"I don't get it!"
I hate it when students say that.
"I don't get it."
What is that statement really? I've always seen it as a way for a student to avoid the responsibility of having to learn something. Scenario: A teacher has just explained in exhaustive detail every step in the process for solving an algebra problem, complete with diagrams, written explanations, and an annotated example on the overhead projector. The class, but one, begins to work on the assignment, which is a collection of problems just like the sample. Every resource a student would need to successfully complete the assignment is there: sample problem, annotated examples, textbook explanation, diagrams, and a teacher. That one who isn't dutifully trying to finish the homework looks around dumbly and announces to no one in particular but loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear: "I don't get it."
And what happens? Some critical classmates scowl and return to their own work. Others lean over to find out why and maybe try to explain. Sometimes a teacher will even pop up and run to help. What should happen? A giant foot should descend from above and squash that kid so the rest of the class can get their assignments done. Students have learned (through a lifetime of enabling) that when they say "I don't get it!" other people step in to solve their problems for them. "I don't get it," really just means I don't want to try. "I don't get it," means Do it for me.
I know some of you are now saying, "Hey! Wait a sec! Sometimes I really don't get it! I'm not just being lazy and avoiding responsibility!" And that's true. Learning is challenging. School is all about things we don't get. The point is to develop understanding of things that were mysterious or unknown to us before we arrived. And I have no problem at all with students who don't get it but who TRY to get it, those who will engage their brains and seek answers using their own critical skills and available resources. My problem is with the lazy, spoiled, overweaned ones who don't really want to understand; they just want the time to pass without pain. They want credit for the assignment, but they don't want to learn what the assignment requires. They take no pride in their own understanding. They don't care if they don't know. So they say, "I don't get it," and other well-meaning folks jump in to solve their problems for them.
So, why the rant on "I don't get it"? Because I found myself saying it this morning. Yikes! It's rubbed off! I'll tell you what made me say it, but first I have to lay down some background: I have a classroom website that is, if I do say so myself, fabulous. Everything my classes do is recorded there: Every assignment, every journal topic, every handout, every presentation. My website is an integral part of the way my class runs. Most days, we begin with the projected image of our daily assignment page on the screen at the front of the room. Whereas some teachers write everything on the board, I click links on the website to show students the resources, handouts, and assignments. The only thing I haven't yet tried is actually recording the class proceedings and putting them out there as podcasts and videos...and that is next on my agenda. With me so far? This website is everything a student would need to find out what we did in class, so, from the first day of school, I go to great lengths to make sure that my students know about this resource. It's on my disclosure in big letters. I mention it at parent-teacher conferences. I make the students start from my website every time we go to the lab. In short, there is NO WAY students in my class can not know about my website. NO WAY.
Yet they still come to me and ask, sometimes after extended absences, "Did I miss anything?" or "What do I have to make up?" or "What did we do when I was absent?" Sometimes they will even send me e-mail asking those questions, when it would be easier and less time-consuming for them to just use their Internet time not sending e-mail but actually looking at the website for the answers they claim to want! Argh!
By this time in the year, every student who has been absent has heard me rave about how it is easier on everyone if they look on the website to find out what they missed because the website is more reliable than I am. I may not remember everything we did in class two Wednesdays ago, but the website has it faithfully recorded. Don't ask me, I say. Check the website! But still they ask me. And as the end of the term draws near, they realize their grades are in jeopardy because they still haven't completed that worksheet from six weeks ago when they went to Hawaii or from three weeks ago when they had the swine flu. But this isn't what made me say "I don't get it." I fully understand why students do this: They don't want the responsibility of having to actually look up the work and complete it. They want to be told. They want to be reminded. They want me to be the bad guy, the mean old teacher that is making their life miserable by forcing them to do all those assignments that the rest of their classmates had to do. And they cling with a desperate hope to the possibility that maybe if they just ignore it, the missing assignment will somehow go away. It never does, nor do I ever let them escape responsibility. And usually by the end of the first semester they have all figured out that in my class, the only way to get missing work and make it up is by checking the website because if they ask me, I am going to go spazmaniac on them. That part I understand.
