We have two full days of workshops coming up in November. I am glad that we are now being offered choices. For years, we were given stuff that had no bearing on what we teach at all. While I am concerned that there will be an elementary slant to this - it includes the sending districts - at least I can find something that at least looks promising.
However, there is the ubiquitous "team building" crap. Yes, crap. I am getting sick and tired of this team building junk being the hot new thing in education. Here's my perspective on this. Team building does not foster cooperation due to the fact that in all team building experiences I have been involved in, you are a member of a group that is competing with other groups. So, in essence, team building does not foster a climate of cooperation and camaraderie. What it really fosters is a climate of competition, valuing the end result instead of the process, knocking the other group(s)/team(s) down. I love basketball, but here's what team competition has done to that sport. You are not a part of a team for the process. You are a part of a team to win. If your team does not win, you get yourself traded to another team so that you can win. It is the same in all team sports. Is that an example of team building for the betterment of the community? No. At the end of a sloppy, nasty game, all anyone cares about is if it was a "W". Sure, there are no life consequences when I see this in a basketball game. Did the Spurs win? Yes? Well, then I am a happy camper. But in a school or town community setting? Hell no.
I have been given the "you hate sports, you don't understand sports and team building" speech. Oh, I do understand sports. Trust me. I have played sports. I did not come to these conclusions as an outsider. Some of what I believe and practice in my classroom comes from what I learned from my sports experience/coach. I just don't believe we need to be fostering this idea of competition and desire to be able to tell everyone you are winning. There is a loss in attention to and appreciation for the process. And that process is where the majority of the learning comes from. Are we teaching our students to work together to win a contest or to help others for a long term result? I volunteer with three organizations in my town/county. We work together on every single thing we do. We assist each other in a selfless way. That is something I have never seen in any team building atmosphere.
I have worked/studied in school districts that forced contests down the art teachers' throats. There is little beneficial pedagogical content. It is merely a means for the administration to tick a few more marks and lodge a few more W's. But at what cost? What is the benefit of a contest to the students? There is little room for creativity and growth. There is no attempt at mastery of skills. If you take a look at the jurors for many of these contests, you will understand my point. I prefer to have my students enter their work into consideration for publications and exhibitions. When published or exhibited, that is a successful endeavour they can learn and grow from. I might have group work in my classes, but I will never have team projects. There will be no contests in my class. There will be no voting for the best or the the winner.
Here is another thought: After the win, what is there? Where does one go from there? Another contest/competition? How does one take that win and make a positive contribution to his/her community? I have not seen that in my 15+ years of teaching and 40+ years of living. Yet when we work as members of the community as a whole to achieve a goal or improvement and we work together, there is a tangible end result. That end result hopefully is a positive contribution to the lives of the community that can then be built upon. The individuals who worked together in cooperation have learned from the process and the end result. I think that is much better than being able to text someone the you are "winning." Because, really, where can you go from there but down into self-absorbed isolation? That's not where I want to be and it is not where I want my students to be.
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