Joyful learning can flourish in school-if you give joy a chance.

Steven Wölk

Two quotes about schoolingparticularly resonate with me.The first is from John Dewey'sExpeñence and Education (1938):

"What avail is it to winprescribed amounts of information aboutgeography and history, to win the ability toread and write, if in the process the indi-vidual loses his own soul?" (p. 49). If theexperience of "doing school" destroys chil-dren's spint to learn, their sense of wonder,their curiosity about the world, and theirwillingness to care for the human condition,have we succeeded as educators, no matterhow well our students do on standardizedtests?

The second quote comes from JohnGoodlad's A Place Called School (1984), Afterfinding an "extraordinary sameness" in ourschools, Goodlad wrote, "Boredom is adisease of epidemic proporüons. -. .Why areour schools not places of joy?" (p. 242). Now,a generation later, if you were to ask studentsfor a list of adjectives that describe school, 1

8 EnucATíüNAL LEADERSHIP/SEPTEMBER 2008

doubt that Joy_fui would tnake the list. Thehearts and minds of children and youngadults are wide open to the wonders oflearning and the fascinating complexities oflife. But school still manages to turn that intoa joyless experience.

So what can schools and teachers do tobring some joy into children's formal educa-tion? Children typically spend from six toseven hours each day in school for nearly 10months each year. During the school year,children generally spend more time inter-acting with their teachers than with theirparents. What happens inside schools has adeep and lasting effect on the mind-sets thiuchildren develop toward lifelong learning.

Dewey's point about the destructive powciof our schools should make us ask ourselvessome fundamental questions: What is thepurpose of school? What dispositions aboutlearning, reading, school, the world, and theself do we want to cultivate? Ask youngadults why they go to school. You will hearnothing about joy.

«SUSIE FÏÏÏHtJGH

1 am not using the word joy as asynonym iorjun. For many children,having Fun is hanging out at the mall,watching TV text-messaging theirfriends, or zipping down a roller-coaster. Having fun certainly brings usjoy, but students don't need to be havingfun in school lo experience joyAccording to my Random Housedictionary, Joy means, "The emotion ofgreat delight or happiness caused bysomething good or satisfying.'̂ Surelyour schools can do some of that. Joyand learning—including schoolcontent—are not mutually exclusive.Many of our greatest joys in life arerelated to our learning. Unfortunately,most of that joyful learning takes placeoutside school.

As educators, we have the responsi-bility to educate and inspire the wholechild—mind, heart, and soul. Byfocusing on the following essentials, wecan put more joy into students' experi-ence of going to school and get more joyout of working inside one.

J0Y1:Find the Pleasure in LearningWhy do people leam? I don't meaninside school—I mean learning as a partof lite. Surely a large part of our learningis necessary for survival and a basicc[uality of life.

Bui there is another, entirely different,reason to learn. Learning gives uspleasure. This kind of teaming is often(but not always) motivated from within,and no outside forces or coercions areneeded. We also don't mind the possibledifficulties in this teaming. We oftenexpect the challenges we encounter; wetend to see them as a natural part of theleaming process, so we are far moreopen to taking risks. Some love to leamabout cars, others love to leam abouthistory, and some find great joy inlearning how to dance. According toMihaly Csikszenimihalyi (1990), such

By helping students find thepleasure in learning, we canmake that learning infinitelymore successful.

leaming is an example of flow, which hedefines as

the state in which people are so involvedin an activity that nothing else seems tomatter; the experience itself is so enjoy-able that people wiil do il at even greatcost, for the sheer sake of doing it. (p. 4)

If we want students to experience tnoreflow in school—if we want them to seeschool and leaming as joyful—we needto rethink how and what we teach. Nolonger can schooling be primarily aboutcreating workers and test takers, butrather about nurturing human beings(Wölk, 2007). By helping students findthe pleasure in leaming, we can makethat leaming infinitely more successful,

JOY 2: Give Students ChoiceOutside of school, children are free topursue their interests, and they do sowith gusto. They leam how to playbaseball or the drums; they leam how toice skale or play video games; they readcomic books, graphic novels, skate-board magazines, and Harry Potter.

