize” address. If you haven’t yet watched it, you owe it to yourself to do so.

If this is so – if the problems of the classroom have their root outside the classroom – then the solution will not come by change in classroom technique. I do not suggest that we teachers should become quiescent and simply accept the status quo. I suggest instead that we ought to do what we can to change the world outside the classroom. This is our duty as teachers and as citizens.

To put it a bit dramatically, we should be on the streets. And our students should be there with us. I had hoped that the OWS movement would grow into a force sufficient to remake our country and make it more just. But it seems to have fizzled. Perhaps we can reignite the spark.

Corny as it sounds, don’t give up. The first and second and tenth attempt at -whatever it is that’s a very different approach in your class – a 3Act, a project, a whatever it is — is probably going to either fall flat or fail spectacularly. The kids might get mad and weirdly uncooperative. Things might happen that you didn’t anticipate and don’t have the skills to handle. You aren’t going to get good at planning them until you get some experience planning them. You’re going to suck at this for a while.

The worst thing to do is freak out because you think no one learned anything and go back to your comfort zone. If I hear one more time “Oh I tried something like that once, it was a disaster, so it’s not for me or my kids,” I might pop that person in the mouth. ONCE? Weak. So weak. Stop freaking out. Notice and celebrate little authentic victories over broad, superficial ones. Don’t try to do something radically new every day — pick a thing and do it once a week for a whole semester. You need to keep stretching the rubber band over and over until it loosens up and doesn’t snap back all the way.