So I was watching the movie Accepted. It's about this one kid who wasn't able to get accepted into a college. Instead of telling this to his parents, he and some of his friends make up a college on their own. They fix up an old building, make a website for the 'college,' etc. In the end, they manage to pass off as an actual college and accept all of these different students. Of course, they eventually get caught and the kid who founded the college had to go to court. However, he did not just give up. He tried to argue that what he and his friends built had all the requirements necessary to be considered a college. One of these requirements was having a faculty, and when the judge asked the kid to present the members of the faculty, all of the students at the college stood up. The judge was definitely not convinced and insisted that students could not be their own teachers.
This got me thinking about our school. Now, I definitely recognize the importance of teachers in our classes, but what about in our clubs? It is a rule that clubs at our school need to have at least one adviser, but is it really necessary? Isn't it possible for students to be able to function on their own? I acknowledge that it is helpful to have an adviser when the students don't know how to complete a certain project, but isn't that all part of the learning process? One of the major goals of high school is to help prepare us for situations in our future lives. In this case, wouldn't it be better to not have advisers so that students have the experience of figuring out how to solve problems on their own? They would also benefit from the extra leadership experience and the experience of relying on their co-workers.
This reminded me of what we discussed about work ethics of our generation. Is it possible to fix this problem if schools start emphasizing programs and activities where students learn first hand how to face difficulties on their own? Should we start making students become their own teachers?
Mary Quien
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Although Dr. Bjornstad claims that we all follow a Lockean agenda, I would make the argument that many aspects of society actually follow Hobbes' thought. A social contract keeps peace among the people. The general population gives up some of its own rights in order to allow a government, or higher body, to govern those below it. Therefore, by choosing an advisor to supervise club meetings, administration is simply trying to keep us in line. I mean, think about what would happen with a bunch of kids in a classroom without some sort of teacher. At the very least, students would break off into little groups and would each conduct separate conversations rather than following the schedule/agenda of the club. Imagine what would happen with an especially rowdy group of children. The presence of an advisor keeps the social contract in balance: when violated, the population is punished.
Maybe the problem is that, as students, we are expected to assume leadership positions while still being watched by a teacher, advisor, etc.. Maybe the presence of someone in control detracts from the whole illusion of "independence." I wouldn't necessarily advocate the idea of students becoming their own teachers simply because academic material spans over a different category than does club material (in my opinion, at least). A club, such as Interact, engages its members in community service activities. We would always be able to organize these events. We are unable, however, to write and then grade our own papers. It would be great if we could, though. Wishful thinking!
(Sam Maliha)
Teachers in the classroom are obviously invaluable resources. Who better to learn from than someone who is an expert in a certain field? But, this granted, I do believe that hands-on learning and self-teaching is invaluable as well. I say this with first-hand experience. As a homeschooler K-6th grade, I learned a lot through teaching myself. My mom was there to help when I needed her, but we read our history books, science books, and health books, and did math problems, practically on our own. My mom was certainly a teacher when we needed her, but the way I learned actually taught me how to learn.
I think that one of the disadvantages to public school is the limited amount of available time, especially in high school. Teachers don't have the time to let us teach ourselves, so, in many cases, they spoon feed us the information because they have a schedule that they must get through by the end of the year.
Discovery is part of the process of learning. There are few things more satisfying that discovering how to do something on your own, and this is lost when we are spoon-fed answers. All in all, I think hands-on learning is invaluable, but in public school, the setting where we do the majority of our learning, it is not very feasible.
Emily T.
"Don't let school interfere with your education." (Mark Twain)
Emily, I think you made really good points. And my dad says that quote to me all the time. While the movie Accepted brings up good points about learning from your peers, most of the things they were learning weren't practical for finding real world jobs. Teachers are mostly essential because they know how to teach. If you don't understand something in the book it can't reword it and explain it to you.
Sorry that last one was posted by Kelley Volosin
Well, I feel that teachers are extremely important in education, although there is a time when we need to learn by ourselves.
For certain subjects, one needs a teacher to fully understand the subject, especially in subjects where problems can't always be figured out solely with time and effort (ex calculus). In others, teachers are necessary because they bring further enrichment and insight to a subject that might otherwise have been missed. Perhaps we could learn a lot if we taught ourselves without the help of anyone else, but we'd still miss a lot of nuance.
Regarding clubs though, students do have to take leadership into their own hands. That's why teachers are called "advisers" in that capacity: they won't necessarily lead the club for us, but are there to provide their help and experience when needed.
Interestingly enough, some in the school seem to share your mentality that students at some point should learn by themselves in the real world. That's the whole "Structured Learning Experience" that the school is now developing.
-Eric W.
Post a Comment