Learning About Learning

Here’s a revelation for you I bet you have never thought of before: people are the same everywhere! Probably not news, but still interesting to keep learning. People really are the same everywhere, they make the same jokes, they study the same things, they are interested in the same topics, they play with their kids the same way...it really is cool to keep encountering that. I’m no socio-biologist, but I think there may be something really fundamental about people and society buried in there somewhere...

The one big difference, other than how language sounds (even though everyone talks about the same things!), I found at school and that is: the professors.

For some context, I had a Spanish professor recently who came to our school directly from Spain to teach in the United States for a semester. This is not uncommon in foreign language departments, but what was more uncommon was that I spent a lot of time in the school cafés talking with him about his experience. What did he think of teaching American students? Was is what he expected? Was it any different from teaching Spanish students? And what is that like? How did he feel about our higher education system? Etc. And because he has numerous degrees in subjects such as education and sociology, our meetings were normally rather long. What was always consistent in his observations, though, related to a lack of effort. A lack of effort from the system as a whole spiraling down to a lack of effort from the students. He said this was most evident to him the first time he posed a question in class and received 25 pairs of eyes blinking back at him, making him first think maybe no one understood Spanish after all, but more importantly that no one cared. I was a little surprised myself and replied by saying, “really, well you should sit in on one of my communication classes; you won’t be able to get a word in.” We laughed and enjoyed making harmless fun of communication students for a few minutes but then I really thought about it and found he was right. Speaking out loud in class is not that common. I was wondering why this is the way it is until I started school here. It all lies in the professors. 

My first day we went around the class doing regular introductions, you know, your name where you are from, why you are in Spain. But what was interesting was that the professor moved in his chair closer to each person (not a single classroom in my school here has desks in lines, they are all in a u-shape) and really listened. Once you said the standard things, he would ask another question. And another, and another, and another! It took us an hour and a half to introduce about 13 people to each other. I could not believe it. And what’s more, all the students were listening, too. Asking questions. Laughing, reacting. It was great! I feel like I actually know my classmates...what a concept. 

This kind of classroom philosophy permeates into everything: every activity is done in pairs and everything involves hearing opinions (including, to my utter shock, the political opinions of one of my professors) and learning more about each other. Measuring in quantity, obviously we don’t get very much done, but when you measure in quality, every day is a good day at the office. 

I have always had my reservations about the education system in the States, but now I am at least a little less critical of my peers. Not that it is that fault of the professors, because I understand we have an elaborate system that is difficult to work around, but something tells me if the American students in question felt like people and not just students during class you would have a hard time shutting them up.