Here's what I don't get: Why do parents who have already graduated from ninth grade, and who should be hoping for their own children to do the same, not only allow but encourage those children not to accept any responsibility for themselves or their learning? The e-mail I received this morning was polite and respectful: My daughter has been sick, it said, and we'd like to know what she has missed so that we can make it up before the end of the term. Pretty innocent, right? No need to get all crazy, Thompson! It's a fair question. Except it's not. See, I've received three other such e-mails from the same parent (and countless more from many others with similar concerns) and I have responded to all of them with an equally polite reminder that EVERYTHING we do in class is ON THE WEBSITE! I have, on each occasion, sent the website link in the e-mail so that to click it takes the viewer directly to the missing assignments. I have said, three times now(!), that there is no reason to worry or get upset over missing work because all the work is available to anyone with an Internet connection (which they clearly have because I keep getting these e-mails!). I've gone to ridiculous lengths to ensure that even students who are not in class have access to everything they need to complete all the graded assignments. All the student (not the parent, but the student) needs to do is -- here's the catch -- complete the work and turn it in as soon as possible. But that never happens. Missed assignments pile up. Weeks pass. Nothing is ever turned in. And another e-mail arrives, same question as before.
I don't get it!
"I don't get it."
What is that statement really? I've always seen it as a way for a student to avoid the responsibility of having to learn something. Scenario: A teacher has just explained in exhaustive detail every step in the process for solving an algebra problem, complete with diagrams, written explanations, and an annotated example on the overhead projector. The class, but one, begins to work on the assignment, which is a collection of problems just like the sample. Every resource a student would need to successfully complete the assignment is there: sample problem, annotated examples, textbook explanation, diagrams, and a teacher. That one who isn't dutifully trying to finish the homework looks around dumbly and announces to no one in particular but loudly enough for everyone in the room to hear: "I don't get it."
And what happens? Some critical classmates scowl and return to their own work. Others lean over to find out why and maybe try to explain. Sometimes a teacher will even pop up and run to help. What should happen? A giant foot should descend from above and squash that kid so the rest of the class can get their assignments done. Students have learned (through a lifetime of enabling) that when they say "I don't get it!" other people step in to solve their problems for them. "I don't get it," really just means I don't want to try. "I don't get it," means Do it for me.
I know some of you are now saying, "Hey! Wait a sec! Sometimes I really don't get it! I'm not just being lazy and avoiding responsibility!" And that's true. Learning is challenging. School is all about things we don't get. The point is to develop understanding of things that were mysterious or unknown to us before we arrived. And I have no problem at all with students who don't get it but who TRY to get it, those who will engage their brains and seek answers using their own critical skills and available resources. My problem is with the lazy, spoiled, overweaned ones who don't really want to understand; they just want the time to pass without pain. They want credit for the assignment, but they don't want to learn what the assignment requires. They take no pride in their own understanding. They don't care if they don't know. So they say, "I don't get it," and other well-meaning folks jump in to solve their problems for them.
So, why the rant on "I don't get it"? Because I found myself saying it this morning. Yikes! It's rubbed off! I'll tell you what made me say it, but first I have to lay down some background: I have a classroom website that is, if I do say so myself, fabulous. Everything my classes do is recorded there: Every assignment, every journal topic, every handout, every presentation. My website is an integral part of the way my class runs. Most days, we begin with the projected image of our daily assignment page on the screen at the front of the room. Whereas some teachers write everything on the board, I click links on the website to show students the resources, handouts, and assignments. The only thing I haven't yet tried is actually recording the class proceedings and putting them out there as podcasts and videos...and that is next on my agenda. With me so far? This website is everything a student would need to find out what we did in class, so, from the first day of school, I go to great lengths to make sure that my students know about this resource. It's on my disclosure in big letters. I mention it at parent-teacher conferences. I make the students start from my website every time we go to the lab. In short, there is NO WAY students in my class can not know about my website. NO WAY.
