When I was a kid, I lived for the show Recess on ABC's Saturday Morning cartoon lineup. As an upper-elementary aged student myself, I could easily identify with what was going on in the lives of the 4th graders featured in the show. As I got older though, I realized the show's creators had lots to offer an older audience as well. Pop culture references abounded, students were actually symbolic of cliques and subgroups found in everyday childhood, and episodes were fairly deep allegories commenting on the educational system and political, economic and social structures. Seriously... what kind of cartoon showed 4th graders emulating the 1912 Presidential election or taught the concept of the "Haves and Have nots" through a playground economy of "MonStickers"? This show was such a staple of my Saturday mornings that it earned the distinction of being the only show I would bother to watch re-runs of. Since I watched the re-runs, I saw most episodes anywhere from 4-7 times on average, so the lessons the show was so subtly teaching me were filed away into my long term memory. This would become really important when I became a teacher myself and went through one of the most crucial parts of any teacher's career... figuring out my own personal "teaching style". I don't really know if ANY teacher can say they have one and only one teaching style. So much of the profession is completely fluid and changes from year to year, day to day, class period to class period. However, I needed some kind of basic philosophy to hang my hat on, and finding that basic philosophy was made easier because of the show Recess. On November 28, 1999 a new episode came out titled "The Dude". The episode was about a new student teacher, Franklin Dudikoff, coming to the school, but he was completely boring. I mean, he introduced his lesson with a cheesy joke about the "Shocking" field of electricity (OK, I would probably use something like that too) and then proceeded to read diagrams straight out of a science text book until the kids were asleep. The main character T.J. soon realized that that the student teacher was once a playground legend known for his legendary pranks and nicknamed "The Dude". Once his past was exposed, Mr. Dudikoff changed course in the classroom, realizing that stories of his past pranks were much more engaging and interesting to the students. However, teaching as "The Dude" was not getting any content across to the kids. They were laughing, but not learning. Ready to give up on the teaching profession completely, Mr. Dudikoff has an epiphany when T.J. refers to him as "Mr. Dude" after a heart to heart chat on the swingset. He realizes he needs to blend the fun goofy side with the serious content side to get the most ideal results. When the principal comes to see his class the next day, the kids are firing playground balls around the room simulating atoms in electricity, and are answering questions about what exactly is happening in the simulation. The idea behind Mr. Dude stuck with me, and when I became a teacher I swore to myself I would always strive to be like him. Of course I have had my fair share of "Mr. Dudikoff" days where I could tell my class just wasn't very engaging, and I have also gotten off track sometimes and morphed into something similar to "The Dude". When I hit the combination right though, man is it fun to be a teacher! Sadly, I know too many "Mr. Dudikoffs" out there that make school barely tolerable, and many classrooms are run by "The Dude" as well, trying to be a friend first and pushing standards and content far down the priority list. How do we fix it? Well, that's tough. Maybe making this episode of Recess mandatory viewing in teacher prep classes in Universities across the country would be a good start... or, maybe teachers could just make a commitment to honestly evaluate their teaching practices and find small simple ways to increase engagement and fun into lessons that just aren't holding student interest.
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AuthorJohn Honish: Archives
June 2021
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