Writing and
Education
Autobiography
Challenge
Considering
Conclusions
Considering
Introductions
Four
Meanings of Life
Godot and
the Great Pumpkin
A
Major is More Minor Than
You
Think
The
Poetry Process (A look at 4 versions of a poem.)
Thoughts
About
Picking a Major
Quick
Points About Education
Quick
Points
About Writing
Reading
Poetry and Cloud Watching
Revising
Revision
Reviving
Experience
Reviving
Symbolism
Using an
Audience
What Makes a
Story True?
What's the Subject of This Class? (Being revised.)
Why
Write?
Writing
and Einstein (The Difference Between Information and Meaning)
Writing
and
the Goldilocks Dilemma
Links
to
Other Sites |
Concepts That Keep Schools From Working
1. We fear pleasure and don’t believe that it can be used.
2. We believe that pain is an indication of success.
3. We believe that students don’t want to learn and must be
forced to do so.
4. We then create power structures based on controlling the
students,
which naturally creates rebellion. We then use the rebellion as
proof
that students must be controlled and forced to learn.
5. We believe that “learning” can be measured in clear,
standardized
ways, that test scores are a good measure of the success by students
and teachers.
6. We believe that these measurements can be done in the short
term.
7. We believe that people can be converted into numbers.
8. We expect every student to “learn” the same things in the same
way on the same schedule.
9. We believe that all students “test” in the same ways.
10. We believe that memorization and learning are the same thing.
11. We believe that memorizing facts will generate knowledge.
12. We believe that students must be “prepared for the job place.”
13. We believe that more is better; more classes, longer days
will fix problems.
14. We believe that facts equal knowledge.
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Concepts Necessary for Successful
Education
1. Learning is
intrinsically pleasurable; we are built to learn and enjoy learning.
2. Memorization is
only useful for a very limited number of procedures.
3. We’re built to
wonder why and to ask questions. Therefore, teaching should be
based on questions, not answers.
4. Learning
happens on various levels, and each level requires a different amount
of time.
5. Students learn
in different ways and at different speeds.
6. Teachers are
just as varied as the students are, which means
different teachers achieve their best results in different ways.
7. Teachers must
spend far more time with the students than with paperwork (either
lesson plans or grading).
8. Ideas always
interact and inter-relate, which means students with
interest in any subject will eventually have to understand all the
basic subjects even if not in the same order, degree, or context.
9. Understanding
what a student has or hasn’t learned is more
important than knowing how they score on a single set of questions.
10. Learning can
not be understood via any test that can be graded by a computer.
11. Teachers are
not merely information dispensers, and students are not merely
information receptacles.
12. Learning
involves the interaction of ideas and information. Ideas
alone lack substance, while information alone lacks meaning and remains
sterile.
13. Teachers know
their students better than the system does.
14. At any given
moment, the needs of the students outweigh the importance of the lesson
plan.
15. An engaged
mind will seek further, work harder, and work more
efficiently than a mind that’s forced to follow a set pattern.
16. Once students
are engaged with learning, the teacher becomes
mentor, guide, and only rarely a staff sergeant. The most
important
task for a teacher is helping students integrate what they’ve learned. |
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Other Essays and
Poetry
Something
Somewhat
Vaguely Like a Resume
Being
Like Children
The
Blessing and the Blues
The Cat
With a Bucket List
Change,
Church and Paranoia (a bit of silliness but true to the best of my
memory)
David and
the Revelation
The Dawn,
the Dark, and the Horse I Didn't Ride In On (an odd, meandering,
semi-romantic story)
Ghost
Dancer in the Twilight Zone
The Hair
Connection and the Nature of Choices
The Mug, the
Magic, and the Mistake
Trumpet
Player, USDA Approved
Poetry
Selected
Poems
The
Poetry Process
Writing by Current or Former Students
Ms. Write
Meets Her Match in Jr. Ms. Write Now
by Heide Perry
I'll
Just Have Cats
by Cara Hummel
Toys
to Toys
by Allyson Bowlds
Scribbles
and
Bits
Links
to
Other Sites |
