Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Many people love a classroom that has lots of class discussion, a.k.a., the discussion class. What, however, is the goal of a class?

I am one of those irritating people who ask,

What was the goal?

I often hear people say, “It was a great event. There was lots of fill-in-the-blank-with-something-that-someone-would-consider-wonderful-at-some-time-in-some-place.”

I often encounter this regarding an educational event. Most of my educational events are with adults—not teenagers or younger. Adult educational events often have muddied goals. Some of the goals are:

• fun
• chats with old friends
• emotional release
• and even sometimes, learning new things, a.k.a., education

If chats with old friends is the goal, the discussion class is a great idea. If, however, education is the goal, I highly recommend against the class discussion. The lecture—dreaded by many adults—is far more effective for education. There are other class formats that are also for more effective for education.

“We had a good discussion, lots of class participation,” is nice if lots of people talking is the goal of the class. It isn’t necessarily good if education is the goal.