Cramming vs. Real Learning

By Cindy Reitzi

May 2004

How goose liver pate is made: cram the goose with food and keep the goose passive. This results in a fat-rich liver used in gourmet dishes.

With time constraints and demands, when teachers talk about covering material, I sometimes feel like we’re “cramming” content, just to get a little positive liver outcome. It’s fodder that will get digested but not last.

Teaching issues like these always beg the big questions like: “What’s important to teach?” and “How do we best use our time in the classroom?”

Teaching is full of contradictions and conflicting priorities. While much of our planning and grading time requires quiet introspection, our time with students and colleagues is social and extroverted. Our actual work space is extremely noisy and public as well. Though we are privy to confidential information about students, if we need to make a related phone call, most phones are located in large, very public rooms like teachers’ lounges or open departments. Adding to the paradoxes, teaching is creative work translated into the practicable and concrete. Classroom passion contrasts sharply with hours and hours of mind-dulling paperwork; and 12 months of work are squashed into nine. As one teacher put it, “It’s a schizophrenic profession.”

With all the push-pull of these contradictory forces, it’s sometimes hard to find focus. Time management experts would tell us to “delegate” time-consuming work that distracts our focus from our priorities (such as, say, copying, typing, grading, and calling) to (non-existent) secretaries for teachers. It’s often difficult to set priorities. Should I grade these papers, work on that lesson plan, call a parent, research the next unit, talk to a case manager, conference with a student about homework, or work with a student outside of class? (Helping the student always wins out for me).

I know I start to lose focus on my priorities when I feel like a grader not a teacher (and yet, all that paperwork needs to get done), and when I feel like I’m “cramming” students with knowledge rather than teaching them. It is usually when I lose some sense of relationship with students that I feel off-track. I have no magic bullet for how to educationally and emotionally connect with students, but for me it usually means taking time to meet with them individually, even for a few minutes. But how do you have enough time to cover the material and connect with each student when you have more than 100 students? Realistically, you can’t every day. But you can decide it’s important at least some of the time.

For me, individualized time is the most meaningful approach, if I can swing it.

One of the classes I looked forward to each day was a writing workshop I taught for one short semester. The classes were somehow graceful combinations of student, teacher and curriculum that simply fit. I didn’t love grading all the papers; I did love the opportunity to circulate and conference with students while they wrote. I could make sure they understood the assignment and were not frustrated. I could explain points that were individual to their papers, not just generalized writing tips. I felt like a better teacher because I wasn’t neglecting students. They, in turn, wrote better papers because they had time and my attention. I could ask a lot of them, and at the same time, encourage their writing.

And in the process, I got to know my students, their interests, and their writing in a short amount of time. This seemed like a powerful combination. I felt comfortable enough to let my guard down, admit my own mistakes, and even share some of my own writing. At the end of the semester, we felt bad the class ended. Students still tell me they miss the class, and I miss them.

With my 9th graders, I took a full week of in-class time to give students writing and conference time, and to teach them how to write an essay, one part at a time. The time paid off. Students who had never turned in a paper finally got enough help to do so. Most of the papers were also well-organized and answered the essay questions well.

When I take time to carefully teach, I don’t just feel like a grader, and maybe I benefit my students more. I’m not just cramming the goose with knowledge; I’m valuing my students as individuals and as learners. And if I really do my job right, I’m giving them hope that they can learn. Apparently, we remember only about 5% of what we learn in the long run.

Perhaps after students forget the actual content, they’ll remember their confidence to learn as one of the most important lessons of all.

Posted May 12, 2004