More on education

Balance between teaching a set curriculum with allowing students to form independent connections with knowledge

Delivering a curriculum in a way which allows students to make connections to knowledge in a meaningful way, above all, requires incredible time and thought on the part of the educator. The more diverse life experiences and deep content knowledge the educator possesses, the better chance he or she has to be able to deliver the curriculum in a way that students can compartmentalize and be certain as to how and why it is useful to each individual student. A teacher being "one chapter ahead" can work for in a classroom where students simply love the idea of attaining knowledge, but unless the teacher can contextualize the information, it is difficult for any student to understand its importance.

Experiential Knowledge

I believe experiential knowledge is absolutely critical to students' learning. In my own experience, I know I would never have completely understood the tenets of Islam from the textbook chapter from which I read them if I had not lived with a Muslim host family in the Middle East. I would have never truly understood the importance of trade and communication via the Mediterranean if it I had not witnessed its physical vestiges with my own eyes in Greece, Italy, Turkey and Egypt. That said, I do not believe it is the job of the teacher to provide the student with these experiences. A class environment is a great place to break apart an issue or idea and discuss its components and implications. However in my opinion, it is the responsibility of the student to take these ideas and apply them in ways above and beyond what was presented in the classroom. In my classroom, I attempt to incorporate situations in which my students use their knowledge in real life scenarios. But at the same time, my greatest goal is to inspire them to go and seek these experiences themselves.

Implications of Education Reform

Today's educational reforms impact experiential learning so much! I think this is something that is greatly misunderstood by the public. Whereas people hear the idea of "no child left behind" and "all students held to the same standard" and associate it with positive learning outcomes, they are largely unaware of the learning sacrifices students are making to achieve these so-called "rigorous standards." In my middle school, students could choose to take Band, French, Spanish, German, Graphic Arts, Home Economics, etc in addition to a requirement of Science, Math, Language Arts and History not to mention the extracurriculars after school. This created an environment where something exciting was always taking place, whether it was a project, exposition, concert, sporting event, etc. At the middle school where I teach, 4 of 5 modules are filled with "core academic classes" with one module saved for one elective class. After school clubs are limited, with most resources going towards "Extended Learning Opportunity," or an extended hour and a half where students reinforce test taking strategies and math and reading skills. Consequently, this push for standardized testing in education reform has caused a great reduction in experiential learning opportunities.