" Teachers for the most part would be delighted to awaken young minds, but the system within which they must work fundamentally frustrates that desire by insisting that all minds must be opened in the same order, using the same tools, and at the same pace, on a certain schedule. The teacher is charged with getting the class as a whole to a certain predetermined point in the curriculum by a certain predetermined time, and the individuals that make up the class soon learn how to help the teacher with this task."When I first saw this quote in 'My Ishmael' by Daniel Quinn, I automatically thought about my teachers Charlotte and Mele. It made me take a pause and think, Isn't this why I came to this school? To escape this kind of thing? I guess I did. I mean our school is based on project based learning so it stands out from the crowd of other high schools. So this quote is both right and wrong. Right because we do have to get all of our projects in at the same time and we are taught the same thing, but the quote is also wrong due to the fact that our school is different than most others and we aren't all taught the exact same way. Also, the quote is right because eventually a class does learn how to cater to a teacher's needs for learning success. So in the end, the quote is right due to most circumstances, but since our school is different it only applies in some areas.
Yay! I'm glad you think this quote is right and wrong. While I don't think that High Tech High schools are the panacea for the woes of public education, I do think they get a lot of things right. We try really hard to engage our students and get them to think. And think hard!
ReplyDeleteMany public schools don't have the freedom we do to get that done.
I completely agree. High Tech is probably the most unique school ever. It is so diverse and we are all uniquely talented in different ways. In regular public school systems everyone is meant to be robotic and learn for the sake of learning. At High Tech we are learning for the sake of knowing! We are allowed to have creative freedom and express our self. I came to HTM for middle school and left. The private school experience was awful. They were building little robots out of us and stealing our childhood and fun. You are correct that it is both right and wrong in different aspects.
ReplyDeleteNice
Cara
Haley,
ReplyDeleteI really like this because it is really simalar to how Luna thinks of this subject. You really got it through my head that we are not like any ordinary school. We are uniqe and have a different way of learning. Everybody will never have the same learning style, people have different ones and will forever. There are people that know how to do busy work, work with hands, and more, so they need to find the school that fits them best.
Jadon