Lessons from Learners

I grew up in a family of seven. After my father's murder when I was 8, my mother was forced to work 12-hour days, leaving seven children to do as they pleased. My older brothers didn't like school, so I adopted their attitude. Even as a kindergartner, I was removed from class because I didn't want to be there. My attendance record for my 9th grade class for a period of 6 weeks was 15 days in school.

The system seemed to focus on me and others as numbers, deciding how intelligent we were on the basis of attendance, grades, and GPA. This system made me very angry because people who didn't even know me were judging my intellect. I despised everything about school, especially teachers who taught “by the book.” It seemed at times that they didn't even understand what they were reading aloud to us.

However, I had two teachers who really inspired me to do well. My science teacher, Mr. Wong, helped me as much as possible. He didn't yell at me and give me grief about missing class; he compromised and gave me different work. Mr. Kruger taught me architectural design and mechanical drawing; I fell in love with architectural design because of him. When I showed up to class after being gone for three days, he would politely greet me and show me what I missed, and I excelled in his class. Mr. Kruger taught according to the attitude of the whole class; some days he would teach at the board; some days he would let us work away on our projects.

One of the reasons I think Eagle Rock is working for me is because of the individuality. I am not judged on my GPA, test scores, or grades because we have few tests and no grades. I am a learner—a person, not a number. Because we have small classes, we can find out how much each of us already knows about the subject. Then, if any student knows more than the rest of the students, that student teaches the rest of the class.

Hierarchy was a serious issue with me in my other schools. At Eagle Rock, the tables are round to eliminate any front or back of the classroom and to make us all equal. Teachers at Eagle Rock are tools rather than authorities. They are not worried if we doodle or lean back in our chairs; they are worried about our learning, whether or not we understand. Our history teacher invites us to attack his lectures. He creates board games, such as Concentration, so that we can remember Latin vocabulary, and Risk, so that we can remember American history.

No system will ever be perfect, but every system should give learners the tools to learn. That's education. It is our responsibility to use these tools.

—Patrick O'Friel, Eagle Rock Student

When I was younger, I never thought of school as a place to learn. I always thought of school as a place to be watched and told what to do. If teachers in my earlier years of school had emphasized the learning aspect instead of the discipline aspect of school, I would be much further along in my understanding of my education.

This is one of the reasons that Eagle Rock works for me and many other students. At Eagle Rock, the term “life-long learner” is used frequently. Obviously, students learn in traditional schools, but it's a different type of learning. Here, I want to seek out information for myself instead of waiting for someone else to spoonfeed it to me in the forms of lectures and dittoes. When I learn a concept from experiencing it, the concept becomes a memory—like going to the beach with your friends—something that you enjoyed and won't forget.

I remember being in 4th grade in a New York City public school and staring at a poster that my teacher had up in her room. It read, “Give a man a fish, feed him for the day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for life.” I didn't realize the irony at the time. There I was, sitting in a class while the teacher fed me only for the day.

For a teacher to instill in students the desire to direct their own learning, the teacher must first teach the importance of learning. At Eagle Rock, the whole system is built around the need for students to be self-directed learners. Teachers encourage working independently and they reward independent work with credit. They rarely give a direct answer to a question; they usually encourage students to find answers for themselves. Teachers at Eagle Rock also encourage students to teach whole classes, based on the idea that the best way to learn a topic is to teach it.

As far back as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. Specifically, I want to teach elementary school students in the inner city. Now that I am experiencing alternative methods of education, my desire to teach has intensified.

—Luke Sledge, Eagle Rock Student

Before I came to Eagle Rock, I learned to play the system. The private and public education system taught me that school was a superficial game to be won. This game was based on pretending to be perfect, pleasing others, and scoring higher than my opponents. My learning consisted of producing thoughts without thinking.

I attended classes merely to attain a grade that meant that I showed up, swallowed information, and regurgitated it. This is what I like to refer to as “educational bulimia.” I kept no personal or academic nutrition from the subject. On my report card, I seemed to be an excellent student who was involved and highly intelligent. But actually, I was an ignorant young woman who had no knowledge of self. I flew to an imaginary world of drugs where I lived in a blurry vision, where I felt alive. I lived a double life: superficial by day, fantasy by night.

I began to appreciate and utilize learning through my art and English teachers. They showed me how to find myself within my subject. They gave me my first taste of true knowledge. I decided to change my life to give it meaning and purpose. I came to Eagle Rock searching for those things. What I found was that through my learning I could give those things to myself.

I am not afraid to admit that I love to learn. The greatest gift of our lives is to learn and teach. However, the education system is set up for failure. The untamed wild curiosity of youth is wasted by teaching discipline and basic subjects.

Learning only needs one ingredient to make it meaningful: passion. Show students that they are what they know, and their attitudes will change. Finding the joy in my education was like returning to childhood, when imagination and creativity were a way of life. I believe that any person with passion cares about learning, whether they realize it or not.

If I were to advise a lost learner, I would say, “Find what makes you happy, share it, do what makes you feel alive.” That is the root of all learning.

—Hayla DeLano-Nuttall, Eagle Rock Student

In my other high school, I didn't get very much encouragement, and I just didn't care about what my teachers said. My peers gave me the encouragement that I needed, and I only cared about what they thought.

I have found that in a great many instances, teachers and schools fail to do much of anything to motivate students. Teachers often show up for the paycheck and then leave. They don't seem to love their jobs or the students. They are unwilling to see the light hidden in many; they only look at the talents that are blatantly obvious in some students. This is not to say that teachers are totally responsible for the attitudes or the work ethic or their students' desire to learn. However, teachers are responsible to teach in and out of class, just as an EMT would offer emergency medical assistance on and off the job, regardless of whether or not he or she got paid.

I can think of many times when a teacher could have made a difference and didn't. I spent several weeks trying to get my geometry teacher to help me after school. For a long time, he told me he would be there and he never was. However, in algebra I had a teacher who offered me help every day after school, and I passed because of what he taught me outside of class. As a teacher you have to ask yourself, Why am I here?

Here at Eagle Rock, the relationships between teacher and student are very different. We are all on a first-name basis, we eat together, and we know each other well. These things create a safe, more comfortable environment for students to learn in.

Things that work at Eagle Rock won't necessarily work at your school. I think, though, that it all comes down to how much effort students and teachers are willing to put out to help each other. A student has to want to learn, and the only way a teacher can help is by creating the most loving environment possible for the student to grow in.

—Shaun Meehan, Eagle Rock Student