I thought I was going to start this blog with very wide, sweeping concepts that would stimulate your mind and then I would eventually would work into more and more specific concepts and situations, blah blah blah you see how it would go. I am now officially throwing out that idea. Terrible idea. It's easier to talk about specific things as they come along, and by the end of this I will have developed my own understanding and thesis about this subject, and you will walk away with a refreshing and invigorating feeling of mind-expanding awesomeness.
So! What shall we talk about? Education through experience. Sounds wonderful.
My father always told me that their is no teacher like experience. I, understanding these words, thought I understood the concept. Such was not the case. When I was learning how to drive my dad was always fretting, worrying about the next big truck that I would supposedly carelessly slam into. I would ask him, "What are you so worried about?" He explained that because I was new to driving I hadn't been in a situation that required swift and careful action on my part, for example, a moose t-boning me at a stop sign. Would you know what to do in that situation? Probably not, unless you're a big game hunter, then you're almost certainly packing heat, which comes in handy when dealing with the angry, bigger cousin of the deer. Anyways, my dad's point was that experience had taught him the things he knows about driving, as well as an array of other topics. And sure enough, he was right. I didn't find myself in any hairy driving situations until after I got my license. Dad wasn't there to tell me to slow down (which is insufferably annoying by the way), not there to give any advice. Accordingly, I had a few close calls, a few deer ran out in front of me, among other things. I never did put it in the ditch though, which is a thing I think far too many people resort to too quickly.
Sometime at this point I ask a question that is supposed to remind you of the main point of the blog. Education through experience: what does that mean? People learn things by doing them? Really? That actually works? Yes, yes it does Mr. President. I don't know why I put the President in there, but I needed an object in the sentence. In my mind experience is the best kind of education. Where might we apply this? Say you wanted to learn how to play guitar. Reading books about the topic helps, but ultimately how is it that you would learn how to play guitar? By playing guitar, that's how. No matter how much you read and study and take notes about something it doesn't actually stick until you apply it, and with a thing that involves such dexterity as playing guitar, you honestly cannot expect to learn without picking up the guitar and applying your knowledge you already have (or lack thereof) until you start to put things together, and make music.
I think one huge flaw in education today is not only the educators, but the education the educators receive in order to become educators. That sounds confusing. Part of the problem is the way the teachers are taught when they are learning how to be a teacher. You cannot write a textbook on how to teach someone. I'm sorry if you are or know someone who writes textbooks, but it simply cannot be done. Recall from a previous post my point about how education doesn't happen when the teacher teaches, it happens when the student learns. In other words, no matter what measures an instructor takes to give their students the best possible education, learning won't occur without an effort on the student's part. Sometimes effort isn't enough, but that's another conversation. Segueing back to my previous point, the education of teachers is flawed. In talking with my teachers, I have come to the conclusion that if one wants to obtain a degree in education you must go through a series of a hoops and circles consisting of classes about making bulletin boards, to more useful ones such as psychology, for three and a half years. (Ms. O'Connor if you read this I don't mean to make the education program sound miserable, I've never experience it for myself and you should in no way doubt your career choice because the world needs more good teachers like yourself.) THEN comes student teaching, which is supposed to be a chance to apply everything one has learned in the last three years, and an environment in which to see the effectiveness of such techniques learned at college. Now, when some student teachers walk into a classroom for the first time they feel completely at ease, confident that the knowledge instilled in them is more than enough to overcome the trials and tribulations of their first teaching experience. HOWEVER, for some of those same student teachers, they find that they really didn't learn as much as they thought they did, or as much as they should have, and now they are for the first time really thinking about how teaching works, which is a difficult task when you're both thinking about and at least trying to act like your teaching. In the people that I have spoken with, most of their learning occurred during their student teaching. If that happens so often, that is nearly graduated education majors on the cusp of going off and applying for a teaching position learning the most in the final days of their college experience, why don't we do things differently? Why not throw someone that has just started in their pursuit of a degree in education into the classroom, letting them flounder around aimlessly? Obviously these are gross generalizations and I don't mean to say absolutely everyone sucks at teaching the first time they try it, though many do. What would happen if the above were applied in practice? Well I think the most noticeable effect would be that the new-education-major student/teacher would realize that teaching is more than meets the eye, and they will be more susceptible and open to the information that the classes they have to take to graduate, which will cause them to be more driven and ultimately get them to realize the utility of what is being taught (which is the goal of learning anything...if not for utility then for what? Entertainment? I think not). In doing that, this will improve their teaching. If you are thrown into restaurant kitchen with no prior experience (which is something I've literally done) you are either going to learn to keep up with the orders or be fired. It's the classic sink or swim situation. If the same principle were to be applied to an education program, that is throw college students into a real-life classroom with no guidance or instructions, they would most likely fail, causing the children to laugh heartily at their incompetence (complete exaggeration which is a bit mean, but I've seen it happen). If I were in such a position, I would be more than happy to receive advice from my professors, from peers, from other teachers. I would also be more than willing to pay attention to my college professors, who are giving me a solid foundation in which to draw from when I go back to student teach. Doesn't that sound dandy? Why don't we do this?
If in reading this you think, "Wow this guy has no continuity and he is scatter-brained as all get-out" I'm not surprised. It's something I have to work on, the continuity and preciseness of my thoughts.
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