The Active Non-Learner

In Prof. Schmidt’s paper, he states, “Kohl frames this process as ‘not-learning,’ of the ‘conscious decision not to learn something that you could learn’ (1994, p. xiii). He sees this particular act that one engages in to protect oneself as well as to reject the world of others who challenges ‘her or his personal and family loyalties, integrity, and identity’ (p.6). He contends that student create a very particular space in which they choose to resist so as not to become ‘socialized in ways that are sanctioned by the dominant authority’” (p. 6).

We have all been in situations in the classroom where a student is not learning because the student has actively chosen to do so. In my elementary practicum experience, I had a fifth grade student who would sit in the back of the room and refuse to participate in any of the activities. One of the other students in my practicum team asked the student why he did not want to participate in class. The student answered, “I love computers. I’m not interested in music or music class. I don’t think you can teach me anything.” I often think about that student and how I can make music class worthwhile for him, instead of thirty minutes of a waste of time. I was never able to connect to that student because of the restraints of the practicum experience. However, I still agonize over how I could connect to him. Or, should I even try to connect to him at all? He is a happy intelligent child. Would music change his life? I believe it would, but I was not able to figure out a way to make him connect to my subject. I know he has the ability to learn music, he simply actively chose not to.

Prof. Schmidt discusses the process of actively not learning as an act against society and the dominant authority. I do not believe that the student in my elementary practicum was oppressed. However, I do believe that due to his identity, he found music worthless. How do I make it worthwhile for him? How do we, as teachers, avoid the active non-learner?