America has evolved into a fear based society. Schools and education reflect this phenomena.
If you don’t believe me - just watch the headlines that pop up regarding education. Lately academic related headlines scream about test scores, catastrophic learning loss. Still don’t believe me - listen to what parents say and watch what they do. In some parts of the country parental fears start with, “How will my kid get into …?” “What if they don’t…” Such statements reflect parental anxiety around an imaginary binary concerning elite colleges and the shame of raising an unsuccessful child. In other parts of the country, those fears manifest in book bans, anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-anti-racism policies, or just run of the mill bullying of teachers. Schools respond to parental and societal fears with fear based behaviors of their own. Generally this comes as CYOA reactions. Fearful of tantruming parents or lawsuits, schools operationalize bland policies or inflate grades in an effort to avoid setting anyone off.
In education, the push and pull created by our fear based society does little for students and for actual learning. Most schools exhibit the characteristics of a Performance Culture and not a Learning Culture. This means that the community emphasizes outcome measures and not process measures. Performance Cultures work well for businesses but may not be the best model for education. And while school is the workplace of youth, we don’t need to treat students as employees and perhaps we need to stop modeling schools after the organizational systems of various businesses. In school, emphasizing outcomes over process often creates Fear Based Learning (FBL).
The presence of fear usually results from an individual or group having little power within a community. Students make up the bottom of the school community hierarchy and as such they have little control/power over their learning. While some students and groups of students have more power than others, this article will not parse out all power dynamics amongst students at this time.
With that in mind lets; drill down a bit to focus on how Fear Based Learning impacts students. I would argue that FBL takes different forms, but you’ve probably witnessed most of them. For some students FBL revolves around seemingly positive consequences - great grades, high test scores, being popular, crafting the ideal college resume, and getting into the ‘right’ college. These students can begin to imagine worst case scenarios if they don’t perform at a high level and soon their anxieties evolve into fear. Students who focus on their grades or test scores commit almost entirely to the outcome or product of their learning and not to the process of learning. They participate in learning only long enough to get it onto a test or essay booklet, but retain little. Other students engage in FBL only to avoid negative consequences. These students just want the grades to appease the demands placed upon them by their adults. So they go through the motions, skim the surface, and fulfill their obligations and avoid being hassled.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally too many students learn out of fear rather than curiosity or intrinsic motivation. That’s not really learning at all.
Fear Based Learning creates a card house of knowledge. The slightest breeze knocks the entire structure to the ground. Perhaps using the Three Little Pigs homes will best illustrate this misnomer. The majority of schools provide an education in which their students construct knowledge represented by the first home of straw. The ‘better’ schools might help their students build homes of sticks. These homes reflect FBL. However, not many schools focus on the building process. Few schools enable students to construct knowledge like the third little pig’s house of bricks. Houses of wisdom made of brick can withstand the pressure and demands of any big bad wolf. The quality of learning built from fear will always lack the depth, strength, or power of real learning.
Students who embrace learning; those who take risks; and those who engage in the learning process experience school way different than the FBL students. These students don’t always get into Yale or Stanford. They don’t always get the highest scores on their papers or tests, but they do dig in and wrestle with the material more. Not to make light of an eating disorder, but quite a bit of successful school resembles disordered consumption of knowledge. Students gorge on information - dates, names, formulas, etc. - and regurgitate that information on their exam. The information is not absorbed; the ideas not savored; and the process involves a range of harmful physical and emotional damage. Unfortunately this type of learning is viewed by many as normal. Yet most people don’t blink an eye at disordered learning.
For the last five to ten years young adults entering the workforce have often struggled in many areas including collaboration, initiative, and creativity. Without someone telling them exactly what to do, these employees do not know how to move forward with their tasks. Education is not the only cause of these issues, but schools could do more to prepare students for the demands of their future.
As a number of people have already suggested this, but we need a new normal for teaching and learning or for how school gets done. School could be an additive community instead of a subtractive institution. Caring could replace control. How a student learns could be valued more than what a student learns. These are potential pathways into a better tomorrow. Unfortunately, until students have more power - more control over their learning- Fear Based Learning will continue to dominate schools.