A blog by and for students in the Teaching in a Democracy course at Winthrop University. This course focuses on the often conflicting philosophical, social, and historical purposes of American education.
This is a bit scary. Scary in the sense that kids don't care to learn nor find any reason to besides a future career. We have all most likely seen this trend with our own eyes. Although not totally seriously, dropping out of school crossed my mind as a teenager. I had older "friends" who chose to drop out of school and were making money and seemed to be comfortable. I'm overwhelmed by the challenge of making students see past their future career choices and having these as their motivation for schooling. I'm not even in a classroom teaching yet. How do we make students want to learn primarily for what it is?: "knowledge". I suspect none of us has an answer.
The statistics for drop out rates in the inner-city is disturbing, but to me it is not surprising. I am from a big city in South Carolina and have seen and heard much of what goes on in the inner-city although I grew up in the suburbs. I also worked for a year at an inner-city school. There are so many temptations out there for students to drop out of school for. I'm speaking of drugs, crime, and gang life to name a few. However at the school I was at, many of the students did perform well academically. A lot of what you hear in the news about inner-city schools is negative. Anytime something good happens there the media chooses not to bring it up in the news. Deep down the kids want teachers who do care but inner-city schools have a hard time attracting them. This is due to the potential dangers of teaching and living there for various reasons. There are teachers out there that can inspire those kids to want to learn. They are not bad kids but they just need guidance that good teahers can give them.
I often wonder about the future of our country for reasons like this. There seem to be fewer and fewer people who seek to fight the good fight, against all odds. Sometimes I feel like choosing to become a teacher is somewhat like choosing to be one of the three hundred Spartans who fought for their freedom. We too fight for freedom, freedom of thought. "Knowledge is power, " has always been a favorite adage for me. If this is true, it looks like we might be in trouble. Are we as Americans becoming content to settle for less?
4 comments:
This is a bit scary. Scary in the sense that kids don't care to learn nor find any reason to besides a future career. We have all most likely seen this trend with our own eyes. Although not totally seriously, dropping out of school crossed my mind as a teenager. I had older "friends" who chose to drop out of school and were making money and seemed to be comfortable. I'm overwhelmed by the challenge of making students see past their future career choices and having these as their motivation for schooling. I'm not even in a classroom teaching yet. How do we make students want to learn primarily for what it is?: "knowledge". I suspect none of us has an answer.
Nel Noddings has an answer: Care.
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/noddings.htm
The statistics for drop out rates in the inner-city is disturbing, but to me it is not surprising. I am from a big city in South Carolina and have seen and heard much of what goes on in the inner-city although I grew up in the suburbs. I also worked for a year at an inner-city school. There are so many temptations out there for students to drop out of school for. I'm speaking of drugs, crime, and gang life to name a few. However at the school I was at, many of the students did perform well academically. A lot of what you hear in the news about inner-city schools is negative. Anytime something good happens there the media chooses not to bring it up in the news. Deep down the kids want teachers who do care but inner-city schools have a hard time attracting them. This is due to the potential dangers of teaching and living there for various reasons. There are teachers out there that can inspire those kids to want to learn. They are not bad kids but they just need guidance that good teahers can give them.
I often wonder about the future of our country for reasons like this. There seem to be fewer and fewer people who seek to fight the good fight, against all odds. Sometimes I feel like choosing to become a teacher is somewhat like choosing to be one of the three hundred Spartans who fought for their freedom. We too fight for freedom, freedom of thought. "Knowledge is power, " has always been a favorite adage for me. If this is true, it looks like we might be in trouble. Are we as Americans becoming content to settle for less?
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