At the end of each unit In Personal Finance (my spring courses) I give the students a break from the rigors of mandated curriculum, all the while helping them "learn to think". I ask that they read critical and/or persuasive essays and watch a film that encourages mindfulness.
My favorite go to combination after a unit on "career exploration" deals with college and career, and indeed life, preparedness. I will first have them read the essay from William Deresiewicz, The Disadvantages of Higher Education and then I will show the film Dead Poet's Society. After reading the essay I ask that they select a passage I have pulled, or come up with one of their own, and comment on it. The passage and the comment is posted on a technology board for the class to see and comment. Here is a small sample of the passages from the essay and a question I ask - “One of the great errors of an elite education, then, is that it teaches you to think that measures of intelligence and academic achievement are measures of value in some moral or metaphysical sense.” “somebody’s entire sense of self is built around their ability to succeed.” "Do you wish to be a passionate searcher or someone who is satisfied fulfilling the requirements of the next assignment? Explain" There are a series of questions I like for them to answer while watching the film and at the end I ask that they link the essay with the film. Students come up with a myriad of original thoughts, and all of them them steer to the fact the education system needs transformation. Below are the excerpts from a student essay that does a good job of summing up a number of the students thoughts. In the first paragraph the young man states, "My life depends on whether I get an A or B In a class. Now that might be an over exaggeration, but when you get down to it, it’s that simple. That’s an enormous amount of pressure to be putting on a kid. (Italics added by me.) My point is that since I understand the importance my education has on the rest of my life, I’m not likely to stray and think for myself. This is because this usually means not focusing on the subjects that your teacher is testing you on." Notice here the focus on "testing" and making the grade. In another paragraph the young man opines, "Education should be about preparing kids for the real world, with real world problems, and solutions. Not useless information that needs to be memorized. Education should be about teaching oneself to think, and act for themselves." And the last sentence of the essay prophesies, "Until the education system has changed, we will never learn to think for ourselves." I learn a lot from my students. They regularly confirm for me the ideas that so many of us highly engaged, highly passionate educators speak about in these social circles - the need for creating thinkers and doers not GPA chasers and proficient test-takers Leave a Reply. |
Author: Dan Jackson
Experienced Reflective Learner and Strategic Thinker with an ongoing track record of of innovative, adaptive leadership in education and business management. Archives
December 2019
Categories |