“Why do I have to learn this?” Teachers have been confronting this irritating question almost daily from students ever since schooling began. As school topics and classes become more complex and in-depth, a lot of information that is taught seems inapplicable to the real world. This causes students to question the need of them to learn it. However, does this imply that school is entirely useless? Of course, the amount of information that you use from school depends on what occupation you have. But school doesn’t only teach you facts and figures, it teaches also you social skills, critical problem solving abilities, and much more. On average, a person will have 12 different jobs in their lifetime (Doyle). In each of these distinctive jobs, …show more content…
Numerous life lessons and skills come from learning. A main lesson that is applicable in all life situations is social skills. This can range from communication and collaboration to building and sticking to personal opinions. These skills are often learned through group work, and many students don’t even realize they are acquiring these skills. Students also learn how hard work pays off, or the consequences of not doing work or procrastinating. This can be seen though many ways, such as not studying for a test, or doing all extra credit possible to get a decent grade in a class. A main trait that more teachers are trying to implement into their classrooms is the desire to learn past high school. Teachers achieve this in students by helping them find what subjects they enjoy and by helping them reach their full potential with that subject. “Give students the opportunity to choose what they learn- this will help them build self-worth,” says Janelle Cox, education writer and Elementary Education Expert for about.com. Confidence is another key trait teachers can help students gain though education. Having been through schooling, teachers know that some material they teach is difficult. This will encourage them to help students get through the material by giving life lessons. By teaching students not to give up after they come to an obstacle or challenge early …show more content…
In recent years, more and more people have been speaking out against what school teaches our students. Communication skills should be pushed more, as when employers are asked about the most important deciding factor in whether to hire someone or not, almost always the answer is communication (Morgan). However, from elementary school to high school, there are little to no classes for students to take that involve working through conflict, giving advice, or listening skills. Instead, students are forced to learn this on their own, which typically doesn’t go well, and causes stress in the students life, especially teenagers. In fact, many people despise conflict, and usually have a “me vs. you” attitude (Morgan). “It wouldn’t have to be this way, if people were taught at a young age how to deal with conflict properly,” says Carol Morgan, who has a Ph.D. in communication and is a professor at Wright State
Because the education system does not relate classwork or homework to the lives of students, they do not see how writing essays or solving math problems can help them in everyday life. “By the time Roadville children reach high school they write off school as having nothing to do with what they want in life, and they fear that school success will threaten their social relations with people whose company they value. This is a familiar refrain for working class children” (Attitude 119). As students begin to realize how low their potential is within school, they chose to cut school out of their life and start working. These students do not understand how they can benefit from what they are learning. “One woman talks of the importance of a ‘fitting education’ for her three children so they can ‘do better’, but looks on equanimity as her sixteen-year-old son quits school, goes to work in a garage, and plans to marry his fifteen-year-old girlfriend ‘soon’” (Attitude 118). Students are settling for less than what they can actually achieve to have, just because they see no purpose of being in school, and believe they can do better without the help of the education system. Even parents are not actually supporting and encouraging their child to stay in school. “Although Roadville parents talk about the value of school, they often act as if they don’t believe it”
Kessler’s points are accurate. I choose this topic because I can remember countless times that my mates would question the relevancy of the information being taught to them. This is an opportunity to illustrate that this irrelevancy is the reason for high college graduate unemplo...
We all go thru different phases and life changes in our lives creating more needs and solutions to our problems. Many of us handle conflict negatively and think conflict is bad. Therefore, the best way to resolve conflict is learning how to handle things in a better way. This means understanding the person and understanding what has created the conflict and miscommunication. The book, “Difficult Conversations,” helps us learn different perspectives and needs to our conflicts and learning how to resolve conflict and what has created people to have different standards in their personal culture.
Abigail, R. A., & Cahn, D. D. (2011). Managing conflict through communication. 4th Ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Education remains a cornerstone for society as it has for decades. Technology advances, the economy fluctuates, and politics change, but education remains, not only important but imperative for personal and social growth. Yet, as important as it is touted to be, the quality and purpose of learning is often lost in the assembly-line, manufactured process of education that exists today.
At certain point in our life, we go to school to learn. We don’t know why, but people told us it’s necessary and useful in our life. Being young, whatever someone said, we follow. We Sit in a classroom and listen to the teacher’s lecture for a few hours before some sort of break. Then we do the same thing again until school is over and we get go home. Althoug444h some might hate it, but school is one of the most important aspects of life. It doesn’t matter if one goes into a working class, middle class, professional class, or elite class school. We still are learning, but the materials we are taught is different according to the journal, “Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon. The brain gets filled with knowledge from all the people around him/her. In the article, “The “Banking” Concept of Education”, Paulo Freire describes the brain as a storage device. Our brains are like a bank and we intake information from others and we store the information deep inside our brains. Whenever the information needs to be released, the brain will search for the information and deposit it into someone else’s brain. I agree with Freire that we are being taught these days by the “banking” concept. However, this banking concept limits our creativity.
