Shor- Empowering Education

Empowering Education

Shor

Quotes...
    Meier 1990, "You must arouse children curiosity and make them think about school. For example, it's very important o begin the school year with a discussion of why we go to school. Why does the government force us to go to school? This would set a questioning tone and show the children that you trust them and that they are intelligent enough, at their own level, to investigate and come up with answers."

    Why didn't our teachers take this approach? Is it because I went through a working class school system? This quote made me think. As a high school student and even early on in college I found myself wondering why I am learning the information I am being taught? What is memorizing the periodic table really doing for me?
    All of my questions could have been answered on the first day, maybe I would have applied myself more, maybe I would have taken my schooling more seriously if I had an idea of how I was going to apply the information learned in the class to the rest of my life.
    I love the idea of a teacher empowering their students to take charge of their education.


"Education tries to teach them the shape of knowledge and current society, the meaning of past events, the possibilities of the future, and their place in the world they live."

    Ira Shor states clearly here that teachers are responsible for the way we think, the way we feel, the way we view certain topics and the way we digest certain events. As a teacher we have great power, we have the power to make people believe, we have the power to make people listen, and we have the ability to shape the minds of the youth of our nation. However, a lot of teachers don't use this power, instead they preach the same old song about how Christopher Columbus was a great man and how the Americans were friends with the Indians when we came to this country.

"Education is more than facts and skills. It is a socializing experience that helps make the people who make society."

The education experience should not be a series of memorization and testing. Schools today are too focused on meeting the state standards for education and not concerned about whether or not the students are actually learning. The value of a high school diploma has been lessened every year and I feel that it is because the education being given is getting worse every year. The average school now works out of a text book, students are given the same worksheets from one year to the next, and the tests never change. Creativity is lacking and it is effecting the people in our community. The finished product, a high school graduate does not carry the same value that it used to. Students graduate not knowing how to write a check or mail a bill properly. Students need to be measured on the skills that will help them succeed in life, not just get through the local school system