I feel that in the last few years, education has reached a level of “just good enough” in terms of what students are capable of. For example, I’m sure that if I would have been in the classroom when I was in school, I might have been able to do a decent job with a couple of my math classes, but I would never have been able to read or write. I think the same is true for a lot of students.
There is no doubt that students are capable of doing much more than just memorizing facts. That is not the point though. The purpose of education is to develop a person’s ability to think critically, to reason, and to think imaginatively. If you want your students to be able to do that, then they will need a solid education.
That’s why I say that it’s okay to give students some time to practice their skills. But it’s important to recognize that, like any other skill, it’s something that you’ll need to develop over time. It’s okay to make it a part of the curriculum, but if it’s not something that you can teach in an academic setting, then it’s not something that will make you better at whatever it is.
So it seems to me that in college there should be an option for students to take a class or two (and a lot of them should be taking a class) but then we should make that a part of the curriculum. Of course, you need to find the right balance, and the best way to do that is to have a class that can be taught in a classroom style setting.
I guess this is the first step. The problem with that is that most classes have some sort of lecture and then a time to take notes and be on a computer. So you can get away with doing it in a lecture setting, but you won’t be able to actually learn the material unless you take a class.
My school had a large, well-curated library that was filled with books, and I would take them over the course of the year. This meant that we had to take more classes than I thought I could handle, which I think was a good thing. The problem with this approach is that it’s not scalable. A classroom setting probably takes about 50 students to create a class, and that’s a lot of students.
In my opinion, schools are a waste of resources. It’s easy to say, “Well, I’ve got a classroom,” but in reality, when you have a lot of students, the instructor, and the time it takes to actually teach on a level that makes sense to the student.
For me, it is my personal belief that the best way to teach is to spend time with the person, and then let the student work their way up to the teacher.
This is because a lot of times teachers can get lost in their own thoughts. But when they can actually share what they know, they can help each other in the classroom. I think that is why I am a teacher.