But during a typical six-hour schoolday how much ownership do studentshave of their leaming? Practically none.It's not surprising that iheir interest inleaming dissipates and that teacherscomplain of unmotivated students.

Joy in iearning usually requires someownership on the part of the leamer.Students can own some of their schoolieaming in several ways. They canchoose ihe books they want lo readthrough mdependent reading. In

writing workshop, wecan inspire them to bereal writers and choosefor themselves whaigenres to write in.Dunng units in maih,science, art, and socialstudies, they can choosespecific subtopics tostudy; then, as "experts,"they can share iheirleaming v̂ nth the class.Sludenis can also choosewhich products theywant to create todemonstrate iheirleaming. What bringsmore joy—studying thecivil rights movement inthe United States through a textbookand lectures or creating comic books,writing and performing plays, inter-viewing people to create podcasts, andproposing your own ideas? Whichwould you rather do?

I advocate giving students one houreach day to study topics of their choicein what I call "Exploratory" (Wölk,2001). In Exploratory, teachers collabo-rate with students to help shapestudent-initiated ideas into purposeful,inquiry-based investigations. Duringthis time, students are scattered aroundthe room, absorbed in an endless varietyof topics that matter to them. While onestudent is studying the life of ants, asecond is researching the workings ofthe FBI, and a third is exploring the lifeof Frida Kahlo. While two studentswork together to investigate the history

10 E D U C A T I O N A L L E A D E R S H I P / S I I P I C M B E R 2 Ü 0 8

of soccer, another is engrossed insurveying adults on their opinions ofvideo games. Exploratory' can teachstudents thai school can be a place thatnurtures curiosity, inspires them to askquestions, and helps them find the joyin learning.

JOY 3:Let Students Create ThingsPeople like to make stufT. Havingcontrol of our work and using ourminds and hands to create somethingoriginal give us a tremendous sense ofagency. There is a special pride inbringing an original idea to fruition. Itempowers us and encourages us; ithelps us appreciate the demandingprocess of creating something fromnothing.

The list of what students can createacross the curriculum is virtually limit-less: newspapers and magazines,brochures, stories, picture books,posters, murals, Web sites, podcasts,PowerPoint presentations, interviews,oral histories, models, diagrams, blue-prints and floor plans, plays and role-plays, mock trials, photographs,paintings, songs, surveys, graphs, docu-mentar)' videos—the list goes on andon. At its best, school should help andinspire students to bring their own ideasand creations to life.

J O Y 4: Show Off student WorkOur schools and classrooms should bebrimming with wonderful, originalstudent work. School spaces thai aredevoid of student work peqDetuate a

sterile and joyless environment, 1 tell myteacher education students that the wallsof their classrooms should speak tolieople; they should say exactly whati;oes on in that space throughout theschool day. I can tell what teachers valueby simply walking into their classroomsand lookitig at the walls.

The same is true for a schoolbuilding. My son. Max. is in 4ih grade,and his school. Augustus H. BurleySchool in Chicago, is a joyous place tovisit. The hallways and classrootns arefilled with remarkable student work,and ihere is rarely a woriisheet in sight.The teachers also show off the studentsthemselves. There are photographs ofstudents next to their favorite books,above their posted work from writingworkshop, and next to the doors ofsome classrooms,

J O Y 5: Take Time to TinkerGever Tulley has started a uniquesummer school in California called iheTinkering School. His blog describes itthis way:

