Blog Post 10

An Open Letter to Educators
By Dan Brown

Mr. Dan Brown begins this video blog by asking, “What does it mean to receive an education?”  This is a very complex question.  He describes his point of view on the question by first giving a brief description of how education has changed over time.  He explains:

Great minds congregated at Universities
They grew in Universities
And changed the world with Universities as a launching pad

He said that institutional education is in a revolution of the information age.  He is right.  Mr. Brown’s example of how to get somewhere was a great example of this.  He said that before if you needed to get somewhere, you would have to go to the store, by an atlas, draw out your trip, and then find your destination.  Now you can type in the location on just about any search engine and it will give you the shortest route in seconds.

How can the old standards of education compete?  If before people only received an education when they could afford it, then what are we paying for now?  People do not need to pay thousands, or hundreds of thousands of dollars to learn useless facts that could easily be looked up for free on the internet.  So he asks, what is the point?

I understand his frustration, but I do believe that there is more to an institutional education than memorizing facts.  Teachers are now teaching us skills that we cannot learn for free on the internet.  At least, I hope they are because I have spent enough money getting my own education.  But assuming this he is right and even if we are being taught skills that we could not learn elsewhere, my question is:

why are we paying for on the job training? 

I am currently taking five classes within my major this semester and I have never been late to class or missed an assignment.  I can honestly say that two of my teachers know my name.  One has never seen me before.  And the other two would probably recognize me as the girl who sits in the front row.  I have bought books for four of my five classes.  I have only used one.  Why did I buy them?  I was told that they would be detrimental to my assignments and exams.  Are they? No.  Do I see some logic in Mr. Brown’s video?  Yes.  Would I quit college over this? No. 

I am here to learn and to expand my own way of thinking in hopes to broaden my own education.  Do I think that my schooling is interfering with my education?  Sometimes, but I will not let that get me down.  I believe in education.  We would not be anywhere without it.  I have a passion to instill creativity in others, and if I have to bite my tongue and get through classes where my teachers do not feel the same, then so be it.  I am only learning what I do not want to do in my own classroom.

I am not sure what Mr. Brown’s major was, or why he felt that this was his only option, but I feel a little bad for him.  I know that an education can be expensive and you may not be getting what you expected out of your classes, but if you look closely you will realize that you are getting much more out of the experience than a headache.

This brings me back to my quote from Mr. Brown.  For those of us who are truly trying to get as much as possible out of our education, we are congregating at universities, we are growing in universities, and we will change the world once we leave the universities.  It is, however, unfortunate that although we are paying for the same classes with the same teachers, not everyone will get the same education and understanding as others.

Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home
by Tom Johnson

This post is about a conversation between Mr. Johnson and a colleague.  The point of this post is not that there was a study that showed students have problems in school when taking pencils home; it is about thinking along the bigger picture.  Mr. Johnson wants to make others aware that they need to think “outside of the box” when relating general information to their own situation.

I am not saying that I always think outside of the box.  Actually, I’m saying the opposite.  There are millions of “boxes” out there and there are many ways to take them.  For instance, in Mr. Johnson’s situation the box is the research.  The other teacher had it set in her mind that the research was 100% right and it applied directly to her students.

Mr. Johnson was merely pointing out that the research was limited and could apply to anyone.  He tried to explain different positive reasons why students should continue to take pencils home, while the other teacher did not want to listen.  We need to be able to hear others who are trying to get us to think outside of our own opinions.  Had the other teacher listened, she may have thought of other useful ways to incorporate her students’ homework with projects that can be done with the parents.

Instead of looking hard into research that is based on bubbling in a standardize test, maybe we should be looking closer at what is going to benefit each of our students.  Maybe we should not label our test results as students from “schools in low-income areas” and start focusing on David and Megan.  Listen to other’s input and opinions, it may be different than your own but it may make you think differently about the problem at hand.