Novelty in the Classroom

nov·el·tyNoun/ˈnävəltē/
1. The quality of being new, original, or unusual.
2. A new or unfamiliar thing or experience.                   via google.com

I believe that we have forgotten how to bring novelty back into the classroom. And this is a problem, a huge problem. It is the reason that kids drop out of school, it is the reason that kids fail classes, it is the reason that kids simply refuse to learn even when the teacher has them one on one. There is no novelty.

Novelty is what drives us to continue doing something, long after its “fun”. It was novelty that pushed Homer Hickam after seeing the first orbiting satellite to create his own, later becoming a NASA engineer. In a coal mining town where he was from, this was not the norm. People usually ended up working in the mines, like their parents before them. What changed? What motivated this kid to pursue a career that at the moment seemed hopeless?

Novelty.

It is defined as a new experience. He saw something travelling 2000 km above his head, and it simply thrilled him of the possibilities. It was this rush, this thrill, that motivated him to continue his pursuit. What if it was the other way around. What if you made him sit through hours of calculus class, what if you got him a scholarship at MIT for mechanics. Would it have caused the same amount of motivation that pushed one student to learn calculus overnight? I think not. You can have the best education, the best teachers, the best facilities, but without novelty, it is all useless. We can spend hours upon hours of learning how to teach, but at the end of the day if we cannot capture our students and inspire them to learn what we want to teach them, we have failed.

So how do we do this? How can we transform a ancient subject into something new and exciting?

I remember what brought me into the Linux world. It was the spring of 2008, and I was convinced that I was not going to upgrade to Vista. So I started to pursue other options. I remember a teacher at my school having a computer loaded up with Ubuntu, and I was simply thrilled with it. For a long time Windows user, any changes to the user interface is exciting. Later I found I could actually boot off of a USB, that I could hold my entire operating system on a single flash drive that I could plug into any other computer. It amazes me. Had I not have this experience, I do not think I would have plowed through tech problems of my own, and my friends after I installed it on their computers. When I load up my computer and look at the system monitor, I am reminded of why I do what I do.

Likewise I think we can revamp classes. Starting with a physics mechanics class? Show the students that you can calculate where an object will land off a ramp (without having done it before!). Show them the power of physics, the novelty of physics, before you teach them the “boring” equations. English? Show them pieces where one single literature piece caused an entire nation to change its course. Let them know the passion of an author before you teach them the basics of grammar. Let them know what the end is we are pursuing. Teaching Math? Find some real world example where you can actually save money by knowing math. This not only grounds the subject in the practical, but it opens the imaginations of the kids we are so desperately trying to prepare for the future. As Albert Einstein once said,

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

I simply find that we can do a much better job of reaching kids in our day and age. I believe education can be improved. I believe in a stronger curriculum. I believe in novelty in the classroom.