I thoroughly enjoyed a humbling experience in class this week. In our review of the history of the Silk Road trade routes, we also learned about the more recent Chinese Cultural Revolution of 1966-1976. First of all, I thought the revolution was over in 1949 when China became Communist and the Nationalists fled to Formosa. But what really shocked me was my total ignorance of what was happening in China in the 60's and 70's. They sent everyone back to the farms and burned all their books to rid the country of all intellectualism!!! Mao attempted to purify the country of all "reactionary" literature and practices by sending everyone back to agriculture.
So how do we as a society choose what we teach our children? I was surprised by my complete ignorance of this modern history, but I realize we can't teach everything to everyone. As a student teacher of Physics, I am wondering if all of these learners really need so much science. Some of them are really struggling. Maybe their strengths are in the arts. I love science, but writing is hard for me. I am unsure of the efficacy of recent state decisions to increase core high school graduation requirements. These requirements seem to disregard the great beauty inherent in each individual's uniqueness. One size fits all doesn't seem to fit.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great post! Your thoughtful post really rings true to my own teaching experiences. I remember being on a curriculum committee when I was 23 years old in my first year of teaching. We were asked to rewrite the social studies curriculum for Middle School American History. The committee members pulled out two textbooks, asked us which one we preferred, then said that we were going to use that textbook to write our curriculum. Literally Chapter 1's goals became our goals...and so on. It was shocking to me that we were letting a textbook company design our curriculum. At the same time I also learned that as a teacher you cannot teach everything in the curriculum so you do "pick and choose" what you prefer to emphasize. Now that standardize tests are so prevalent, it is harder to "pick and choose" but it still happens in most schools.
ReplyDeleteWonderful post. This would be a great discussion piece for the radio show.
I agree with Liz. This would be a great topic for the podcast.
ReplyDeleteI too struggle with the notion that everyone has to know so much about everything and has to be the best at everything. If a student really is struggling in science but excels in the arts, should they be required take several science courses? I love to look back at the "geniuses" that did horrible in school because they were so focused on their true passions. Maybe one day we will get it right.
Great post. I too was surprised about what Professor Chan has shared with us. Being an advid science and math person, the MENAS class was defnitely outisde my normal scope. Now, I am actually really glad this class was recommended and I signed up fo it, since its definitely broadening my knowledge base. In that regard, I think it's good students get exposed to a lot of topics before getting too focused too soon on one discipline.
ReplyDelete