#DoOver My First Year of Teaching Part 7; or, Turning Students Into Zombies Is NOT a Bad Thing

by ggeurs

You’ve seen it.

Dawn of the Dead. Zombieland. The Walking Dead.

Or some other horror media involving the zombie- a creature created by being bitten by another zombie (or dying because you are already infected, TWD). And in education, students often are described as zombies, BECAUSE OF EDUCATION. As if teachers are nothing more than burned out, jaded, cynical virus carriers intent on bringing down as many others with them as they can.

I am here to propose another application of the term “zombie” to students.

In George Romero’s Land of the Dead, we are faced with a fascinating twist on the typical zombie film in that the zombies have the capacity to learn and problem solve. As the zombie hordes work together, though their movements are rocky and sporadic, they slowly but surely figure out how to learn and work together as they try to find their own place in the world.

Just like students.

Sure, students cluster together. Yes, they oftentimes are not working at the level we would hope they would work at. But by pushing them, allowing them to feed on a (teacher) brain from time to time as needed, they start to figure things out and solve their own problems.

Looking back on my first year of teaching, I cringed at the idea of terms like “zombie” being applied to my students because I couldn’t look past the surface level of the metaphor. I know differently now.