How frustrated can you get?

For a science lab a couple of semesters ago, I asked students to do a spreadsheet exercise to calculate how much energy we get from the sun here in Missouri. By doing this I hoped that they would understand solar radiation, develop useful Excel skills and work on a problem relevant to current debates about renewable energy. Three birds with one stone, the students are going to love it. And if at first they don’t succeed they can come for help to me, to the teaching assistant or to their peers: surely a win-win scenario. After about 20 minutes, one of the students stormed out of the lab: “I’m so frustrated I can’t take this anymore.”

Apparently, his mother is not a Tiger Mother, and neither is his professor¹. Maybe David Brooks is right²: he will learn more important skills by playing Frisbee with his friends than by being stuck at a terminal on a sunny spring morning. Between the response to Amy Chua’s article and the reports following the publication of “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses³,” it has been a soul-searching few weeks for educators. Thinking about my frustrated student, could I have coaxed him to stay longer? Should I have barred the exit to the classroom?

One of the challenges of teaching is that one size does not fit all: there are many roles a teacher can take, and these are continually changing. “Those who can, do; those who can’t teach,” as the saying goes. But Aristotle actually said something quite different: “those who understand teach.” Understanding what a student needs may be one of the hardest thing we do.

Benjamin de Foy, Saint Louis University. 11 February 2011.

1. Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior, Amy Chua, Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2011.

2. Amy Chua Is a Wimp, David Brooks, New York Times, January 17, 2011.

3. Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses, Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa, University of Chicago Press, 2011.