Monday, December 7, 2009

Empowering Education

1. “People are naturally curious. They are born listeners. Education can either develop or stille their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not as, is commonly supposed, politically neutral.

I feel that asking questions is the best way to learn. If you are learning something and you are confused how will you ever completely understand it and store it in your brain if you do not ask questions. If a teacher has a curriculum that completely avoids asking questions than I believe that a student can never fully understand the topic or subject. I think that whatever the activity or project is that is being taught should always have time for questions, even the simpliest activities. You never know if a student is having difficulty unless you give them that opportunity to ask questions.

2. “In making these choices, many teachers are unhappy with the limits of the traditional curriculum and do what they can to teach creatively and critically. Whether they deviate from of follow the official syllabus, teachers make numerous decisions-themes, texts, tests, seating arrangements, rules for speaking in class, grading systems, learning process, and so on.”

This quote is very interesting to me because I guess I never realized how many decisions teachers actually make. I feel that it is important for a teacher to really spend time figuring out how she/he is going to teach their class. What books they want to use and so on. I think that a teacher that just goes by the book and really does not care what they are teaching and if the students are leaning anything is not a very good teacher. I feel that it is also important for teachers to try to make it interesting for their students; there is nothing worse than boring activities

3. “People begin life as motivated learners, not passive beings. Children naturally join the world around them. They learn by interacting by experimenting, and by using play to internalize the meaning of words and experience. Language intrigues children: they have needs they want met; they busy the older people in their lives with questions and requests for show me, tell me.”

Students and young children learn by asking questions like I stated in the second quote, but they also learn by experimenting and working with others. It is important for any student at a young age to interact with their peers and work through problems together. And not just school work but real life stuff too. Young children are full of questions and they look for the older one to help them such as their parents, teachers etc. it is our duty to help them and do the best we can to give them the right response.