Lets ignite the fire

One of the reasons I chose to go into education was to make people passionate about learning again. Something our society seems to be diminishing in many of our students. When I was in high school all you would hear is complaints about a teacher, a subject, having to take tests, nothing but complaints. Just once I would have loved to hear about how great that lecture was or anything positive. I will admit however that I would sometimes be upset with a mark, unwilling to study for a final or did not do an assignment. Once we become older we loose our enthusiasm, this may be one of the reasons I want to teach grade one. The younger you are the more fun you seem to have, the more you retain and the more you participate.  A seven-year-old isn’t too worried about embarrassing themselves, they just want to lean and have fun. They are at their prime. The older you get the less you want to learn, the less important education becomes because boys/girls, parties or even a job becomes the priority. This I can understand to some regard as there are not only hormonal changes but life experiences come into play.  When your young your life is simple, the older you become the more aware you become and the harder your life becomes, however this is also the time where people learn who they are, what they want to do with their lives and where they want to see themselves in the future.

Past theorists believed that children were a product, you filled them with knowledge and sent them on their way to be productive members of society. This theory has since been debunked, however some teacher still unknowingly pushes a similar idea into their classrooms. Some people still believe that school is just to learn, while others believe that school is life, school is everything. For example, in my grade twelve year I was; yearbook editor, I directed a one act play, I was in a play, I helped paint the sets for the main production, I worked the sound board for all school events, I was treasurer for my student government, I was a blood donor clinic ambassador, I filmed and edited the pep rally videos, I was the only student to take the advanced placement french exam, I was an honor roll student and I had a job. School was my life. I grew so much in that one year alone.  I believe that with the right people and the right environment education could light up so many lives. Sadly, this may also be a tad unrealistic. For some people school can be a great experience but some people are just not able to excel in school. For example, I had a conversation once with a man who now owns his own very successful car repair shop. He was a very knowledgeable man, he spoke very well, and he was just smart plain and simple. Surprisingly he didn’t graduate on time with his fellow classmates, he had to do an extra year just because he didn’t have the light for education ignited by his teachers and his courses. He struggled with things like history and english. This does not mean he is not smart, because as I have said he is. School doesn’t always work for every one sadly.

It is not only the responsibility of the teacher to ignite a passion for learning, the student must also put in the time and effort. But in my opinion if more people became passionate about learning can you imagine what we would be capable of? the obstacles we as a society could overcome? This leads me into how I feel about school and curriculum. I think school is an amazing, supportive environment for some, but others are not treated the same, I have the luxury of being a white girl in Canada. My experience isn’t even relatable to say that of a black female in Africa. I wish school could be as inspiring of an experience for her as it was for me, but sadly many countries all over the world are not working, in many countries girls don’t have the right to education, or even the way the teachers evaluate the students. How can we expect student to be inspired by learning and education if they don’t have the right to one? One day I hope someone light the fire under these students so they may grow and become the best that they can be. Education can inspire if the students have the chance to truly excel and appreciate it.

 

Old school theory vs modern day students

 

The Tyler rationale is a very traditionalist way of thinking, in my opinion its an old school perspective. This rationale is broken down to four very repetitive parts; learning objectives, introduce useful learning experiences, organizing said experiences to have the strongest effect on the students and then finally evaluating and revising to see if they learned what was required. As you can see its a very simple way of thinking. The students have no input into their learning, the school chooses what you learn, how you learn it, where and by who.

The student is unable to feel like a person as it is an extremely limiting way of learning. For example, if the student were to become very intrigued by one of the subjects, too bad its time to move on. Or even worse if the students are having a hard time with a subject the teacher has a tough call to make, either they continue on with their organised year long plan or they continue to teach the troubling lessons until they are understood. the problem with that is it messes up the whole plan, you have to move things around and reorganize and reallocate time and efforts to make a new plan. 

I personally have experienced aspects of this rationale, but not to its fullest extent. Every teacher has objectives they wish to achieve and a plan and timeline to do so, however I was lucky enough that my teachers were all very personable and easy to sway should we wish to explore another subject or to pass by a subject more quickly. This may be because I have always had a smaller class size as I have been a French immersion student. This program is known for its smaller class sizes and its diverse subjects and ways of learning and teaching. 

The Tyler rationale has some benefits, in my opinion more so for the teacher than the students. The teacher can plan their whole year and stick to it, which is less work and time pulling your hair out trying to figure out what you want to do. It is also easier because you have already figured out your outcomes and how you wish to attain them. As well as how you wish to grade the student on their progress. The only real benefit I can’t think of in regards to the student is that your teacher should be quite organised so then hopefully the students have a routine or some level of organisation which is especially important with the younger children. 

I personally do not like nor do I agree with this rationale, but sadly it is still part of the way we teach and learn in our modern day society. Many think we have grown in our ways of thinking and doing things, but I must say that sadly this is extremely false, many bad theories are still used to this day, but I can say that this is not how I will teach. Just saying, I would rather be an active participant in my learning, I prefer to go with the flow and do what you need to do as time goes on. Not to say I wont have lesson plans and such, I will, but I want my student to be interested in what they are learning because in my opinion that is the only way for them to really retain the information. I remember my teacher in grade six sang this ridiculous song about imparfait, a French verb tense, and I still use it to this day. I do not want my students to learn something, write the test and then to forget about it BECAUSE THAT IS NOT EFFECTIVE!