Traffic+Engineering

Tobie and I have slowly been moving toward the idea of the teacher as engineer. This began, probably, when I started writing about troubleshooting the reading process and we have been moving steadily in that direction since then. Today I decided to do some research on what exactly an engineer does. What I like about this metaphor is that it suggests that there are rules and rigor--engineers have to know about the properties of the materials they use--but it also recognizes that engineers have brains, unlike the "teacher as technician" which is implied by highly scripted teaching materials. It also possibly opens up some new ways of thinking about teacher education.

Well, actually, it opens up a lot more than that, because in the process of doing research, I stumbled upon "traffic engineering." Now, I like to drive and when I drive I think about why different traffic engineering decisions have been made. I do this especially if I am on Ohio Route 315 going to Delaware, and I am just south of Powell Road during rush hour. Let's just say that one has a lot of time to think while waiting to get through the light at that intersection. So, I investigated traffic engineering and then I shared what I found with Tobie and we had a great time getting excited about this as a metaphor. I'm going to try to capture some of what we said and then my next challenge will be to try to figure out how to teach a class as a traffic engineer.

The Arizona Dept. of Transportation got us started on this route (see how easily travelling metaphors come?): []

Here is one thing they say about the whole field of traffic engineering: "Traffic Engineering applies engineering principles to help solve transportation problems, and brings into play a knowledge of psychology and habits of users of the transportation systems."

Wow!! That's what we do as teachers! One way to approach the traffic engineering metaphor is to imagine knowledge as a large country, not unlike the United States.

There are some things that maybe are close to each others. There are some destinations that only a few people want to go. There are some destinations we expect everyone to go.

So, as traffic engineers, we have to construct the ways to get from one place to another in the magical journey of learning. Now in the real world, there are usually several ways to get from one place to another, despite what Bert and I have to say: media type="file" key="bertandi.mp3"

When I am in a hurry to get somewhere, I take the freeway. Even if it is a couple of miles out of my way, because I can go fast and because there are no traffic lights, it is worth taking the freeway to save time.

If, however, I have to travel during rush hour, something which I have arranged my life so I don't have to, I don't take the freeway because they turn into parking lots. I take the surface streets.

My husband hates the freeway. He gets really nervous even though he has acknowledged many times that I am a good driver. His means of transportation when he was a little kid was a mule and wagon (no kidding) and the freeways are a little fast for him. So, when he is in the car, I often take the streets, usually the main streets where I can go 35 mph. Sometimes when I am going somewhere, I like to try a new route, often without a map. So, I drive in the general direction I want to go and see if I can get there. It's always interesting, but that way I am often driving on small residential streets. Getting there in that case is more than half the fun. Usually I manage to get there!!

Another characteristic I have is that I don't like left turns. The street where I live is one way, going towards High Street, which is a big, busy street. Most of the time if I have to turn left on High Street, I take the alleys to a street with a light. I only make that left turn when I know the street will be quiet. During snow storms. Also, after 7 p.m. During the Superbowl. I know people who don't mind making that turn even when High Street is busy. More power to 'em, but don't make me do that!

When you are traveling on the roads, you notice all kinds of vehicles. Motorcycles, motorized skateboards, 18-wheel semi trucks, oversized trucks carrying a house or even a turbine:

On city streets and rural roads, there might be bicycles, horses with wagons (in Amish country), tractors, gigantic farm equipment with tires the size of a small house, minivans, SUVs, electric cars, hybrids, dump trucks, police cars, fire trucks, etc.

All of these go at different speeds and no one says that a semi is deficient because it is different from a Hummer or that a Porsche is strange because it is different from a pair of roller skates. These forms of transportation suit the people they carry. Some people like going fast and others don't. It's fun riding a bike somewhere because of how quiet it is and how easily you can hear the sounds of nature near you.

Also all these are going different places for different reasons. Some people have to go to a place either for work or to handle a problem they are having. Some people have to go to the emergency room--QUICKLY!!!! Some people like to take a Sunday drive. Some people get on a bus with a lot of other people and they all go the same place. Some people travel alone or just with one person.

Yet all of these people are traveling on roads designed by traffic engineers, with signs that traffic engineers designed and placed for your safety and information, with traffic signals put in place by traffic engineers.

On some roads, there are places to pull off if you have a problem. There is a big hill on Interstate 64 going east in West Virginia. At the bottom of the hill is a place for runaway semi trucks--it is marked with a lot of signs, "Runaway Truck Ramp" --as you go down the hill. The place is a big, long pit of sand and there are a lot of large yellow rubbery-looking barrells, presumably which would be reasonably soft to crash into after the sand has slowed you down. Traffic engineers are really concerned about everyone's safety.

Okay, how is this like teaching?

Well, each person is really on his or her own journey in this gigantic place of knowledge. Like the driver or user of any type of vehicle, each person makes a decision of where to go, how to get there, why they are going, and so forth. Drivers may be required to go one place, such as a court hearing for a crime they have been accused of committing, but they still have a choice: to show up or to forfeit bail. There are not that many ways to force a person to go somewhere--maybe the back of a police car--but for the most part, people make a choice about where they go.

As teachers, we do not create the knowledge, the various possible destinations or stops along one's life journey. Instead, our job is to facilitate the trip, and to do so safely!!

Just as traffic engineers think about how people are going to travel on a road (fast, slow, times for rush hour, etc.), we as teachers need to create different paths towards knowledge to accommodate the different ways people travel.

Another realy powerful part of this metaphor is that there is no assumption about "normal" or "not normal." Semis are normal, but so are VW Beetles. Inline skates are normal and so are mountain bikes. Traffic engineers don't demand that everyone travel at a particular speed to a particular place; instead, they make it safe so people can travel at different speeds and by different routes. They accommodate the needs of all travelers without thinking of one group of travelers as some kind of "problem" for which there needs to be "special" means of traveling.

It would be ridiculous to require people to travel at the same speed. Even on super highways, there is a range. You are supposed to travel at least 40 mph, but in Ohio trucks have to keep their speed to 55 (ha ha) and of course, cars can go 65 and police cars can go as fast as they need to. That is quite a range of speed. Probably at least a range of 60 miles per hour.

But in schools, we have everyone on their different forms of transportation, and we lay out the route for them, even if that route doesn't work. And we complain that the motorcyclist doesn't like traveling in the rain or that the person on stilts can't keep up with the Jaguar..

Our goal here is to figure out how to apply the traffic engineering metaphor--to create ways in which teachers can be engineers, with a set of tools and a lot of knowledge about how to use them, but also context-sensitive discretion, which engineers are allotted and teachers have not been.

Reading Map The purpose of this is for me to develop a map of knowledge about reading which teachers need for my Reading for Learning Class. Then I plan to have students make choices about where they want to go and how they want to get there.