9/13/2011

As I was reading Teaching as a Subversive Activity, I found myself saying "wow, that's so true!". I found the chapter on crap-detecting particularly interesting because it made several valid points. I like the idea of "change revolution" because we often fear change, but change plays an integral role in the process of living. However, the degree of change is what has such a drastic effect on the world, and education in particular. I was in a team meeting last week and a history teacher was amazed that her students had never read a map before. When I was in middle school, we used an atlas to locate areas of the world and learn more about geography. However, that same history teacher was explaining that most of her students did not even know what an atlas was. The technology has changed so much since even 10 years ago. Today, students learn from the internet and television. But even looking at that, will we still have computers 10 years from now considering we have phones and tablets that carry the internet? This same idea applies to theory and relevance. The material that students were learning 40-50 years ago is similar but also very different from the information taught in schools today. We're taught about technology because it is essential to life. Students should still learn about classic literature, but added to that need to be lessons pertaining to the lives they face outside of class. My school does a 6-week unit on discrimination and tolerance because the students need to know the issues. To me, something is relevant if it relates to the factors that affect students in their every day lives, both in the present and the future.