Last year my students wanted to make a marketing video for do.think.learn that makes fun of the videos that their previous Heads of Schools had posted on YouTube. I want to call it Full Metal Learning. Our video would be part satire and part music video. What, you may ask, does Full Metal Learning mean? Well, it has taken me some time to figure that out.
In the Before Time, at a bike race, my friend Peter suggested that I rebrand do.think.learn with the moniker Full Metal Learning. This intrigued me. However, it took me the seventeen hour drive home and some quality shelter in place time to start forming in my mind what Full metal learning would mean. The term is a play on full metal jacket. It refers to a type of bullet (hard on the outside, soft on the inside) as well as a slightly disjointed Vietnam War movie. Ammunition is not my area of expertise, but I do like a good curmudgeon. To know what a Full Metal Learning school included, we started with music. This helped, but to get the process really going, I turned to Liverpool FC of the English Premier League to generate some coherent ideas.
In trying to understand what this concept might include, and after doing some digging into heavy metal music and English football, potential elements of Full Metal Learning include:
A Do It Yourself ethos (DIY)
An In Your Face attitude
Focus
Organization
Self-Awareness
I’m not really into metal, but I have an open mind. Metal, like the many different types of students, is a diverse genre of music. Some students are more Metallica, some are Primus, a few resemble Korn, and the ones who are too smart for their own good rep Tool. A good chunk of middle schoolers would go Icelandic full death metal if given the chance. Others would go more hiphop metal. This all got me thinking about two things. First, how often do teachers step outside their cottage of knowledge and learn from their students? Second, how does the underlying ethos of metal connect to learning and schooling? This essay focuses mostly on the second point.
A few years ago I learned about mumble rap, auto tune, as well as all the Lils and Uzzis in the rap/hiphop world. More recently my students have taught me about metal. Slowly I have learned about the thrash and death metal genres. I had no idea the full scope and diversity of metal in the world. Chris Tilyou introduced me to Black Sabbath in 5th grade. Jeff Sands cranked Iron Maiden and early Metallica before football games. Brett at Stone Gardens blasted Scandanavian death metal during Sunday night closing. Now my students have me listening to Lamb of God, Sepultura, Alien Weaponry, and Gojira. We’ve discussed the similarities between punk and metal; how in some ways punk evolved into metal after punk sold out; the nexus of hip hop and metal (Bodycount, etc.); and the San Francisco funk/metal scene (wait Primus is a metal band?). I don’t know if I was ignorant or just lacked appreciation for the scope and nuances of metal? Well, I’m starting to get it.
My favorite English football teams are Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. I also have a soft spot for Watford but that’s not important now. Both of those teams played a heavy, in your face style of soccer. In the early 80s when the Juelis family would watch Forest or Liverpool matches at the dinner table if our black and white set could get the UHF signal to work. This was perhaps the heyday of heavy metal football in England, which makes sense in a historical context. The Thatcher years destroyed many socioeconomic groups in England. In the UK and America punk and metal emerged in response to Thatcher and Reagan’s destruction of cities, opportunities, and the middle class). There was no shortage of angst. Football and music provided outlets for many folks. Fast forward 20+ years to when Jurgen Klopp arrived at Meyerside as the new coach at Liverpool, he stated that he “likes things loud” on the pitch and described his team’s style as “heavy metal football.” At the time this was what Liverpool needed to do to shake up their football culture and force their way into the minds of other teams. Heavy Metal Football emphasizes an active in your face style designed to rattle the opponent and engage the players in a system. Liverpool used this system to force their opponents into making mistakes thus setting up a counter attack. This system of play (like the music), also requires focus, organization, and stamina to stay on top of things. It also requires high levels of self-awareness and systems thinking. These characteristics bridge heavy metal music and soccer with Full Metal Learning.
As it turns out, the thrash or death metal I gravitate towards reminds me of punk bands I like (loud, fast, and sort of organized). The mix of the DIY let’s make it happen mixed with a bit of F@$k you does not appear in my marketing material. Yet many parents are looking for something different for their students. And many of us wouldn’t mind kicking unresponsive school systems in the pants. I never really thought of do.think.learn as kicking the education system in the giblets, but I kind of like the idea.
Our DIY approach means a “let’s shake things up” attitude that is rather appealing to us do.think.learners. do.think.learn is definitely a DIY learning environment. We have an office - a workplace among other professionals. School is our workplace. Students take on the responsibility of getting their work done and handling their various responsibilities. There is no hand holding. We set big goals and provide oodles of support to enable students to work towards their goals. We like a blend of independence, support, and reflection around what works/doesn’t work. Students have to organize their day and their due dates. Our school day is often a choose your own adventure schedule. I communicate goals, due dates, and daily responsibilities each morning. Students, either get done or don’t get it done. Either way the show goes on.
