A few weeks ago I was filling some risers with chairs during strike from our musical.
About three quarters of the chairs were situated when the cast started congregating; I found the last couple racks, wheeled them in and started unloading them and sliding them into place (asking students to move from their ground-level seating).
After several minutes of work, one student noticed what I was doing and got up to help. He unloaded, I placed. But for the additional five or so minutes it took to finish the task, not a single of the fifty or so people in the room took the initiative to help.
This is not unusual. I’ve heard of students striking a set and asking a teacher “What should I do?” – only to be shown trash right in front of them to pick up.
I love many things about public education, and believe in it very strongly; but the lockstep model that all of these students have gone through has broken their initiative.
There is rarely ever a reward for finishing early, for going beyond, for dreaming an alternate solution. There is sometimes even a punishment or a demand that a student not work ahead. The amount of schoolwork is fixed: it is not based on competency, need, or any other metric than “this is what we are all doing.”
The end result is simple: students learn the meta-lesson is to wait. To do what they are told, when they are told, no more and no less.
The students in the room were universally good, thoughtful young people who would have leapt to help if asked.
Without the asking, they literally don’t know how to help.