Just finished reading Katie Stansberry’s parody “10 Reasons to Ban Pens and Pencils in the Classroom” in Mind/Shift – an online forum which, according to curator Tina Barseghian “explores the future of learning in all its dimensions.”
Here’s a taste…
“According to a recent MSNBC article, 69% of high school currently ban cell phones. But you’d be hard-pressed to find a school anywhere that has enacted a blanket ban on pens and pencils. Here are 10 reasons to reconsider the widespread acceptance of these distracting and potentially dangerous implements.
1. Pens and pencils are distracting. The tapping, clicking, flipping and rolling can drive just about any teacher around the bend. I remember a happy indoor recess spent throwing newly sharpened pencils at the classroom ceiling trying to make them stick.
2. Writing implements are dangerous. I still have a small lump of lead imbedded in the soft, fleshy area between my thumb and pointer finger. It’s a souvenir from a mini-sword fight that occurred between my close friend and I in third grade. She won.
3. Pens can be used to cheat. Now that I’m at the head of a classroom instead of behind a desk, I’ve seen some ingenious cheating techniques. One student managed to write an entire history of media studies on the bottom of their shoe. I’ve also found forearms covered with vocabulary words, ankles tattooed with definitions, and hands dyed with smeared blue ink.” (more)
Very clever stuff. And it got me thinking. Seriously, it might not be such a bad idea. And while we’re at it, let’s keep all electronic devices out of the classroom as well. No laptops, notebooks, Androids, Apples or Abacus’ either. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Overkill? I think not.
As a former English teacher and current brand facilitator, I’d settle for anything that would support simple LISTENING. If there’s nothing on your desk but your folded hands and nothing in your hands at all, the default position just might be to LISTEN.
Remember lecture classes in college? Those huge theatres of learning with the professor droning and the students diligently scribbling and furiously turning to the next page so as not to miss a word? (Historical Note: I’m speaking here from my college experience in the days before electricity. Today it would be punching and scrolling.)
There was never a lot of actual LISTENING going on as I recall. We got the words down, but didn’t always pick up the meaning, the nuance. And if we didn’t think something was going to be on the next test, we didn’t scribble or listen. We just took a breather.
I’m sure it’s not that different today. It certainly isn’t demonstrably different in the corporate world of my current experience. I make it a rule to separate my client from all forms of distraction – from scribblers to tappers to cell phones to intercoms to ipads – in the singular interest of ensuring silence. Know why?
Here’s the clincher. “SILENT” and “LISTEN” each contain the same letters.
I know. Deep.
But here’s the thing. LISTENING is becoming a lost art. In the classroom and in the boardroom. In Parliament and Congress and the Oval Office as well. Listen to the news.
Here’s an idea. Instead of bowing to the pressure of formulating a response before the speaker has formulated a finish…instead of making sure you transcribe every word before you start actually thinking about the concept…instead of focusing on the expression of your agenda before you understand what the other guy’s is…try turning off everything but your brain and putting your empty hands on the desk and…
Let’s bring back LISTENING!
DO I DARE DISTURB THE UNIVERSE?
“There will be time, there will be time
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;
There will be time to murder and create,
And time for all the works and days of hands
That lift and drop a question on your plate;
Time for you and time for me,
And time yet for a hundred indecisions,
And for a hundred visions and revisions,
Before the taking of a toast and tea.”
Some of you will recognize this as an excerpt from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T.S. Eliot. Some of you won’t — and that’s OK…really. No poetry snob, me.
I simply wanted to throw it out there as a kind of end-of-the-year conversation spark…because we all find ourselves at one time or another — frequently at year’s end — questioning whether or not we’re running out of time. Seems there’s never enough of it. And if you’re a late bloomer to this dream actualization thing like I am — having phoned in more years than I’d care to admit to while immersed in what I whimsically refer to as a corporate coma — you might frequently pose the question “Do I have enough time to pull it off?”
In a short span of time, I’ve started my own business; seen it succeed; made it grow; written a book (and almost completed another); opened up more doors to my talents and potential than I ever thought possible. But I can never shake the notion that I’m still catching up…that I’m doing now what I should have done decades ago…that I’m never going to have as much time as I need to dare and develop all those things dreamed of in my newly enlightened state.
Sound like someone you might know?
It’s been a difficult, trying, challenging year for all of us. A dream squasher of a year in many respects, and many of us are questioning ourselves and doubting ourselves and thinking maybe it’s best that we back off a little and hold on to what we’ve got. Can’t argue with counting your blessings. But that doesn’t mean you ignore the options and opportunities and new dreams available out there, either.
“Do I dare disturb the universe?”
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.”
The answer is yes. Disturb the universe. Remember how you got here and make a promise to move forward. Dare to keep challenging and questioning and achieving. There’s time for it all.