This in your face mindset also reflects our attitude towards schooling and the education system in general. My students don’t fit the cookie cutter most schools use to determine success. They’re smart, attentive, and curious, but the system doesn’t work for them or has cast them aside. So a good way to motivate students like this is to tap in to their resentment against the system. The in your face attitude does not pertain to how I interact with students. I’m rarely in their face, just in their business. Since there are never more than five students enrolled in DTL, by proximity (even during shelter in place) I’m in their business quite a bit. Proximity in a micro-school seems way better than being lost in the shuffle of 32 other kids in a class.
Full metal teaching and learning requires focus, organization, self-awareness, and organization. These however, are not strengths of the average middle or high schooler. Schools have to create a framework for learning that values and fosters these skills. Getting students to focus has become more and more problematic. Some of that problem is on students (or at least the impact of technology on them). Much more of that issue is the fault of schools. Are we, as teachers, expecting all students to focus the same way? Deliberate practice is not the only pathway to mastery. Perhaps we can expand our notion of what focus looks like as well. Are we expecting students to focus (or care) when they get talked at or have to learn outdated material? Maybe schools could do more to give students a reason to focus and care. For me, as long as students do not disrupt things and take care of business, that is all that matters.
Developing organization systems and skills remains problematic for most middle schoolers and a good many high schoolers. Part of that is developmental and part of that we can attribute to systems thinking. Systems thinking is another problematic area for middle and high schoolers. And again part of this is developmental, but schools can do more to help foster these skills. My preference is for students to create their own systems to organize their time, their things, and their work. If and when those systems break down, then we can address the issue and create new systems. Students seem to invest more in this method than being told how to organize their lives (although some do like being told what to do). My guess is that most middle school students have had it with being told how to do things or instructed on the ‘right way’ to do things and just want to do things their way. Understanding cause and effect, trends, and how facts or actions relate to one another takes practice. I once watched a 9th grader spend 20 minutes trying to figure out how to get cereal out of the box. As teachers we can create opportunities for students to develop systems thinking or better understand cause and effect (hello natural and logical consequences). This is where outdoor ed, gardening, and cooking experiences come in handy. Experiential learning or any set up that uses natural and logical consequences can help build systems thinking. Provide opportunities for students to have a meaningful say or control over how things play out and hold them accountable. Let them do it their way. If it works, great. If it doesn’t, no worries (unless it involves feeding large groups…). Either way reflect on the situation so that they know what worked, what didn’t, and why. This helps build effective systems and systems thinking.
Self awareness represents the last piece of heavy metal football and learning. Students have to understand that the world doesn’t revolve around them; or at least, that their actions create a ripple effect on the people around them. Individual actions have consequences. On the soccer pitch in the Liverpool scheme players are linked to the actions of their mates. On stage, the bass player is linked to the drummer, who is in turn tied to what guitar and singer does. If one person blows their assignment or isn’t paying attention, everyone has to cover for that lapse. The same thing happens in schools and at jobs. This is a skill that is actually transferable from school to life on the outside. Unfortunately, too many people walk around clueless and ignorant of how they impact the world right in front of them. Maybe we start with taking out the ear buds and going beyond the gated communities social media has created and recognize the interconnectedness of our lives. Getting students to understand how their actions impact their peers and the community might be another uphill battle, but the payoff would be huge. Schools can help students to minimize their impact or even change their impact on the world. Schools can do this. Let’s face it, addressing these issues will have a greater impact on more students’ lives than anything Algebra 2 has to offer them.
Do we rep Full Metal Learning? Not sure. Of the five criteria (a DIY ethos, In Your Face attitude, Focus, Organization, and Self-Awareness), traditional schooling would embrace three of them for sure (Sorry DIY and in your face are usually frowned upon). In the last few years DTL has looked at our punk roots, our hip hop credentials, and now the full spectrum of metal out there. We reflect all of those genres of music and maybe none of them. However, each of those families of music has a student who reacted against the status quo and lost faith in the system. I don’t know if my students really feel that way. I do know they want to get away from the bloated overproduction of schools. Do they want to kick the school system in the giblets? Doubt it. However, most days they’d settle for kicking me for not letting them settle. At do.think.learn we, as individuals and a group, will use this Full Metal Learning mindset to create our future..