THE WRITING ON THE BLACK T-SHIRT READ, “What if the Hokey Pokey really is what it’s all about?” The gray ponytail hair and goatee beard on the balding head of the 50ish year old man wearing the shirt gave the appearance of a modern day, aging Faustian character Mephistopheles, the Johann Wolfgang von Goethe‘s devil magician. The 50ish year old man wore his black sense of humor confidently.
The “What if” phrase challenges assumptions and beliefs that religions tell of purposes for life. The full sentence offers the magic of the Hokey Pokey to replace these beliefs.
The Hokey Pokey exists today as a derivation of hocus pocus, a pretend magic incantation used by parisheners in the past to mock priests conducting Latin Mass and the misunderstood activities of scientists.
Do teachers do The Hokey Pokey in classrooms as parisheners reportedly did in church? Do teachers substitute for scientific facts their own form of hocus pocus or other magic in their lessons? Have they made through their lessons a Fasutian bargain with the devil?
Arguably, from a learners’ view, too many lessons offered by teachers appear as, probably unintended, parodies of scientific descriptions of what people do to learn. Teachers do not plan lessons in order to apply these descriptions. If you doubt this claim, ask teachers to tell you step-by-step through a lesson which scientific description they apply in order for students to complete a lesson successfully and promptly.
Instead, teachers and other educators appear to rely on The Hokey Pokey to connect their instruction of the content of a lesson with what learners do to complete the lesson successfully.
The resulting normal curve distribution of academic performance indicates that chance (hocus pocus), not applying scientific principles of learning, link instruction, content, and learning in classrooms today.
Do you accept the use of T-Shirt Wisdom(TM) of The Hokey Pokey as adequate for teaching in today’s classrooms? Do you want results from your taxes going to public education to rely on chance?
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Last Edited: September 21, 2015