chapter 6

This chapter did a much better job at connecting the way education was viewed and how people learned in the past to the direction we are now heading in. There was a section that I particularly agreed with. We live in a time period that is exploding with new knowledge. Since our nations beginning we have already tried extending schooling to fit in more and more knowledge, but if we continue to do this now it is just going to be ridiculous. Some people already go to school into their late 20’s to get degrees; there is no way that we can add on more and more years of schooling to accommodate for all this extra knowledge. This is why people have to make a choice to be lifelong learners on their own. They have to learn how to use their resources to discover new information as they need it. Children used to need knowledge in certain areas or specific skills, but now students need general skills such as using resources to gain information, interpersonal skills, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, and using technology. This will allow them to take the new information available and apply it to their lives and careers.

I do think that it is interesting how some of the old ways of education are resurfacing but in new and fresh ways. For example, long ago when children were taught by their parents, education was different for every student. Now education is shifting more from the state and back to the individual. But rather than learning a specific set of skills or knowledge from the parents, students are following their individual interests and learning information and skills that will be most useful for them in their life and career.

A quote that I found pretty interesting was, “Distance education, learning centers, and technological certifications all act to expand the choices that people can make for what they will learn. In this light, the standards movement can be seen as a conservative check on rampant customization. As the lifelong-learning era moves gradually toward a situation where people choose for themselves what kind of education they will obtain, standards will serve as a constraint on the range of what counts as legitimate learning.” This was quite an interesting perspective on standards. I always viewed standards as somewhat necessary, but also restricting to teachers. The way this is phrased makes it seem more like we have so much knowledge, choices, and ways for learning that standards just check to make sure that we are learning at least basic and necessary information.

Sometimes the school seems less important now since we can learn just about anywhere due to new technologies, but I still see school as very important place at least for young children. School introduces children to a wide array of topics and information. Perhaps without it, they wouldn't know what they were interested in or what types of information to learn through other venues such as the internet. It’s also a great place for them to learn how to interact with others and build valuable social skills. Students are introduced to people of different ethnicities, social classes, and values and learn how to work cooperatively with them. I do believe that school is more valuable to children if the teachers provide activities in which the children are actively engaged in thought processes rather than practicing skills and memorization. Children who are engaged in active hands-on lessons are not only learning about a specific topic, but are learning more general skills such as predicting, gathering data, experimenting, drawing conclusions, constructing, reading and writing to obtain and convey information, and using science and math to solve real world problems. In my classroom, I hope to take more of a research-based or project-based approach. I want my students to learn important academic skills through projects in which they have to apply their knowledge to solve a real world problem.