Heartbreaking. Wexler does an excellent job explaining a real problem. It brings to mind something I learned in grad school. Children exhibit enormous curiosity prior to starting school. If I recall correctly, curiosity levels plumment by almost half after the first year of full-day schooling and continue do drop by half with every pass…
Heartbreaking. Wexler does an excellent job explaining a real problem. It brings to mind something I learned in grad school. Children exhibit enormous curiosity prior to starting school. If I recall correctly, curiosity levels plumment by almost half after the first year of full-day schooling and continue do drop by half with every passing year spent in the classroom. Perhaps there's no way to educate people in this society without sacrificing a bit of our children's curiosity, but that violation of spirit can be so frequent and severe that its consequences last a lifetime... even generations. We ought to try alternate approches, like phonix and "in context" learning, as Wexler suggests.
In high schools, I think we should be teaching more from the Western cannon than we are currently. I'm not a purist about it, but I know how rich an experience it can be to read works with compelling, youthful, yet timeless themes, like Romeo and Juliet. I've taught it to kids of wildly different backgrounds and it made no difference. More than any work I've taught, it inspires the most kids to stretch to the point of success. They feel proud when they begin to understand it, and accomplished when they're done in the way that only positive growth affords.
We need to make learning relevant by meeting students where they are with respect to universal themes relating to their stage of social and emotional development. That can be done in part by paying enough attention to students to know what they're curious and hopeful about, and by choosing appropriate, relevant, and challenging material.
Heartbreaking. Wexler does an excellent job explaining a real problem. It brings to mind something I learned in grad school. Children exhibit enormous curiosity prior to starting school. If I recall correctly, curiosity levels plumment by almost half after the first year of full-day schooling and continue do drop by half with every passing year spent in the classroom. Perhaps there's no way to educate people in this society without sacrificing a bit of our children's curiosity, but that violation of spirit can be so frequent and severe that its consequences last a lifetime... even generations. We ought to try alternate approches, like phonix and "in context" learning, as Wexler suggests.
In high schools, I think we should be teaching more from the Western cannon than we are currently. I'm not a purist about it, but I know how rich an experience it can be to read works with compelling, youthful, yet timeless themes, like Romeo and Juliet. I've taught it to kids of wildly different backgrounds and it made no difference. More than any work I've taught, it inspires the most kids to stretch to the point of success. They feel proud when they begin to understand it, and accomplished when they're done in the way that only positive growth affords.
We need to make learning relevant by meeting students where they are with respect to universal themes relating to their stage of social and emotional development. That can be done in part by paying enough attention to students to know what they're curious and hopeful about, and by choosing appropriate, relevant, and challenging material.