Article Review
After reading the excerpt from Leo Buscaglia's book Living, Loving, Learning please reflect on your thoughts and feelings. (This article has been emailed to you)
The following questions were created to be thought provoking: ( you do not have to answer them all but they may aid you in your responses/reflections)
1) What were some of the AHA's (ideas that stood out to you) that you encountered?
2) How can you utilize this information in your classroom?
3) Do you feel/think that this excerpt from the 1970's is still true today?
4) Please comment on one other course members comments
**Click on comments to read and leave your personal ideas**
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6 comments:
This was a very powerful and I felt true article. I think back to my college years and the interesting professors I had! I think he was thinking of them when he wrote the article! I realize it was written in the 70s and that was when I was born, but not much has changed. Some of my college professors were the exact same ones my dad had!
I think many educators are aware that a change must take place, but I don't think it is the norm yet.
I think that taking many courses and getting my masters recently has helped me be more aware of the things he was talking about in the article. I recognize the differences among children and expect different things from all of them. I even teach the students about expectations and how they can't be exactly the same for each child in the room. Years ago, and even when I was growing up, I think that it wasn't as acceptable to teach to all of the learning styles. I don't think the teachers were ever taught how to differentiate the curriculum.
The whole Art topic in the article really struck a nerve! I nodded while reading that. I have known teachers like that who have been teaching for a very, very long time. I don't think they know any different. I think they expect the children to be able to just do it, and enough said... It makes me sad for the kids who get let down from certain teachers over and over.
I think I may post this article in my lounge. I think most teachers would agree with it and most would agree they are doing their best to not expect the children to parrot anything in their rooms, expect for when teachers are modeling great things of course!
It is a sad comment how far we haven't come since the 70's and as Cindi said "not much has changed." Yea, I got that, being born in the 50's. It is just more government mandates and directives with little or poor results. WE are all curriculum driven. The needs of the children aren't met but politicians and our own. We can speak the politically correct line about differences of children but ultimately we answer to our district who in turn answer to the state and the feds.
I know my own son loved art and drawing but after 2 years of doing the teacher's thing; he quit. He often said, "I wish for once I could draw what I felt or what was in my head." So much for the child's needs or talents.
I guess we can just look up the child's learning style and ramble on about that and student differences but never really knowing what were talking about. It sounds good though and it makes good banter in our own schools.
My “AHA” moment, as Cindi mentioned, also came with the art teacher example. I vivdly remember an art teacher slashing into my friend’s clay sculpture (a self-portrait!) saying she had done something wrong. How ironic that can happen in an art class where self expression is to be encouraged. What a shame for your son Tom!
Yet how are we as teachers, particularly in a public school classroom of 20 or more kids, to meet the specific individual needs of every single student? Especially when our districts, much less the state and national levels, need to see evidence of progress within narrowly defined areas of study. The school I used to teach at was very driven towards “smart goals” that could easily be measured. Too often the staff felt that all of our goal-planning, including vision and mission statements, within each high school course, was simply a means of getting something down on paper to satisfy the district administration. Yet at the same time the motto of the school was “success for every student”!
On a positive note, with the efforts to meet the needs of different learners, I believe in some sense that a lot has been done since I was in school in the 70s/80s….not nearly as much rote learning, but rather investigation of topics with a link to everyday events. Different ways of gathering, presenting, and processing information is the attempt to give kids a chance to understand material in different ways (versus simply reading something, taking notes, and being tested). However to truly meet the specific needs of individual students, I feel there is a growing trend towards homeschooling or charter schools where kids can be given more of that individual attention and where perhaps their early passion for learning can be encouraged and continued.
I argee with the other comments made already. It is so true that we shove useless curriculum down children's throats instead of foster their talents. The thought of having a bird burrow in the ground is rediculous, but that is exactly what "the system" has us do. While there are basics that all students need to learn to be successful, including reading and basic math, other courses that are required are useless and will not serve any purpose in the future.
I agree with the fact that students can regurgitate info that was presented, but cannot think for themselves and do not develop higher order thinking skills.
After reading this article I really thought back to my education and how everything was so cut and dry... However I agree with Kris and I think we have made some steps since the 70's in developing an education that is unique for each individual.
However we need to be careful when we decide if one class is more important than the other because in some classes students find their talents and their future vocation. If we don't have a healthy mix of classes we may miss a golden opportunity for that student to develop.
After reading the article I thought about how important these graduate classes are and how we really should do more useful inservices!
I went to school in the 60's & 70's. How true this was and is.The quote of"As an individual, you must not be satisified with just becoming like everybody else. You must think for yourself" is very strong & true. We as educators often want the student to reflect on our views, without giving them the opportunity to think or act "outside the box." Creativity is what moves us along. No different now than in the 70's.
We must allow the students to be creative, find there own way to the answer, or to even find the wrong avenue.
As we move forward we are always somewhat surprised to find the students that question our methods or perceptions.
We, as educators, must be open (I think we have become more aware over the years) to allow and realize that each student has their own perception and we must stay aware of their differences.
The other comments show a lot of thought and reflection. Sometimes it takes one or several instances of "questioning" to put thing in perspective.
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