Hi Ashish,
Thanks for bringing out the issue of prison experiment in the context of teaching. I kinda hesitated to reflect first because of my intense aversion from the movie/experiment, but let's see.. I will try my best to be as emotion-less as possible while writing..

I really do think the movie did a great job in expressing how terrible the experiment was, first of all. I can really understand how and why the "subjects" experienced PTSD symptoms and some of them has never been able to recover.

Regarding the positional power of the authorities, I do think that they do not have the "authority" now as Dr. Zimbardo had at that time. The Zeitgeist is changing in that regard. The "subjects" are called as "participants" now, they can opt-out any time, ask the professors for further clarification and ask for "more" from the higher authority figures, go to objective, wise-of-rights-people like Ombudspeople, or the Ethics board.. Dr. Zimbardo could not even start this project today.

As Negri and Hardt mention in the Empire, the concept of absolute power of the authority figures is evaporated, and more than that, even the mole of Marx is already dead. We can not talk about the positional power of the authority figures as we are used to now. Not even because they are like the moles living under the soil, but because by the means of using right tools at the right time, anybody can be an authority figure now. That is one of the reasons may be how the issue of how the issue of education quality gained so much popularity in recent years. Now, the educators are being questioned for what they do and how they do. Education became a reciprocal concept rather than a test of students compliance to authorities (in the form of person, knowledge etc)..

However, besides the issue of the power of the authorities, what still keeps my attention is that, the students (want to) trust the educators that they will get something from them, because they "give" time (and money and etc) for that give-take relationship. As you've mentioned in your post, by the means of just being there, the students "give" the responsibility to the educators regarding their actions. I believe, not necessarily the issue of authority, but the issue of responsibility of the teachers is a very essential discussion topic in contemporary context.

Anyways, this comment went way too long.. Thank you if you're still reading :)

Best, yesim

Hi Ashish, thanks for bringing the issue of engagement of the students. I agree with you that, as human beings we are all striving for growth and we are all curious. This education system should have been "doing" something to the minds of the students, so that they lose their interest in class content. I feel like this may be happening because education is becoming a purpose, rather than a tool. A purpose, that is not meaningful at all. When the students feel like what is "covered" in class, will be really meaningful for them, they naturally get engaged... I think the issue of meaning is particularly related to engagement.. Best, yesim

Hi Betsy, thank you for your insightful post. I would agree with you regarding the need to design the textbooks in a manner which is appealing to a variety of learning styles and encourage the students to study the material mindfully. Yet, I also think that some of the students will never read all the lines of the textbook - as a kinesthetic learner, I know from my personal experience :) Not because they are not passionate learners, but just because reading the textbooks is just not their way of learning. I love the textbooks when they have recommendations for discussions, activities and auditory materials for the topics, and when they provide some real-life, hands-on connotations: case studies, "topic"-in-the-news and etc. As you've mentioned, we need an all-learning-styles-inclusive education system.. Best, yesim

Hi Ashish, thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree with your comments, especially your pointing out the role of blogs on constructing and re-constructing realities. You're absolutely right, the blog discussions can not only help people to process their thoughts by themselves and share them with others, but also can help us to see how an idea evolved thanks to shared thoughts on that.. The traditional discussion forms do not allow much for us to see this invaluable construction process. Thank you once again for sharing! cheers, yesim