Duty of educators in professional practice

Duty of Educators

In an attempt to appear hip, educators in high school and college are not only dressing down, they are teaching unconventional subjects that are informed by popular culture. For example, a music class will include a dissection of a Madonna tune, or a media class will break apart the gender implications of "South Park." Students often love their teachers and professors when they introduce elements of pop culture into their curricula, because they thereby avoid tackling the weightier academic issues. Due to rampant cynicism and boredom among today's youth, educators are trying their best to get their students interested in their subjects. However, educators aren't there to please, to become buddies with their class, and they aren't there to look hip. Elements of popular culture should only be inserted into school curricula when they directly enhance learning or when students can better understand core philosophies within a familiar context. For example, to teach about the physiological effects of watching violent imagery on television, in addition to having students read peer-reviewed academic articles, the educator could also have the entire class watch a horror movie while hooked up to equipment that measures their physiological responses. Still, students need to return to the basics, the fundamentals of solid education that allow them to have meaningful academic discourse throughout the rest of their lives. Such meaningful discourse arises from an educator who fearlessly introduces classical curricula into the classroom without worrying whether or not the students approve. Educators should be teaching what they know to the best of their ability, thereby exposing students to ideas they might not have reached on their own.

Educators should carefully build their curricula from the foundation of academic knowledge that already exists and that is currently accepted within the academic community. If literature students only read what they wanted on demand, they would choose Harry Potter over Homer's Odyssey. Harry Potter has its place in a course on the evolution of children's literature, but classics must always be inserted into the curricula because students will rarely pick them up on their own. Students of literature should at least in their first few years at a university be steeped in the classics, from epic Greek poetry to Shakespeare to Faulkner. There is a reason why certain works of art and literature have been studied for years, even centuries. Similarly, there is good reason for stressing the importance of peer-reviewed academic journal articles over Internet blogs. The peer-reviewed academic articles can be off-putting to students at first, but without them, academia would flounder in unproven assertions and opinions rather than on well-researched facts. Moreover, it is the express duty of the educator to expose students to core concepts of their discipline. For example, in the field of psychology the core concepts would include fundamental of psychoanalysis or cognitive science. A course in comparative economics would likewise not simply stress concepts that would be familiar to students but rather, should encompass the entire range of that subject. Also, it is the duty of educators to draw students' attention to concepts absent from popular culture such as issues related to class, gender, and racial discrimination.

Educators need to draw their curricula from the established annals of academic wisdom. Otherwise, students will end up not with a solid or useful education. By definition, an educator gets paid to teach, not to be taught. Students who try to direct the school curricula do so because they want the easy way out. Like spoiled children, students don't want to have to do the hard work that earns the rich rewards. As a result, instant gratification and taking the easy way out has become a cultural habit. Allowing students to ignore established knowledge would be like learning how to speak a language without ever conjugating a verb: it's easier, but it won't really work.

Teaching the fundamentals does not necessarily mean stripping the fun out of learning, however. In fact, the best educators know how to balance the wishes of students with core concepts. For example, teaching Homers Odyssey could include both a close reading of the primary text, an analysis of the text using literary criticism, plus an analysis of modern manifestations of the work, such as the Coen brothers' film O Brother Where Art Thou. Developing a broad-based curriculum can extend fundamental knowledge about literature, making that knowledge applicable to a wide range of literary works. When educators are able to incorporate popular culture into a traditional curriculum, their work becomes creative and powerful. Students who can apply themes and philosophies to works beyond that which they encounter in the classroom have really learned something. However, by simply mimicking popular culture, the educator deprives students of the ability to think critically. A student cannot engage in any meaningful discourse regarding classical Greek poetry without having first read Homer, and therefore it is the duty of the educator to instruct students in a traditional manner. The same is true for any subject matter. For example, engineering students cannot pass by calculus before building a bridge; students of American history have to read the Federalist Papers before they can make an educated comment on the quality of the current presidential administration. By first giving students a teacher-directed curriculum, educators provide the essential foundation for critical and creative thinking. Then, the educator can begin weaving elements of popular culture into a classical curriculum, not only to please students but to make their learning relevant and meaningful.