Throughout my experience in the public school system, I have heard the line, “What do I need to know this for anyway?” about 1,057 times. It is not uncommon to hear students complain about the worth of their education. Regardless, there seems to be a unanimous agreement that the youth needs education to succeed in life. What is education anyway and what does schooling accomplish? In his book, “A Time to Learn” George Wood provides a definition of education as “making wise citizens and good neighbors who can think deeply and intelligently about issues of self and society, take care for and respect others, take care of their family needs, and contribute to the welfare of others” (Glickman 48). Is school necessary for developing this type of educated citizen? If not, how is it we measure success and how is school important in attaining that?
The irony is that speaking to others is one of the most important, if not the most important, professional and personal skill students must have to be successful (Doyle 88). The student needs to understand the importance of this skill and realize that in the future many opportunities and career successes are directly impacted by working with others. Students are also encouraged to take charge of their learning. Giving the student control and as many choices is a good way to optimized their learning.
Before understanding how to deal with conflict, one must understand what conflict is. Conflict can be defined as, “any situation in which incompatible goals, cognitions, or emotions within or between individuals or groups lead to opposition or antagonistic interaction” (Learning Team Toolkit, 2004, pp 242-243). Does the idea of conflict always have to carry a negative connotation? The growth and development of society would be a great deal slower if people never challenged each other’s ideas. The Learning Team Toolkit discusses three different views of conflict: traditiona...
Consequently, the nature of what social skills are and the frequent formation of interpersonal relationships in classrooms casts no doubt on the fact that the social-ness and learning strongly correlate. To this end, the vast potential to improve today and tomorrow’s learning conditions need to be addressed by using what is known and researching what is yet to be known about the relationship between social interaction. On the entirety of the matter, to be social is human behavior, and to be social in the classroom is studious
I’ve had teachers who taught in a way that was a good way for them to teacher, but wasn’t a good way for students to learn. I know I want to be a high school teacher, and by the time they will reach my class, my students should know how they should be presented the information, so that they can learn in such a way that is best for them. A teacher should be able to teach in a way that’s suitable for the majority of students, and be able to give extra help to those who don’t learn as the other students do. I want to be the teacher who is willing to put in extra time with the students for their classroom
To begin, we need to understand the nature of students. The nature of students varies between individuals. The majority of students are well-behaved and come to school ready to learn. Part of this is due to the way they have been raised, but most students are basically good. There is a small percent of students whose nature, it seems, is to make everyone miserable. I do not know if this is because of a difficult childhood at home or because the student just likes to be the center of attention. Either way, there are always students that will give their teachers a hard time. I guess this is their nature. Every individual is different, therefore, the nature of the students I will teach some day will be different depending on their background and other various things that may happen to them as they grow up. For example, a student that has lost a sibling due to an illness or accident, may become very bitter throughout life. The nature of this student’s behavior which is being shaped by this may make this student a cold-hearted and mean student. These are the students that teachers need to spend extra time with and try to make them feel loved, no matter how hard this may be. I, as a future teacher, need to look at students and try to help them out no matter how difficult that may be.
An effective teacher will excite, inspire and motivate students to be active in their learning, investigate new areas of knowledge and make connections to future learning (Whitton et al 2010). When a teacher is successful, their students are motivated, mutually respectful and ready to build on their knowledge and solve real-world problems. To be a teacher of value, one must have many skills and qualities to cater for a diversity of learners and their individual development; this includes many personal traits that are noticed students.
After twelve years of school, it took me until now to figure out exactly why I had been there all those years. It was not to torture me by making me learn how to spell but to make sure that my classmates and I got the opportunity to make the most of ourselves. Opportunity that would come from learning as much as possible from books and beginning to see that the world focuses on more than just history and English . I owe my success in life and school to teachers who taught me to spell and to be respectful and responsible. Those quick to argue with me say that school's usefulness is shallow: deeper-real-life experiences truly educate a person. School should be seen not only as a place to study, but also as a place to learn about real life. People cannot depend on experience alone for education just as they cannot solely rely on information from school books to prepare them for life. The lessons, whether from a book or not, learned in school transcend the classroom to real life situations.
At the beginning of one’s journey of gaining more knowledge, most children don’t mind school, for it is a change of environment for them. The majority of elementary school adolescents even enjoy school to some degree. As time wears on, we usually, and sadly, begin to see a change of heart. Children become fatigued from school and therefore don’t take pleasure in going anymore. Maybe their teachers didn’t teach them in the way that they learn most efficiently, or maybe students just become bored with the whole “school scene” itself. Whatever the case, it is apparent that by the time they reach high school, their interest for learning alone has died out.