The names are checked off on the attendance list. They are not absent. Bodies are occupying chairs. The students should be curious, engaged, and risk taking. But they are simply not there.
Let’s call them Ghost Students, students who are present in our classrooms but are not really.
It’s the student with his head down, possibly sleeping, but definitely not engaged. It’s the student scrolling on her phone, doing anything except what she should be working on. It’s the student who outsourced his critical thinking long ago, and is simply checking boxes to get that ‘A.’
We have more ghosts than we realize.
The truth is, the compliance seems comfortable. Students who are quietly doing what they are supposed to are easier to handle than those loudly disrupting. A quiet room feels good until we realize that no learning took place.
We have to look past the attendance count.
We don’t just need bodies in chairs.
We need minds engaged in learning.
Rich
