Life vs. The Classroom

Let me start out by saying that I have the utmost respect for teachers. And then I’ll qualify that statement further: I have the utmost respect for teachers who care about their students and are doing their best to provide a life-worthy education. In my mind that’s different than providing an education that simply meets administrative mandates as measured by standardized testing. I’ll try to demonstrate what I mean by sharing a story about one of my children and a test he took in school.

The test was part of a social studies class. On the final question, he had to write a short essay expressing his opinion about a topic that had been discussed in the class. He received a poor grade on the essay because his articulated opinion didn’t agree with that given as “right” in the classroom. To me, this was an example of teaching a student WHAT to think rather than HOW to think. From that point forward, in that class, my son knew that critical thinking wasn’t desired. What he had to do to get a good grade was…

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The remainder of this essay can be found in the book “Farther Down The Road”

Farther Down the Road – Where does your life’s road lead?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTJ1B2QR

 

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