An Open Letter to Educators
I don’t think there is much more that I can say about Dan Brown’s video that he or Morgan didn’t already say. Nearly all of my classes, especially my freshman and sophomore year, were spent listening to a lecture covering information straight from the textbook. By the time I finished my second semester at South (I was a sophomore), I waited to buy my textbooks after classes started to make sure the professor was going to do more than require us to read the book because I found it spent most of the semester as a paper weight if not. I understand that one must have a basic understanding of the material, and that not everyone does well without someone explaining something to them. However, after experiencing a class like EDM310 where students are required to learn what they need, how they need without meeting 3 hours a week to listen to a professor dictate from a book I could have (and should have) read on my own. Aside from EDM, which I feel is a special case being such a technology heavy course, I think the class I most enjoyed was my Diversity in Education course with Dr. Juarez. She would assign readings to us, and then instead of her telling us what the author said, we would actually discuss as a class what we felt was being said. Now, this isn’t to say she never lectured, but that she didn’t lecture on assigned readings like most of my other professors did. I do agree with Morgan that Dan did take his protest farther than I would have. As Richard Howell pointed out in his comment, we still need our college degrees in order to move up in our society.
Don't Let Them Take The Pencils Home!
Mr. Spencer’s satire evoked a smile. How could it not? As is true with most satires, he only exaggerates reality. It is not that irrationally logical people are not needed to prevent lawsuits and the like in schools, but so often they get wrapped up in the legal concerns or the minute details that they forget schools are meant for learning. How else do we expect children to know how to do things if we do not show them? Yes, parents are responsible for teaching as well, but where do students spend half of their waking hours? School. So, it is a teacher’s responsibility as well to teach acceptable behavior in areas that affect the school environment.
Lisi, I know exactly what you mean about the comments you made on the "An Open Letter to Educators" post. I have had so many classes in college (and even in high school) in which teachers try and take the easy way out and simply lecture or require mindless readings. I have also definitely learned my lesson about buying the textbook ahead of time. That being said, I think it's important that we have had these experiences because hopefully it will help us decided who we DON'T want to be as teachers. As far as the article "Don't Let Them Take Pencils Home", I liked when you said that too often schools get wrapped up in other things and forget that "schools are meant for learning". That should always be our ultimate goal no matter what.
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