Spring Break
Film illustrates student leadership in classroom
Anne Marie Merline
Issue date: 4/20/09 Section: Opinion
For the past few weeks, I have been thinking about leadership in the classroom from my perspective, but I have been so enamored by the students in my second-semester seminar that I want to again write about their leadership.
It is a fact that my students have been exhibiting leadership in the classroom all semester long.
I keep on thinking back on the movie "Mona Lisa Smile." This movie, set in 1954, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, chronicles that academic year through the teaching experiences of first-year art history instructor Catherine Watson.
Ms. Watson's high-achieving female students start the semester by reciting the textbook answers to her queries about the names, dates and the significance of pieces of fine art. It is the memorization of facts that most people in academia understand as educational success.
After failing to anticipate her students' readiness, Watson displays educational leadership by challenging them in another arena of learning. She comes to class the next meeting time and asks for the students' original thought and interpretation about "art."
The students are perplexed by her query, but Watson changes the focus of the course from "name this piece of art" to "what is art?" This allows the students to express their own point of view within the larger social context of human expression through art.
By the end of the semester, Catherine Watson's students have grown and are indeed using their own creative minds and interpreting art with the cognitive abilities that Catherine has inspired them to use.
My classes all semester have followed this latter model. Often, I barely have time to carry out my lesson plan because my students are taking the lead with the material.
Some might characterize this scenario as a lack of leadership on my part, but it is in my "professional opinion" that leadership also means knowing when to let go and let others take the lead. If the students take the lead with the material and the students are learning from each other, I consider this effective learning.
It is a fact that my students have been exhibiting leadership in the classroom all semester long.
I keep on thinking back on the movie "Mona Lisa Smile." This movie, set in 1954, at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, chronicles that academic year through the teaching experiences of first-year art history instructor Catherine Watson.
Ms. Watson's high-achieving female students start the semester by reciting the textbook answers to her queries about the names, dates and the significance of pieces of fine art. It is the memorization of facts that most people in academia understand as educational success.
After failing to anticipate her students' readiness, Watson displays educational leadership by challenging them in another arena of learning. She comes to class the next meeting time and asks for the students' original thought and interpretation about "art."
The students are perplexed by her query, but Watson changes the focus of the course from "name this piece of art" to "what is art?" This allows the students to express their own point of view within the larger social context of human expression through art.
By the end of the semester, Catherine Watson's students have grown and are indeed using their own creative minds and interpreting art with the cognitive abilities that Catherine has inspired them to use.
My classes all semester have followed this latter model. Often, I barely have time to carry out my lesson plan because my students are taking the lead with the material.
Some might characterize this scenario as a lack of leadership on my part, but it is in my "professional opinion" that leadership also means knowing when to let go and let others take the lead. If the students take the lead with the material and the students are learning from each other, I consider this effective learning.
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