Schools are the Perfect Venue for a Circle Pit
“You are not punk anymore!” is what my wife yelled laughingly, hands at her side, palms facing the skies, torso bent slightly forward, and her beautiful eyes cutting through me! “Yes, I am. Punks not about the look, it’s a mindset babe!” “No, you’re not. Please stop calling yourself punk!” Then her body straightened, eyebrows raised, and I knew the conversation was over.
If you’ve read through some of my older blogs you know that I grew up listening to punk rock, skateboarding, and styling my hair with Elmer’s Glue. While yes, these are the traditional “signs” of a punk, it’s much more than that.
Punk rock is not just a bunch of young, lost, frustrated adolescents setting out to cause havoc every day. Punk rock is a mindset, and one that has a place, and needs to be, in our schools today.
Punk rock to me has not just been about expressing oneself, but about challenging the status quo, not accepting mediocrity. When one looks at a stereotypical punk, they see kids with growing pains (thanks Lagwagon!) The outsider gets uncomfortable. They begin clamming up, palms sweating yet body freezing. Sometimes their face forms as if they are looking at molded roadkill, nostrils inflamed from the rancid smell. Punk rockers are not a pleasant sight for those that aren’t familiar with their beliefs and ideals, and that needs to change, especially in our schools.
Too many of our schools are still delivering kids with antiquated methods. There are far too many trees being cut down for worksheets kids do not care about nor connect with. Much of the delivery students are receiving is how you and I may have gotten our education years and years ago. Today’s student is much different than when we were. Today, students have education literally at their fingertips every second of every day. The world you and I originated from is a myth to them. Kids will never understand what it meant to plan a road trip by studying maps, getting lost, sucking in your pride and asking a gas station attendant for directions. Kids will never understand why it was essential to study spelling words every week, when now everything they type auto corrects their misspellings. Kids will never comprehend the hours we put into a research paper, scouring World Book Encyclopedias, knowing and taking full advantage of the Dewey Decimal System to locate backups of our claims.
And this is all OK.
The world has changed, education has changed. What took us hours, days, and weeks to learn is now literally seconds away in our students' pockets. We need to accept that fact and make our classrooms and lessons more engaging, more hands on, more collaborative and exploratory. We need to ensure our students are prepared to work with others, rely on others’ strengths and accept their own weaknesses, and build empathy for all. This approach to education will ensure success for tomorrow. Our job is to prepare students to become successful and productive members of society. We must prepare students to solve today’s problems, and those of the future.
If we want to prepare our students for life, we need to get away from the suit and tie model of education. We must throw on our bomber jackets, get our liberty spikes sticking up with glue, and challenge the system. It’s time to take a different approach, one that is not popular or stereotypical. The alarm is going off to get punk rock again.
I will never agree with my wife that I’m not punk rock. My coat my sport a Northface logo instead of an Operation Ivy patch. No longer are my feet housed in Dr. Marten’s with plaid laces, but now reside in a pair of comfy Steve Madden’s. The hair on my head may be showing signs of gray, thinning and not sticking straight up in a mohawk. None of that matters.
With all of my heart I'm challenging the traditional belief of education, and it doesn’t get much more punk than that.
