One of the most challenging issues in education today is the cultural trend towards instant gratification. In our society, patience is not encouraged. Why wait for a movie to be released, just stream it from a pirated site online? Why save up the money for a car when you can just finance it? Why struggle through a difficult task to master a concept when everything else comes so easy?
My students seem to think that learning should not be hard. And if it IS hard, that means there's something wrong:
Is there something wrong with them. "I'm just not a science person..."
Or maybe there's something wrong with the flipped class, "I can't learn from podcasts."
Maybe there's something wrong with me, the teacher, "I just don't like her style of teaching; I'm not learning anything."
But the truth is, everything else in our society comes quickly and easily or it's not worth having. Fast food, diet pills, plastic surgery, Urgent Care medical clinics (why make an appointment?), microwavable everything, take out a student loan instead of saving for years, no money down for a home purchase.
When learning something new takes time and patience and effort, my student become very frustrated. They would rather have me tell them the answers than work it out themselves.
Instant gratification has made my job very challenging indeed.
My students seem to think that learning should not be hard. And if it IS hard, that means there's something wrong:
Is there something wrong with them. "I'm just not a science person..."
Or maybe there's something wrong with the flipped class, "I can't learn from podcasts."
Maybe there's something wrong with me, the teacher, "I just don't like her style of teaching; I'm not learning anything."
But the truth is, everything else in our society comes quickly and easily or it's not worth having. Fast food, diet pills, plastic surgery, Urgent Care medical clinics (why make an appointment?), microwavable everything, take out a student loan instead of saving for years, no money down for a home purchase.
When learning something new takes time and patience and effort, my student become very frustrated. They would rather have me tell them the answers than work it out themselves.
Instant gratification has made my job very challenging indeed.
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