The Tinkering School offers anexploratory curriculum designed to helpkids—ages 7 to 17—learn how to buildthings. By providing a collaboraiive envi-ronment in which 10 explore basic andadvanced building techniques and princi-ples, we strive to create a school wherewe all learn by fooling around. All activi-ties are hands-on, supervised, and at leastpartly improvisaiional. Grand schemes,wild ideas, crazy notions, and intuitiveleaps of imagination are, of course,encouraged and fenilized. (TuUey, 2005)

A S S O C I A T I O N F O R S u r t R v i s i O N A N D C U R R I C U L L I M 11

At Tinkering School, students areallowed to dream. They come up withtheir own ideas for an object, and thefaculty and staff help them sketch,design, and build it. When have youseen a public school that encouragedstudents to come up with "grandschemes, wild ideas, crazy notions, andintuitive leaps of imagination"? In fact,schools actually work to prevent thisfrom happening.

Our school days are too planned,leaving no room for spontaneity andhappenstance. Kindergarten is the lastrefuge in school for letting kids tinker.Once they enter 1st grade, studentsmust banish the joy of "fooling around"viáth objects and ideas and, instead, sitat their desks most of the day listeningto lectures, reading textbooks, andfilling out worksheets.

Sometimes the best ideas come iromtinkering—and teachers, not juststudents, should be doing more of it.We must push beyond the teacher-proofcunûculum the textbook industry hascreated, which tries to plan everysubject for every hour of the day Farfrom being think tanks or workshops,our schools continue to be assemblylines. We need to free teachers to takerisks, experiment, play with the art ofpedagogy, and feel the joy that comesfrom tinkering with their teaching.

JOY 6:Make School Spaces InvitingWhy do classrooms need to look somuch like, well, classrooms, with desksin rows or arranged in groups, with achalkboard or whiteboard at the front?

When 1 walk into a classroom in myson's school, 1 usually see a space thatlooks a lot like a family room. There's alarge rug, a class library vAih the best inchildren's atid young adult literature,bean bags, couches, comfortable chairs,pillows, colorful curtains, fabric hungover the ceiling lights, and lamps scat-tered about the classroom. In fact,sometimes the ceiling lights are off, atidthe lamps warmly light the room.

And what about the public spacesinside and outside the school—the hall-ways, foyers, meeting areas, and schoolgrounds? Anyone who has spent time ata university knows how integral thesespaces are to the learning and socialdynamics of the campus. The same canbe true for a school. Why not transformthese often unused and sterile spots intoplaces for small groups of students towork or cozy nooks for kids to read orwrite? How about filling a foyer withplants and flowers? Why not give a largewall to the students to create and paint amural? One colorful mural can trans-ionn a barren hallway or entrance into a\abrant and joyful sight. And schoolscan turn outdoor spaces into gardens,sculpture parks, walkmg paths, andquiet reading areas.

JOY 7: Get Outside1 am bewildered by how much timestudents spend inside schools. I don'tmean that the school day should beshorter; I mean that more of the schoolday should be outside. We adults knowall too well how much we like to getoutside for a respite during the workday,and the same applies to students andteachers in school. They need a breakfrom being confined inside a classroomall day. Fresh air, trees, and a sunny daycan do miracles for the human spirit.

Interacting vvith nature brings aunique joy Gavin Pretor-Pinney (2006)writes, "1 have always loved looking atclouds. Nothing in nature rivals their

12 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHip/SEPTtMBtR 2008

variety and drama; nothing matchestheir sublime, ephemeral beauty" (p. 9).Naturalist and artist David Carroll(2004) describes his childhood enthrall-menl of seeking out turtles as he walkedthe ponds and marshes:

The sheer joy of being there, of simplybearing witness, continued to be para-mount, I went out neither to heal myheartbreaks nor to celebrate my happi-ness, hut to be in nature and outsidemyself. Turtles, spotted turtles mostsignifiL-antly, v̂ ere a living text movingupon an endless turning of the pages ofthe natural world, (p, 27)

The easiest way lo get studentsoutside is simply to have recess. There isa special joy in standing amidst the

dig a hole in a patch of dirt, and theywill witness the flourishing life in thesoil beneath their feet. Don't under-estimate the power of sheer joy thatchildren—and adults—can experiencefrom tipping over a large rock andseeing the ground teeming with life.

