Interesting Discussion with Juniors
About a week ago, while discussing Emerson's "Self Reliance", we started talking about students following their passions and not being afraid to break away from the norm. The discussion then turned to our school system and students realized they end up jumping through many hoops they see as unnecessary and irrelevant to their lives before they graduate. I tried to get them to come up with a solution to the problem, but they were pretty much stumped by this.
Next I brought up the idea of essential knowledge and asked them if they need to know "basic knowledge" anymore - I brought up the example of being able to do long division by hand when everyone can use a calculator. In other words, does my 6 year old son need to learn how to do that? Or, can he potentially reach a higher level of math in his academic career because he's not "wasting time" doing work that a calculator can easily perform? I asked the same question about subjects like geography - is it obsolete because anyone can quickly access that info on the web?
Surprisingly, most students defended the basics - they felt the process they went through in learning subjects was essential to them moving forward and will continue to be essential. I guess I see myself as moving the other direction (though I waver back and forth every few minutes) - why are we focusing on tasks a machine can perform instead of teaching them to think for themselves after they look at a wide variety of opinions on a given subject? Are my students merely falling back on the way they were taught? Or, am I glossing over the necessity of following the correct steps in order to learn a process? Like everything else, I'm guessing it's a balance, but I feel we need to push the envelope a bit to see how far we can go.
Next I brought up the idea of essential knowledge and asked them if they need to know "basic knowledge" anymore - I brought up the example of being able to do long division by hand when everyone can use a calculator. In other words, does my 6 year old son need to learn how to do that? Or, can he potentially reach a higher level of math in his academic career because he's not "wasting time" doing work that a calculator can easily perform? I asked the same question about subjects like geography - is it obsolete because anyone can quickly access that info on the web?
Surprisingly, most students defended the basics - they felt the process they went through in learning subjects was essential to them moving forward and will continue to be essential. I guess I see myself as moving the other direction (though I waver back and forth every few minutes) - why are we focusing on tasks a machine can perform instead of teaching them to think for themselves after they look at a wide variety of opinions on a given subject? Are my students merely falling back on the way they were taught? Or, am I glossing over the necessity of following the correct steps in order to learn a process? Like everything else, I'm guessing it's a balance, but I feel we need to push the envelope a bit to see how far we can go.
posted by J. Krause at 2:22 PM
2 Comments:
Excellent questions. You know that I fall more into the camp that believes that much of that "knowledge" is not as necessary as before, but that's not the same as saying it's completely unnecessary. I think it's necessary, but not sufficient, to be successful in the 21st century.
As far as students defending the basics, I don't think that's very surprising. First, it's all they know. Second, if they agree that perhaps it's not the best approach, then they have to concede that they've just spent quite a few years at least partially wasting their time. Third, in general AHS students are successful at this model and continue to benefit as long as this model is in place (and allows them to be successful in their post-AHS world). The problem is, of course, that I don't think the model is going to be successful for them much longer, and they may not be ready to contemplate that just yet.
I think it's a conversation that needs to continue - not just among the adults at AHS, but among the students and community as a whole. (Hey, perhaps blogging is one way to do that?) So thanks for contributing to that conversation.
I think that it is fun and thought provoking to get the students' perspectives on learning. I also constantly waver but often think that to truly understand and apply the more complex problems it is essential to know how to solve the smaller problems imbeded in the big problem. I'm not sure if a six year old is ready for calculus or algebra. I know that my 3 year old isn't ready for shakespear, she has to learn to read the 100 sight words first.
I don't think you can skip the basics. However at every level you should also be imbeding the basics into critical thinking problems and application. I don't think that the basics and critical thinking have to be opposites!
Post a Comment
<< Home