What Do We (Should We) Choose?

It constantly amazes me - what my students do not choose. So much so, that I have to question my own motives (once again) for wanting them to choose differently. 


I often tell a personal narrative to my classes when we're discussing understanding how something works vs. just "working something" (e.g. how a car works vs. just turning the key and having faith in the magical car gods) - I worked in an office where, for many of the employees, time was mostly spent doing data entry using an extremely old DOS-type system. When I was being trained, I was given a list of instructions: something like


1. Hit F5
2. Enter number from box form
3. Hit F3, ENTER, F7
4. Enter second number from box form
5. Hit F3, ENTER, F7, F4,
6. ENTER, ENTER, ENTER
7. Hit OKAY
8. Hit F5


The list was actually much longer than this - probably about two pages of "hitting" and "entering" in different combinations. No explanation of what any of that meant, just hit the keys and enter the numbers in that order. And, be very careful because, if you enter something wrong, we'll have to call the IT guy, who actually lives in another state, and he's hard to get a hold of, and he gets mad when he has to go in and reset stuff...


Well OF COURSE I was going to make a mistake - and OF COURSE we had to call the IT guy, and everyone was upset - and they made me do it, because, after all, it was me who messed up, right? The difference for me was that I liked working with computers - I'm not smart enough to do any kind of real programming, but I can program macros and have some grasp of MS Basic programming language, so, instead of just waiting for the IT guy to chew my head off - I started asking questions.


For instance: if I understand the steps, would it be possible for me to figure out how to fix my own mistakes?

I could hear the near-tears in his voices as he answered:  "YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

"I've tried over and over again to explain the procedure to the people there so they won't have to keep calling me to reset the system from here - which is a pain in the butt - but all they want to be responsible for is the data entry steps." Within a month, as the only person onsite who "understood" the system, I was promoted to supervisor.

What I want my students to take from this tale is the idea that knowing how something works (anything and everything, up to and including knowing how our government works) gives you the power to change it. But, just like the employees in the office where I worked, so many of my students seem way too ready to abdicate all personal power and just have someone tell them exactly what to do so they can do it and go home and not worry about being responsible for any change in their own lives let alone in the world around them

The funny thing (funny - sad, that is), I don't really think it's their fault. I think this is the mentality we inculcate in them from their first day in kindergarten. It is the attitude that keeps them in a sheep-like stupor.

The question is, then - how the hell do I wake them up? Or - is that just the "white" in me that feels like they should have to wake up and fight and take responsibility for the change in their lives - are my expectations coming from an authentic place or are they a product of my own indoctrination into a different social field?