Drawbacks and Possible Downfalls of AN

I acknowledge that AN may not be everyone’s “cup of tea” so to speak. There are always going to be some young adults and adults who are very serious minded and dislike “playful” content or ideas. However, I raise the question of why? Because I have never met a child who isn’t ready for a fun and playful experience. Perhaps if we caught these very serious minded people early enough in life and in their education and

introduced some humor into their lives throughout their formal education, they would be happier people for it. Perhaps they could be more playful, or at least maybe they would be more open to playfulness. Perhaps the reason these serious individuals are so serious has partly to do with a lack of positive experiences with playful content during their transition from childhood into young adulthood? Not that everyone should or must retain a childlike exuberance for life, certainly we need people in life who are prepared to think and act in serious ways, and there are certainly moments when seriousness is needed and one cannot think playfully. However, with that said, there are so many serious situations in life that could use more playful and flexible ways of going about or solving problems, and this is where the idea of creativity and innovation come into play.

One needs to have a playful mentality to embark on creative or innovative endeavors and most important jobs and roles in society depend on innovation and the ability to think outside the box.

Another issue that arises for the use of AN in the classroom is that if it doesn’t feel natural for a teacher to implement the method, it is likely then going to be difficult for a teacher to use this method.

The method is also very open to interpretation and may be difficult for some people to fully grasp, particularly for these more serious minded individuals. There are seemingly endless ways in which to implement and personalize this method of teaching. There are seemingly endless possibilities to present fun, playful opportunities and materials to students. And depending on how you look at it, this can be either advantageous or perhaps overwhelming. These limitless possibilities for AN are beneficial for obvious reasons, but also potentially perplexing because the method for implementing this teaching philosophy many not be clear to everyone. Moreover, as with all things, there are arguably successful and skillful ways to implement AN and conversely there are less successful or unhelpful ways of using the technique. In particular, if the “nonsense”

material is not relevant and meaningful to the learning material or topic it can be an unnecessary distraction and potentially have the opposite effect on student learning.

Furthermore, as suggested previously, this teaching style could arguably not appeal to all students, particularly young adults who are more serious minded. But with that said, there is no one teaching philosophy or personality that works perfectly for every student or every teacher. Furthermore, there are aspects of this teaching philosophy that can be applied to all types of lessons and that are hopefully “universally” understood and accepted amongst modern teachers. My idea is that there are aspects of this philosophy that can be used successfully by every educator and that there are aspects that benefit every student, at least on some level.

It is good to keep in mind that we teachers learn through our own experimentation as educators. There is no such thing as failure, because we learn from everything that doesn’t go 100% the way we hoped in the classroom. No matter how long a teacher has been teaching, there is always something to be learnt, there is always room for

improvement; and there will be great days and not so great days. We arguably never reach our full potential as educators.

With this in mind, sometimes a teacher’s attempt to use humor in the classroom might miss its mark. . . Students might find something the teacher has presented “cheesy” or perhaps “unbearable.” One would hope that teachers who use AN and present these personalized “jokes” are prepared for potential student eye-rolls and sighs of disbelief.

A teacher might in fact even use this to their advantage, it might even be done every once in a while with intention, because again the idea behind using AN techniques is to make the information memorable to students, even if the memory carries with it an air of “I can’t believe how incredibly horrid that was!”

Furthermore, I feel that making attempts to add humor creates a sense of rapport and trust between the teacher and most students, as well it makes the classroom environment more laid back and less intimidating to those students who might find the subject

challenging. It is important, however, to keep in mind that it could also serve as a means of irritation or distraction to some students, particularly for those students whose ego or sense of self-confidence is sensitive or subject to peer pressure or judgement.

With this in mind, AN highlights the need and importance for teachers to know their students and the dynamics of the student interactions in their classrooms well, so they are aware whether they feel this sort of technique could be beneficial for overall student learning.