An Open Letter to Educators
The college experience varies from person to person. Some party, some procrastinate, some do both. Some even study, go to class, apply themselves and succeed. There are some aspects that are true to the college experience that are consistent with every student. Upon reading Morgan Bayda's post entitled "An open Letter to Educators" I realized that our college experiences were pretty much the same. In spite of our generation gap we share many of the same experiences. We are both forced to sit through meaningless lectures, consume facts that will be regurgitated for a later test. We have to take courses on subjects that don't pertain to your major and will probably never use. On a lighter note, we both have felt the joy that one can experience upon finding that one professor who actually gets through to you and most importantly, the one that inspires you.
One would think that Morgan and I share the same age and are in the same generation due to the above similarities. However this is not so. We come from different backgrounds and there is a generational gap between the two of us. I started going to school again in Fall of 2010, I took a break from attending Western Washington University to move to Puerto Rico for six years. I left school in 2003 and I returned to the classroom eager and ready to learn. I had high expectations and expected change and sadly enough I found the opposite. I found boring power points and lectures that put you to sleep. How can one learn if they are trying to stay awake? At my new institution I am just a jag number rather than a student with a name, personality and actual thoughts. After going through this, it is evident that nothing has changed from when I left college in 2003. Further more, not a lot of my credits transferred fully. Due to this fact, I spent the majority of my first year here taking classes that don't pertain to my major. I got to take P.E., geology (the class that I'm sitting in at the moment), math, and two education classes that I have already taken that are being taught in almost the exactly same format.
Comments 4 Kids
Sorry folks, the blog that I got assigned to comment on could not be opened. Therefore there will be no post on this subject matter. Stay tuned for next week.
Poppy,
ReplyDeleteI have had a similar experience; however, I have come across a few more teachers that actually teach. It's sad that the college experience hasn't changed in 7 years. Obviously, something needs to take place. I hope we can change this mundane way of teaching when we become teachers.
Multi tasking. Great! "Some even study, go to class, apply themselves and succeed." Amazing. But here is the real clue about why and when learning takes place: "we both have felt the joy that one can experience upon finding ... [something] ... that inspires you." How do we make that happen. What kind of learning situation works for you?
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