The Education of Life

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The Education of Life

In Jon Spayde’s article Learning in the Key of Life.He states that “the world’s a classroom”(Spayde 58) and I agree.I also agree with the idea that a formal education is a serious undertaking and that it is a very necessary tool in life.This article is not in any way meant to dissuade you from going to an established institute to obtain a degree, it is however intended to get one to think about continuing one’s education outside of the classroom.

Spayde feels that every situation a person goes through is an opportunity for learning. I also believe this to be true.I am a special education teacher and I base my entire teaching philosophy on this very tenet.When I take a student to the local shop to purchase an item, we are not just going to the shop we are experiencing life outside of school.As the student and I walk to the gate and open it, it is a new situation for the student.We go through it and step out onto the sidewalk.As we walk to the shop the student notices that there are cars speeding only three feet away from us.We could easily be killed but we are not.The cars have their area that they stay in and we have our own, the sidewalk.As we reach the parking lot the student notes that this is an area for both cars and pedestrians and is therefore a place of heightened awareness for both the pedestrian and the motorist.We step up to the door and it does not open automatically, we must push it open.This is a new experience for the student at this time of day.All the doors at our school open automatically when approached.The student is now in yet another new environment, the local shop that he has never been to before.He has also never been shopping with his teacher.We choose the item th...

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...yle in most of my thought processes when given a problem to solve.Had I not been exposed to someone else’s thought patterns and methods then I could very well still be sitting at my desk trying to come up with that first line.

When all is said and done I feel that the more one is exposed to the “big picture” the more of a chance one has to function well and adjust to the everyday stresses and strains of life be they academic or pragmatic.

Works Cited

Newman, John Henry.“The Idea of a University.”

The Presence of Others.Ed.Andrea A. Lunsford, JohnJ. Ruszkiewicz

Boston, New York: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2000.46 – 49.

Spayde, Jon.“Learning in the Key of Life.”

The Presence of Others.Ed.Andrea A. Lunsford, JohnJ. Ruszkiewicz

Boston, New York: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2000.58 – 63.

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