J O Y 8: Read Good BooksEveryone loves a good story. We allknow that if you ha\'e a 5-year-oIdsitting on your lap and a good book inyour hands, you will soon experiencethe magic of stories. And what amazingstories there are! We are living in anastonishing time of children's and youngadult literature. Immerse students in a

As educators, we have the responsibilityto educate and inspire the whole child—mind, heart, and soul.

students as they burst from the schooland spread out like a swarm of hungryants. Kids say that recess is their favoritetime in school. Recess was also one ofmy favorite limes of the day as a teacherbecause I was outside and surroundedby children having fun. Tragically, recesshas become a rare sight, which may saymore about our schools today thananything else. Why do so many schoolsfind it so difficult to allow children 20minutes each day to play?

As a teacher, 1 would often take mystudents outside to read, write, or havea class meeting. It is delightful for astudent to sit under a tree and read orfor a class to sit in a circle on the grassand talk. Much of our science curricu-Iums could directly include theoutdoors. A school does not have to benear a forest or the ocean for studentsand teachers to explore nature. Ecosys-tems are all around us. Have students

culture of good books, and yousurround them with joy.

For the past few years, IVe beenworking on a grant with a Chicagopublic school, in part to help teachersmake literature an important feature oftheir classrooms. I have brought loads ofgood books into the school. As I didbook talks in 4th and 8th grade class-rooms about dozens ofnew titles weordered, the room was abuzz withstudents who could not wail to get theirhands on the books. When I walk into aclassroom now, I am met with theexcited voices of the students telling mewhat books they're reading.

Of course, if we want joy in schools,then sometimes students should readbooks thai aren't so "serious." I believethat books with important themes canmake a better world, but we must alsosometimes allow—even encourage—students to experience books for sheer

pleasure. Have 3rd graders read DavPtlkey's Captain Underpants, and the

Perilous Plot of Projessor Poopypants

(Scholastic, 2000). Have 5th gradersread Jeff Kinney's Dicir>' of a Wimpy Kid(Amulet, 2007). Have young aduks readSherman Alexie's very funny (andserious) The Absolutely True Diary of aPart-Time Indian (Little Brov^n, 2007).Encourage students to read thrillers;romance novels; action-adventurebooks; stories about sports, animals,and pop culture; graphic novels andmanga; and nonfiction on topics theylove. You will see plenty of joy

JOY 9:Offer More Gym and Arts ClassesIn recent years, with our zeal forincreasing test scores, "specials" inschool have become nearly as rare asrecess. It is not uncommon, especiallyin more impoverished schools, forstudents to have no art, music, anddrama at all. and gym only once ortwice a week. In my son's previousschool in Chicago, he did not have gymuntil January.

With his work on multiple intelli-gences, Howard Gardner has helped usbetter appreciate the uniqueness of chil-dren and has spoken to the need lo givestudents opportunities to use iheirvaried strengths and interests in school.For the legions of children who have aspeciai affinity for the visual arts,theater, music, or sports, classes in thesesubjects are golden times for them loexperience joy in school. Bui how muchjoy can they experience when it's limitedto 45 minutes each week?

JOY 10! Transform AssessmentWhen 1 was a kid, 1 dreaded report cardlime. When 1 was a leacher, many of mystudents were anxious about theirgrades. For far loo many students,assessment in ils dominant forms—

ASSOCIATION FUR SUPERVISION AND CURRICULUM DF-VEIOPMENI 13

tests, quizzes, letter grades, numbergrades, and standardized tests—is adark cloud that never seems to leave.Must it be this way?

