Teaching

 The article "The School and the Life of the Child" by Dewey was very interesting and brought about some very important ideas. The main thing I took away from this article was that we need to center our teaching around the students in a way that keeps them engaged with the classroom and not just mindlessly listening and taking notes. An important idea Dewey stated was “If you begin with the child’s ideas, impulses, and interests, all so crude, so random and scattering, so little refind or spiritualized, how is he going to get the necessary discipline, culture, and information?” (pg. 38). It is important to give the child the correct resources for them to want to learn on their own. If the students have an interest in what they are doing then this will prompt them to learn at an increased pace. Most teachers tell the students that they must learn the information because it is part of California’s standards. Instead of mindlessly dumping information down the students throat it would be much more beneficial to have the students want to explore the content themselves. When learning it is important to come across obstacles and work them out in a way that will help you learn the information in a whole new light. Once this is achieved then the information that is taught means a lot more to them and is retained at a higher rate.

            This article brings up memories of a clear-cut classroom setup that I experienced with almost every classroom from kindergarten through 8^th grade. The desks were very close together in rows that were all facing the front of the class. Students learn in different ways and I found that I work better in a group setting. Once I arrived in high school we had a few large tables with about four to six students at each desk. It allowed for the students to talk amongst themselves and come to conclusions that they would not have come to on their own. I believe learning is meant to be done in groups and I succeeded in this setting. It is also important to keep in mind as a future teacher that each student is unique in the way they learn. Instead of grouping every child together it would be much more beneficial to teach to each style of learning individually.

            In the Ken Robinson video that we watched the other day he talked about how we are grouping kids together and running our schools like factories. School systems are grouping kids together and expecting them to be all the same when learning in class. We need to separate ourselves from this sort of teaching and prompt the students to be interested and driven to learn and grow as a student. I believe this article agreed a lot with the video and it should be kept in mind when going into the teaching field.