Typically, class today went something like this:
I explained in great detail the way ionic compounds are formed from the atoms in the periodic table. Now, this is not a difficult concept to understand; in fact, in years gone by it was routinely taught in junior high, and students could easily master it. Today however, a significant number of my students were not successful, and they told me in no uncertain terms that they could not understand what I was teaching.
What is happening here? Are the students less intelligent than those of previous generations? Has my teaching become vague and unclear? The answer to these is, “no”.
What has happened is that students have learned to be helpless. What I mean by this is they have a psychological condition that I call, “Learned Helplessness”.
“Johnny, it seems you’re not doing your assignment. What is wrong?”
“Well, Mr. S., I don’t understand how to do it.”
“Well, O.K., let’s start at the beginning. Where in my instruction did I lose you?”
“The whole thing, Mr. S. I can’t understand the way you teach.”
“That’s strange, during my presentation you did not ask a single question. Why didn’t you stop me and ask me to clarify what I was telling you?”
(No response from the student.)
“Johnny, I did notice that when I was speaking your attention did not seem to be focused on my instruction. In fact, I think it safe to say that you were daydreaming and not present at all. So, it’s no surprise to me that you cant’ understand the way I teach if you are not present enough to hear a word I am saying.”
“Johnny, tell me the truth, when I was teaching were you reliving the past, or anticipating the future, perhaps you were looking forward to school being out today, and grabbing some food from the fridge, or maybe you have a date tonight that is on your mind? Hmmm? Because your attention was certainly not in the instruction. No one can teach you unless you are present in the felt moment of immediate experience.
“Johnny, do you see how you are attempting to transfer the responsibility of learning away from yourself and blaming me for your lack of attention?”
“Huh? I don’t understand what you mean! I was doing my work Mr.”
“Johnny, your true work is to visualize what I am telling you and integrate that permanently into your own world model. In our world of information today, this is the only true power education can give you.”
“Mr. S., I can’t do that because I can’t understand anything you say.”
“Well, did you understand what I just told you?”
“No. It didn’t make any sense at all”
“Was I speaking in English? Did I use words you are unfamiliar with? Or, are you just in denial, of your own behavior?”
“What? Leave me alone, Mr. S. You are crazy!!
I just want to do my work.”
O.k. let’s talk about what’s going on here. Johnny has a typical and common case of “Learned Helplessness”. He has discovered the power in claiming to not understand something. He then is no longer responsible for learning and transfers the blame to the teacher.
And he has also learned that this strategy works. Teachers are helpless to combat this syndrome because they don’t understand the fundamental principles and significance of present moment consciousness. Our society today does not have a good grasp on this model. Because our culture doesn’t accept and embrace this reality, students then take over the classroom and many, many teachers lose their jobs. The majority of administrators take the path of least resistance and support insane claims of the students.
This isn’t just a high school classroom phenomenon, it carries over into higher education and the workplace. Recently, the top official responsible for recruitment to the U.S. armed services stated that they can no longer find enough qualified recruits to train as competent soldiers, and officers.
But no one had a clue as to what to do about it!
A fire Chief I know reiterated the same lament, explaining that after training firemen for decades, he suddenly can’t find anyone now whom he trusts to learn the job.
Learned helplessness is so pervasive it is undermining our entire society, and the root of the problem is a lack of present moment consciousness.