The idea of assessment in school isnot inherently bad; children assessthemselves all the time. When they'rebusy doing something they love outsideschool, such as tae kwon do, baking, orplaying the saxophone—when they'reexperiencingjïow—they don'l mindassessment at all. In fact, they see it asan important part of the process. But formost students, assessment in school isthe enemy

We can, however, make it a more posi-tive experience. We need to helpstudents understand the value of assess-ment. We also need to rethink "failure."Our schools see failure as a bad thing.But adulls know that failure is a vital panof leaming. Portraying failure as a badthing teaches a child to avoid risk takingand bold ideas. Imagine if we gradedtoddlers on their walking skills. Wewould be living in a nation of crawlers.

We should limit how we use quanti-tative assessments and make more useof narrative assessments and reportcards, portfolios of authentic work, andstudent presentations and perform-ances. In addition, parent conferencesshould not only include students, butalso encourage the students to do muchof the talking, using the conference asan opportunity to present their workand discuss their strengths and areas tofocus on for grov^th.

As a teacher, I had my students regu-larly do self-assessments - This gavethem some real power over the process.They assessed most of their schoolworkbefore I did my own assessment. Andduring report card time, I passed outphotocopies of a blank report card andhad my students complete it, for bothgrades and behavior, before I filled itout. 1 don't recall a student ever abusingthis opportunity. At another school inwhich I taught, 1 redesigned our report

card to include space for a photographof the student inside; the cover was leftblank so students could either draw apicture or write something meaningfulthere.

JOY 11:Have Some Fun TogetherRecently, when 1 was visiting a school, 1was standing in the hallway talking to ateacher when a tall 8tb grade boy fromanother classroom exuberantly walkedup to that teacher. They began somegood-natured ribbing. Back and forth itwent for a few minutes with smiles andlaughter. What was this about? Theteacher-student basketball game heldearlier that week. Here were twopeople—an 8th grader and histeacher—having a joyous good time.

Schools need to find ways forstudents, teachers, and administrators totake a break from the sometimesemotional, tense, and serious school dayand have some fun together. Sportingevents, outdoor field days, movienights, school sleep-ins, potluck meals,visits to restaurants, schoolwide T-shirt

days, and talent shows can helpeveryone get to know one anotherbetter, tear down the personal walls thatoften get built inside schools, form morecaring relationships, and simply have awonderful time together.

Teaching As a Joyful ExperienceRecently, 1 visited a former gradúalestudent in her classroom. It is her thirdyear as a teacher, and 1 was excited tosee her creative and thoughtful teaching.But she said to me, "I never imaginedthis job would be so hard. I'm tired allthe time."

Yes, teaching is hard, John Dewey'squote—about school sapping oursouls—can be as true for teachers as it isfor students. Considering the staggeringturnover of new teachers in urbanschools, it is in everyone's interest tohelp teachers find joy in their work. Soteachers must strive in whatever waysthey can to own their teaching so thateach morning they can enter their class-rooms knowing there will be goldenopportunities for them—as well as fortheir students—to experience the joyin school. B!

ReferencesCarroll, D. (2004). Self-portrait with turtles.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin.Csikszentmihalyi, M, (1990), flow. New

York: Harper Perennial,Dewey,J, (1938), Experience and education.

New York: Collier.Goodlad, J. (1984), A place called school.

New York: McGraw-Hill,Pretor-Pinney G, (2006). The cloudspotter's

guide. New York: Perigee.Tulley, G, (2005, May 4), About, Tinkering

School. Available: www.tinkeringschool.conVblog/?p=I 1

Wölk, S, (2001), The benefits of exploratorytime. Educational Leadership. 59(2), 56-59,

Wölk, S. (2007). Why go to school? PhiDelta Kappan, 88(9). 648-658.

Steven Wölk is Assistant Professor ofTeacher Education at Northeastern Illi-nois University, 5500 N, St, Louis Ave.,Chicago, IL 60625; s-wolk@neiu.edu.

14 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP/SEPTEMBER 2008