Just recently, when a colleague of mine asked me how I tackled,
what she thought was a bit difficult class, particularly whether I gave the
students notes, I was taken aback, especially because literature should not be
taught through notes! I went on to tell her how I intentionally introduced
disruption into the class in order to promote a discussion related to the the
theme or plot movement, or even character analyses.
I wouldn’t blame my fellow teacher for assuming that the ideal
way to teach students is to give them notes, apparently, the students had been
given specific notes on their literature lessons by their grade eleven teachers,
and they had been specifically instructed not to stray from what had been given
in the notes!
The understanding of literature cannot in any case be promoted
through notes, and in many cases, the habit of critically analysing themes and
character traits can only come through the dialectical or Socratic method of
teaching.
In many cases,where the discussion fails to take off, the
teacher needs to let the cat amongst the birds so to say, in order to get the
discussion going. The role of disruption as a catalyst for Socratic Dialogue
cannot be underpinned enough! Disruption, in many cases can be a suitable
introduction to the topic that is going to be taken up in class.
Literature lessons dealing with social issues such as
linguistic chauvinism, child labour, social and racial discrimination, ethics of
scientific research can only be understood in a better way by making connections
between what has been written and what exists in the society. Take for example
the novel, The Invisible Man by H.G.Wells. It is fairly clear that the central
idea the drives the novel’s plot is the Ethics of Scientific Research. Now how
do you as a teacher bring students to understand the concept of Ethics in
Scientific research?
One way of doings this would be to tell the students a story
based on disruptive ideas. The story goes this way:
Suppose you were to have a rare gene that prevented cancer.
Imagine that you go to a medical agency to get your blood tested for a viral
infection, and the blood sample somehow ends up at a Multinational
Pharmaceutical company. The company discovers this gene and copyrights the DNA
and begins to produce a genetically engineered gene therapy to cure
cancer. Would the registration of the copyright for the gene therapy and the
identification of the DNA or the protein that prevents the formation of cancer
cells in any way mean that the Multinational Pharmaceutical Company has
ownership of the the individual by view of having the copyright of the gene,
DNA, and the therapy in their name?
The primary aim of introducing disruption into the pedagogy is
to stimulate critical,and analytical skills of the student, it is also akin to
setting a problem before the students that will in effect challenge their
mindset and accepted beliefs in view of making them divergent thinkers with the
ability of thinking creatively, divergently, and deductively. If the aim of
education today is to stimulate problem solving, critical analysis and inspired
learning then there is no other way than to introduce a little bit of
disruption!
Disruption is about challenging complacency in learners, it is
about questioning mindsets that are based on myths, and popularly accepted ideas
that go against reality! The group of students that I teach belong to a higher
income group, and these are learners who live in a bubble of security, cut off
from the harsh realities of life. When my head shortlisted a few short stories
based on harsh realities of life, the learners asked me why most of these
lessons were based on ‘morbidity’ and lacked the brightness of life. The
learners told me that the lessons had themes that were rather dark in nature and
therefore disturbing to read. It was clear that reading The Lottery, and Rose
for Emily, and even The Crucible had ‘jolted’ them a great deal! The idea behind
introducing such lessons was to introduce disruption as a means to prompt them
to understand that life is not a bed of roses!
Another instance where my school introduced an element of
disruption was when students undertook community service where they visited a
slum area and interacted with the residents and children of their age. The
students were astounded by the kind of poverty that they witnessed. They were
forced to do a re-think about what they thought about the idea of poverty. They
simply could not comprehend the hardships of poverty. They were touched by what
they saw, and were prompted to think about what they could do to help the
children of the slum. Their sense of security was challenged and they realised
that prosperity is rather ephemeral in nature, and that the true reality of life
is based on the fact that one cannot be secure in the feeling that one has been
born in an affluent family. The students were challenged to think about what
they would do if their families were to experience a downturn of luck and they
were to be told that their families could not afford the fees of an expensive
college!
The true purpose of education is to equip students to face the
harsh realities of life! It is all about promoting critical twenty-first
century skills and this can be promoted largely through the introduction of an
element of disruption into the mindsets of learners. The true role of an
educationist today is not to provide ready made solutions to the problems in
life through ready made notes, rather it is about equipping students with the
ability to arrive at solutions to problems that challenge accepted trends of
thought. The fact is that in most of the cases there are not fixed water-tight
solutions to the problems in life. We are living in a world where the truth
exists not in blacks and whites, but rather in shades of grey.
The fact is that in life there can never be fixed solutions to
problems and social issues in life. One has to exercise one’s own individual
ingenuity to solve a problem that might be presented to the learner. There a
saying that the ‘instant coffee approach’ doesn’t offer the best solutions to
the problems of life. It is often the bread-making approach that offers the best
solutions in life. Take for example the instance the short story, Should Wizard
Hit Mommy by John Updike where Roger Skunk goes to the wizard to find a
solution to the bad smell that he has, a smell that drives away his friends.
Would getting the smell of roses solve all of his problems? Roger Skunk thinks
that getting the smell of roses would solve all of his problems, his mother,
however thinks otherwise! She smells the scent of roses in her child and
reprimands him. She asks him who had dared to change the essential quality of
him as a skunk. He tells him it was the wizard and she proceeds to visit the
wizard. As soon as she meets the wizard, she hits him with the umbrella. Roger
Skunk, according to the writer is aggrieved by this action. The moral of the
lesson however, is that parents know what is best for their children because
they love them the most. The protagonist of the lesson, Jo is shocked by her
father’s twist in the story. Disruption apparently has taken its toll and she
rebels against her father’s twist to the story. She just would not like to
accept that to smell bad is an essential characteristic of a skunk. What her
father wants to tell her is that some of the best solutions in life are based on
an understanding and a respect of the essential characteristics of one’s
essential traits. To smell of roses would ultimately rob Roger Skunk of his
essential identity as a skunk.
The Central Board of Senior Secondary Education of India has a
number of literature based lessons in the English Core syllabus that introduce
an element of disruption that is mean to challenge the mindset of learners. Some
of the lessons that introduce an element of disruption include, Should Wizard
Hit Mommy by John Updike, The Enemy by Pearl S.Buck, and The Last Lesson by
Alphonse Daudet.
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