The Flight From Teaching

At first glimpse, Turkle and Wesch couldn't seem more different. In "The Flight From Conversation," Turkle laments the way that "At home, families sit together, texting and reading e-mail. At work executives text during board meetings. We text (and shop and go on Facebook) during classes and when we're on dates." 

Meanwhile in "Anti-Teaching: Confronting the Crisis of Significance," Wesch opens his first paragraph lauding his use of YouTube for a class assignment. 

However, as you continue on, you can begin to see the convergence of their point of view. The 10th grader who tells Turkle that "he wishes he could talk to an artificial intelligence program instead of his dad about dating" is Wesch's student who "reported reading less than half the assigned readings, and further perceived only 26% of the readings to be relevant to [his] life." 

As I (thought) I finished, I couldn't help but be reminded of Suli Breaks's powerful spoken word video, "Why I Hate School But Love Education."

This made me go back and re-read each author again. This time, though, I highlighted points of similarity. And then replaced some of Turkle's words with some of Wesch's ideas.

***

We live in a technological universe in which we are always communicating. And yet we have sacrificed conversation for mere connection.

We exist in an education system which we are always trying to improve. And yet we have sacrificed meaningful exploration of the world for a relatively meaningless game of grades.

With the young lawyers in their cockpits, the office is quiet, a quiet that does not ask to be broken.

With the young students in their desks, the lecture hall is quiet, a quiet that does not include meaningful inquiry.

We can use technology to keep one another at distances we can control: not too close, not too far, just right.

We can use education to keep one another in places we can control: not too much knowledge, not too much power, just right.

It seems that over time we stop caring, we forget that there is a difference.

It seems that over time we stop pushing, we forget that there is another way.

Connecting in sips doesn't work as well when it comes to understanding and knowing one another. In conversation we tend to one another.

Test-taking skills don't work as well when it come to lifelong learning. By asking questions we tend to the crisis of significance and the narratives that motivate us.

We have confused conversation with connection.

We have confused learning with teaching.

We...seem increasingly drawn to technologies that provide the illusion of companionship without the demands of relationship.

We seem increasingly drawn to strategies that provide the illusion of knowledge, understanding, and growth without the demands of learning.

[Many] think of it as, "I share, therefore I am."

[Many] think of it as, "I teach, therefore they learn."

If we don't teach our children to be alone, they will know only how to be lonely.

If we don't teach our children to be learners, they will know only how to be taught.

Most of all, we need to remember...to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter and go silent, that we reveal ourselves to one another.

Most of all, we need to remember...to listen to one another, even to the boring bits, because it is often in unedited moments, moments in which we hesitate and stutter and go silent, that we learn the most.

So I say, look up, look at one another, and let's start the conversation.

So I say, look up, look at one another, and let's start learning together.

***

Though the topic of their writing is different, I'd argue that their philosophy about what is important in life is pretty similar. When making meaning of his World Simulation, Wesch writes, "the future is up to us." Turkle recognizes this too and together they (and I) hope that it is a future that uses new media and education for conversation, not just connection.