Is It Still Learning If You’re Miserable?

When people refer to a "good school," they usually mean a "rigorous school." I always found this a little perplexing.

What's the purpose of rigorous school? Classes that are hard and require hours of study? What does that produce in the end?

Unfortunately, I believe it produces people who are trained to follow orders backwards and forwards. Even if those orders are unreasonable.

During my master's degree, I had the most incredible music theory professor. The class was amazing.

It wasn't amazing because it was hard.

It was amazing because the teacher was so brilliant at the art of teaching. His ability to take a complicated subject and break it down so anyone could understand was unmatched. 

The only reason you would fail his class would be that you just weren't paying attention.

By contrast, one of my doctoral music theory teachers was what one would consider a "rigorous teacher."

The assigned readings were so dense and difficult, I could have spent weeks reading and still not really be able to explain the concepts.

In class, we were expected to have learned the material from the readings beforehand. Not much was actually taught in the class itself. But, we were ridiculed and derided if we didn't already understand it.

I managed to get an A in the class.

But, did I enjoy the experience? No.

Do I remember anything I learned in the class? No.

Would I do it again? Not by a long shot.

Yet, it was a challenging class. Doesn't sound like much fun, right?

As education evolves, we need to ask ourselves an important question. What is it we want our children to learn? And what do we want their experience to be like?

Will challenging them again and again with rigorous material foster a love of learning?

Or will it teach them that learning is supposed to be a miserable experience?

Worse yet, will it turn them off to learning altogether?

I prefer the version where students discover, learn, and grow without all the pressure that leads to nowhere.

Where their natural curiosity is fostered and they are taught how to love learning.

I believe that is where the exciting future of education lies. Now we just need to create it. One student at a time.