Experiential Learning - Good, Bad, and Ugly

Harper recently had a post about a couple of Texas teachers that were in the news. It seems that inspired the fine folks in Georgia to up their game.

First we have the ever-popular saga of a high school teacher 'sleeping' with one of her students. The catch here is that the teacher in question was just selected by her colleagues as Teacher of the Year. Guess they have different standards for that award in Georgia.

The second teacher was suspended for guiding students through a historical reenactment of racism in U.S. history. As part of the project, four students dressed up in Ku Klux Klan robes. Needless to say, this opened the floodgates to hysteria and overreaction (link 1 here; link 2 here).

Regarding teacher #1, there's nothing that can be said in her defense. She crossed a line that should never even be approached, much less stepped over. Nevertheless, what makes this especially sad is that this woman was by all accounts a good, dedicated, and caring teacher who evidently had difficulty coping with "mouthy teens, pushy parents and administrators who failed to support hard-working teachers." She reportedly had problems sleeping and lost some of her hair due to the stress. All this for a job that only paid her $35,600 per year. I'm not defending what she did, but it does illustrate the low pay and demanding working conditions that teachers endure.

As for teacher #2, there's nothing that can be said in defense of the idiots protesting and complaining about her. Here's a person who was honored last year by the Georgia Senate for teaching excellence using a well-regarded method to teach an Advanced Placement class in U.S. history. But thanks to the 'react first, think later' mentality of a bunch of overly sensitive idiots, her teaching career is in jeopardy. Yes, she probably should have told the students to take the robes off before they went wandering around campus, but that's not an oversight worthy of suspension. My God, people, is common sense in such short supply?

I should add that both my kids were fortunate enough to have history teachers who believe in the educational value of reenactments. They've done a school-wide reenactment of events from the Revolutionary War, and both of them did smaller class projects for the National History Day contest. They both made it to the state finals, and one made it to the national finals. Needless to say, we are blessed with extraordinary teachers here.

The point, however, is not the brilliance of my offspring. It's about how much they learned as a result of participating in these historical reenactments. Not only the bare facts (names, dates, and places), but the subtler nuances of context, contributing factors, and consequences. They also learned that if you want to succeed you have to work for it, along with valuable skills in planning, teamwork, public speaking, and so forth. It's these qualities that will (hopefully) help them succeed throughout life. That's what the Georgia students will be missing if the whiners have their way.