Just Go With the Flow? (weekly journal assignment)

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They year was 1992 and the Chicago Bulls were playing the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA Finals. It was the first game of the series and the match-up of Jordan versus Drexler was compared to Frazier versus Ali. What happened though was what so many teams were accustomed to - Michael Jordan taking control and dominating the game. Scoring 35 points in the first half including sic three-pointers, Jordan turned to the broadcasters and shrugged not knowing how he could be so hot. Michael was “in the zone” - term used by athletes when they reach an almost blissful state where one action blends seamlessly and effortlessly into the next, and the next. Being in the zone is also known as flow.

Flow – a concept coined by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – is detailed by Jill Suttie in her article Can Schools Help Students Find Flow as “a heightened state of being, where we're so absorbed in a task that concerns like time, food, and self-consciousness disappear....associated with high levels of creativity and optimal performance in a wide variety of activities, and that it evokes feelings of happiness and even euphoria.” It is safe to say that we have all had experiences with flow or being in the zone.

Having grown up playing sports there were moments in games where everything seemed to slow down and my movements were natural and almost subconsciously driven. Having the ball roll off my fingers to kiss the backboard and seeing the bottom of the net move or scrambling back and forth on the tennis court swinging and making contact with every tennis ball or hitting my stride on my graduate school essay are all examples of flow. Just the other day at work I had several projects to do and each one seamlessly moved to the next and their accomplishment was mostly unhindered. When I was finally finished I looked up at the clock and was surprised at how quickly time had passed and how much was accomplished – I smiled.

How can schools help their students find flow in the learning process? Can students feel the same satisfaction working on a science project that they find on the playground or after finishing an amazing drawing? Suttie sets forth that in public schools where mandated standardized testing occurs, students are mostly exposed to a very regimented education. Teachers all too often are having to teach the test as opposed to exposing their students to a more natural and independent means of learning.

What can be done to open up the classrooms to an environment that fosters flow? A classroom where teachers are mentors who guide students with a greater choice in their education is one the can foster flow.

While legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 sought to even the playing field and enforce standardized tests, the rigid guidelines are hampering the natural learning process. Flow is a state of happiness and bliss and sitting in a room with a rigorous lecture and rote memorization does in no way, shape or form aid in grabbing a child's interest. All children should have an education based around standards and at the same time there needs to be more. Educators need to be able to lead students into the process of learning instead of forcing the intake of dates, facts and other “boring things”. The big scary word “education reform” may just be necessary in order to bring more flow into the classroom.

Even with a change to legislation, flow is not something that is easily taught. And where does the teaching start? While flow will happen when the skills match the process, how does one lead a student into obtaining that blissful state? Teachers will need to be taught. For many it may be an unnatural concept to give the students choices. I think we have all had a teacher or professor who has been so set in their ways that you could sit in their class a decade apart and feel as though time had sat still. Educators must be taught the ways and means of creating a classroom where flow inducing activities are as common as peanut butter and jelly. Forgetting for a moment the abundance of nut allergies.

The classroom should be a vehicle for student happiness. A happy child learns more efficiently and craves more knowledge. A review and revision of enacted legislation, along with more education for teachers can aid the process of turning our classrooms into places where students flock to because they want to, not because they have to.