Have you ever sat through a class a felt that your teacher’s opinions were superseding the facts? I have. I have even been given a worse grade than I deserved because my opinions did not match those of my teacher. I think that it is incredibly unprofessional for a teacher to treat a student differently because they have a different opinion. Teachers should present the information and let their students form their own opinions. Miz Alice presents this same idea in Heat-Moon’s story.
A member of my discussion board pointed out a quote from Miz Alice referring to children that says, “there is only one place they can get an education- in the school of thought.” I think she means that young children should need around and understand their surroundings and the beauty of the world. Anyone can tell a child to memorize equations and rules, but this that not truly useful education. She also says, “Once your eyeballs start working, then you can see what’s around, you can see history isn’t a thing of the past” and “education is thinking, and thinking is looking for yourself and seeing what's there, not what you got told was there." I think that education today places too much importance on core subjects and not enough focus on "real-life" subjects. Of course, it is important to learn America's history and algebra, but it is also essential for someone to learn through personal experience. People can only learn so much from textbooks. Heat-Moon benefits himself through his journey because he is diving into real-life experiences you cannot get from sitting in a class room.
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I also believe that education is not just memorizing facts to pass a test. Education is about applying your knowledge to your personal experiences and discovering the world for yourself. On Heat-Moon's journey he is not only discovering the world but also discovering his own beliefs on the way. I think that everyone should take time to look at their journey and figure out the true meaning of it. If a person never leaves a class room, they will not only have their own personal story but no experience to relate to what they have learned in the classroom.
I agree completely. I have had countless teachers tell me, "forget about grades, life isn't about a grade," and this is exactly what Miz Alice is trying to get across. The core subjects and the whole grading system has way too much of an emphasis on it. If you think back about your high school experience, do you remember equations and facts and lessons learned? No, you remember the people and the place and the times you had there. This is one of Miz Alice's biggest points, thst the emphasis should be shifted to past, personal experiences and off of the actual rigor of the schooling system.
This is an interesting post because it shows the problems of having opinions in the classroom and the problems of having nothing but facts. If you say that teachers should present "just the facts," that gives the false impression that the facts are objective, when they have been selected to present a perspective. Also, it keeps schools from doing what Miz Alice says they should do--teach kids to think for themselves. But when both teachers and students start expressing their opinions, things can get complicated so a lot of teachers just avoid the problem by sticking to "the facts." (It sounds like NOLA Girl had an unfair teacher--what happened?)
By the way, Capitalization of Innovation etc. had a good post about education too, so go check it out.
When Miz Alice says "there is only one place they can get an education- in the school of thought," it directly correlates with this assignment. Professor Channel could just give us all of the answers but she wants us to use our brains to think about the story. Miz Alice also provides an interesting perspective about eyeballs. So many people live their lives in a fog, never looking around to learn about the things around them. If people just opened their eyes, they could educate themselves outside the classroom, and probably enjoy learning.
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