Learning: From a 17-year olds’ mind
1. Why not reach for the stars? Be all that you can be in life? What’s the point if you’re not going to try? We can have the world at our fingertips. Use it. Uta Hagen speaks the truth: We must overcome the notion that we must be regular… it robs you of the chance to be extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.
3. Most adults cannot relate to students today. The way “back then” was fine-if its not broke don’t fix it kind of attitude. Why not take advantage of our tremendous technology? Why does it matter if we write in cursive or if we can spell?
Hello-spell check.
4. Many students today, we don’t value learning. Learning to us is memorization, tests, grades and report cards. Doing whatever we can to keep up our rank and GPA. When was the last time you actually learned something? And loved it the whole time? I’m sorry if it seems like I don’t care, because I really do. But don’t you want me to care too? Will you help me care? Inspire me.
5. Give me a whole list of facts, but what do I do with them? Some are entertaining and amusing, but they don’t do me any good. Facts are easily forgotten. I need to know how to apply this to life. I need to be taught how to live in the real world. I need to know how to network. Most of the time its all about who you know.
6. My generation, yes most of us are lazy. We do everything on high speed without even realizing it. Quick, get it done. Give me a topic. I’ll just Google it. What do I do with it now? It’s easy to go to Google and look up facts. Give me relevance to what I am reading.
8. Restrictions and censoring is not really realistic anymore. You put a censor on something and I will probably find what I’m looking for somewhere else. Don’t shelter us. Stop babying us. You can easily find information about someone today. Is this a good thing? Maybe not. You have to be careful what you put out on the internet. Anyone can find it. Anyone.
9. Cell phones, texting, myspace, instant messages, laptops, digital cameras, mp3 players and ipods- we all have them. We all use them everyday. It’s fast and convenient. It’s the fact that I can be listening to my ipod, texting my friend while on the phone with my mom telling me to take the dog outside, checking my myspace, waiting for my pictures to upload from the night before, instant messaging another friend about a math problem for homework and looking up research for my current event in anatomy. Why not do a million and one things at once? Being able to do that million and one things at once is power, electric and exhilarating. It’s not the plastic, it’s the motion.
10. I don’t ask enough questions. We all don’t ask enough questions. We sit back; listen to what we are being taught because we have to. And when we do ask a question, sometimes we get that look. You know which look I’m talking about. We have all gotten it. My favorite question: how are we going to use this in life? A classic. The look usually follows this question. And I have yet to hear an answer. So we just stop asking. And go through the motions, because it’s easier. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired to just going through the motions.
Acing a couple of midterms does not -to me- show that someone is smart. Retaining facts and being able to –under immense pressure and built up anxiety and stress- take a 100+ question test is not success to me. Give me something and I’ll make it my own. Creativity, originality, isn’t that what you want?
Yes I’m 17-years old. What could she know? I know that I want to be successful in life. I know that I will probably never use polynomials in my future. I know that it’s hard to sit in a classroom for 45 minutes when I’m not driven. If you don’t like what you’re teaching, what makes me want to learn it? We can inspire each other.
“It’s not the plastic, it’s the motion.” Amen.
Let’s have some fun. Create a manifesto for getting answers to questions that you ask and then get “the look.” Keep it to a few points, but work on serious strategies [that won’t get you in trouble].
Or, consider Mr. Ziegenfuss’s article on questioning and respond to it. Or both? Here’s the link: http://www.stsd.org/tech_news/102706.html.
After reading Mr. Ziegenfuss’s article on questioning, here are some of my thoughts:
Questioning is where new ideas are formed, inventions made, and creative minds develop. Questioning is as much apart of learning as the text we read and the tests we take. Don’t sit back with the world going on around you without taking a part in it. Questioning and new ideas is like the golden ticket Charlie got in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It’s the ticket to new ways of life and technology. Stop playing it “safe”. If teachers wont answer your questions, you must take learning upon yourself to succeed. It’s up to you to make a difference. Ask google.
http://www.google.com/
“It’s the fact that I can be listening to my ipod, texting my friend while on the phone with my mom telling me to take the dog outside, checking my myspace, waiting for my pictures to upload from the night before, instant messaging another friend about a math problem for homework and looking up research for my current event in anatomy.”
It never seems like its that much when i’m doing it!
“My generation, yes most of us are lazy. We do everything on high speed without even realizing it.”
I wouldnt say were lazy its more that were efficient. Do you think your lazy? I mean to an extent i’m lazy. Calling the house on your cell phone from your bedroom to talk to your mom, well thats a little bit lazy, but I only do that every once in a while.
“Creativity, originality, isn’t that what you want?”
Thats what I think they want, but it seems like they never teach it. They just want us to all be the same, ya know regurgitate the information they just fed us. Once in a blue moon you get a good teacher, but like I said once in a blue moon. How do you feel about that? Do they really want us to be original or just to give them the right information?
“My favorite question: how are we going to use this in life? A classic.”
That is a classic question. When have you ever obtained a satisfactory response from this question? I know I have never received a good answer, because most teachers do not have one. They know their job is to teach you a certain curriculum, but I doubt many have sat and thought how to apply it to real-life situations. Here, check out this site: http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/69253
This sight talks about incorporating education with circumstances that we can identify with. Who knew that after all education can be relative to real-life and can be fun? I know I would value my high school education more, if I knew I could truly use it in my future. Maybe one day education will integrate technology more, as well, because we know that everything in the future will be technology related and if we can start developing our skills in it now, we will be prepared.
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