Mr Mossman's Reflections
What has President Trump had to say about the Strait of Hormuz? What about the possible rat virus cruise ship? What is the Princess of Wales up to? How did a Kent repair garage help Kim Kardashian look nice at a gala? -and so on down a routine, rabbit hole of nonsense. I kid myself that I am raising my awareness but am in fact killing my attention span, whilst mostly learning nothing of importance. In this world of fast-moving information and digital noise, it is so hard to find the time and inclination to stop and pay attention to the world around us. True awareness risks becoming a dying art.
The ability to pay attention is obviously essential in the classroom. A lesson can be fascinating and the teacher a pedagogical genius, but if the student's mind is not in the room, then there is a real problem. The teacher becomes background noise – like the muffled honking whenever Charlie Brown was in class. It is a fact that young people inevitably have a lot going on in their heads: family, so many different subjects to learn, so much media to manage, and increasingly complex social expectations. In many ways it is a miracle that anything goes in!
And so, we as teachers try to find the answer. Some UK schools have come up with a questionable solution, utilising a model known as SLANT. This stands for Sit up, Listen, Ask, Nod, Track (the teacher with your eyes). Whilst recognising the importance of awareness, I am suspicious that this will be achieving very little – with the student acting out attention rather than actively engaging with their learning. I particularly find the nodding and track elements controlling and maybe a bit creepy. In reality, the best way for a teacher to gain attention from their students is to show their own awareness, to build excellent relationships, to make learning fun, to tell stories and ensure that learning appears relevant and necessary.
Global Citizenship at Kent College is designed to provide this relevancy, helping our students become aware of the world outside their immediate bubble. My Year 8 Global class have just produced an impressive piece of work on the impact of sweatshops on the fashion market. They have taken the time, researched, made their own graphs, and suggested solutions. They showed the ability to look inwards as well as out, demonstrating mature self-awareness of themselves as consumers.
Through such means and many others, Kent College students are given the time to be aware of the world around them and empathetically reflect on their place in their community, both local and global. They are aware that their perspective is never the only one and engage in intellectually critical but also respectful dialogue – and, in this noisy and chaotic world we couldn’t be prouder of them for it.