Yet they still come to me and ask, sometimes after extended absences, "Did I miss anything?" or "What do I have to make up?" or "What did we do when I was absent?" Sometimes they will even send me e-mail asking those questions, when it would be easier and less time-consuming for them to just use their Internet time not sending e-mail but actually looking at the website for the answers they claim to want! Argh!
By this time in the year, every student who has been absent has heard me rave about how it is easier on everyone if they look on the website to find out what they missed because the website is more reliable than I am. I may not remember everything we did in class two Wednesdays ago, but the website has it faithfully recorded. Don't ask me, I say. Check the website! But still they ask me. And as the end of the term draws near, they realize their grades are in jeopardy because they still haven't completed that worksheet from six weeks ago when they went to Hawaii or from three weeks ago when they had the swine flu. But this isn't what made me say "I don't get it." I fully understand why students do this: They don't want the responsibility of having to actually look up the work and complete it. They want to be told. They want to be reminded. They want me to be the bad guy, the mean old teacher that is making their life miserable by forcing them to do all those assignments that the rest of their classmates had to do. And they cling with a desperate hope to the possibility that maybe if they just ignore it, the missing assignment will somehow go away. It never does, nor do I ever let them escape responsibility. And usually by the end of the first semester they have all figured out that in my class, the only way to get missing work and make it up is by checking the website because if they ask me, I am going to go spazmaniac on them. That part I understand.
Here's what I don't get: Why do parents who have already graduated from ninth grade, and who should be hoping for their own children to do the same, not only allow but encourage those children not to accept any responsibility for themselves or their learning? The e-mail I received this morning was polite and respectful: My daughter has been sick, it said, and we'd like to know what she has missed so that we can make it up before the end of the term. Pretty innocent, right? No need to get all crazy, Thompson! It's a fair question. Except it's not. See, I've received three other such e-mails from the same parent (and countless more from many others with similar concerns) and I have responded to all of them with an equally polite reminder that EVERYTHING we do in class is ON THE WEBSITE! I have, on each occasion, sent the website link in the e-mail so that to click it takes the viewer directly to the missing assignments. I have said, three times now(!), that there is no reason to worry or get upset over missing work because all the work is available to anyone with an Internet connection (which they clearly have because I keep getting these e-mails!). I've gone to ridiculous lengths to ensure that even students who are not in class have access to everything they need to complete all the graded assignments. All the student (not the parent, but the student) needs to do is -- here's the catch -- complete the work and turn it in as soon as possible. But that never happens. Missed assignments pile up. Weeks pass. Nothing is ever turned in. And another e-mail arrives, same question as before.
I don't get it!
posted by MRT at 7:27 AM
4 Comments:
I get it. It's learned helplessness. The students who pipe up with "I don't get it!" in class have learned (from peers, parents, and, yes, even from well meaning teachers) that someone will do things for you if you feign helplessness and/or ignorance. Make yourself pathetic and you might generate sympathy. The problem is that if you do it too often and you find it works, you'll discover that you aren't just pretending to be dumb. You actually are. Parents use strategies that have worked for them to help their kids "succeed," even if that means teaching the kids that it is easier to just keep asking for the work than it is to actually do it. Show them that you really care! Show them you're trying! Just keep harping on that missing work so they know that you are really serious about getting it done. Whether you get it done or not isn't the point. Could this be it? Is this what is at the heart of "I don't get it"?
I think so.
I agree with Biff. I think that's DEFINITELY why they do it. I still think it's stupid, but it makes sense. It's sad but true.
As a student in the ninth grade in Mr. T's English class, I never realized what a blessing his website was! Now that I'm in high school, I've come to face the sad truth that there are some teachers out there who just do not care. If you missed the assignment, too bad! That's life! I hope that the "I don't get it!"s learn to take advantage of a teacher who would like to see you succeed.
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