Education: It's Tricky Business

Throughout this course, many different aspects of education have been discussed and argued, whether in the articles we've read or the essays we've written. Education has so many elements to consider when one is presents with the task of defining it. In the classroom, education is meant to have a solid base that students will need to have in order to move on to higher education. However, this solid base should be flexible to allow for changing times, such as incorporating advances in technology. Joey's presentation on technology in the classroom and the article "Floating Foundations" support this argument.
Also, education does not mean taking notes, memorizing dates or formulas, and taking tests on the information thrown at students. Education should allow for growth in the subject which comes from critical thinking and what information is retained by the students. Students should be able to interact with teachers during their schooling. Education is experience. One learns from what one experiences; so, by interaction and the use of critical thinking to question and relate different topics in the classroom will allow students to be exposed. "Living Savage Inequalities" depicts this interaction with the 5th grade class and how they learned to think critically about their school's present state and were able to write to higher powers about their ideas and concerns.
Education is such a complicated topic. No wonder it's a difficult thing to achieve.

Research Question: How would one plan to engage and involve their student body in the classroom? (Teacher's ideas and tactics to engage students to allow for critical thinking.)

The "new" Definition of Education

Throughout this class, I believe we've considered so many aspects of education that I had never previously look at for answers on the topic. For example, "The Peublo Indians Perspective" really opened my eyes to what keeps a community grounded in its educational roots. Theses people learn through speech. How many towns, communities, or citys can say that the roots of their foundation are grounded in verbal stories and communication. I for one attended school but spent much of my time reading, writing, and spelling. The teacher would speak on subjects but I feel that I learned and remember much more from my readings then from anything my teacher told me. I honestly can't really remember anything my teacher "talked" about with the class. Through the presentations in class, I've learned so much about the deaf culture that I had never reflected on before. Deaf culture, in my opinion, has so much to do with "The Peublo Indians Perspective". Sign language is the way deaf people verbally communicate and the way they communicate says a lot about team work and community. I played volleyball against the state school for the deaf in Minnesota. The girls we played against were amazingly good, and had hand signals and screams or yells that we couldn't understand, making it very difficult to plan our attack. I'm pretty sure that in three years we never beat them or tied even once. That to me says a lot about the culture and community of people who value tradition and community. It keeps verbal stories and conversations going in a way that communities who don't stop to consider its value do. I guess now I would define education as something undefinable. There really isn't a way for me to encompass what I've learned in life. Much of it has been in a classroom, but a great deal of what I know comes from my friends, family, and peers. I suppose if I had to define education though, I would say it's an endless journey of scholastic learning intertwined with pain and love and that is how you learn about what life really is. If I had to choose one research question that is important in the field of educational studies, I would reflect on "why the economy in the U.S. makes the cost of higher education so steep when in France, for example, College is essentially free?".

Education is the Branch to a Different World

To me, education is the branch to a different world. No matter what form of education, it creates a new life. Through all the presentations given, I realized that education can be linked to anything whether it be through sports, foriegn relations, or even animals. Everyone demonstrated how people are affected by education and what resulted in it. Most of our essays in the beginning of the year were about the different enviornments of education. For example "Living Savage Inequalities." This essay discussed the living enviornment for young kids recieving an education and how motivated they were in doing so. This in fact proves that education surrounds us and much like the oxygen from trees, we feed off of it. Each branch defines a form of education. Yet, learning can also be subconscious. Learning is like breathing, we do it without having to say "Okay, I think I'll breathe now." When people learn from their mistakes it shows a different form of education even though you may not realize it. I believe that recognizing the ability to learn is essential to life. It redefines how that individual will make of his/herelf.

How does education define the individual throughout life?

Education as Communication

Upon reading back through the blogs about our presentations in class, I found that even though we have a wide range of topics, they can still be related with one another with education and with emphasis on communication. Whether someone is talking about having schools specifically for the deaf, genocide in Darfur, special needs education or therapy, or technology in education, it requires that people educate one another and use communication in order to both create goals and obtain them. So, reflecting again on what I think education means, I believe my definition should include the social aspects of learning which many people either forget or ignore. "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective" talked about how important spoken language can be. "The Lesson" used different means to educate children in a different style of communication. Even the hurricane Katrina article we read used pieces of writing from different individuals in order to portray information to the readers. With the idea of communication and socialization in mind, I think a really important research question would be how different means of communication affect education and learning. This doesn't simply include talking, but also the way teachers use excersizes in class, what projects they choose, how they convey pieces of information (in what kind of mannor), and what individual teachers highlight as important to know and learn. This is really important when discussing education because learning often depends on how effectively information gets across from one person to another. As far as communication in education goes, teachers need to be precise and be able to hit their goals everytime in order to get students to learn.

Final

Defining "education" is not an easy task. Education is extremely complex. There is traditional education, education in a classroom, in addition to all of the learning that takes place outside of it. Education is about furthering knowledge, pushing boundaries, overcoming obstacles, and solving problems. Many of our research projects fall into these categories: furthering knowledge about technology and the genocide in Darfur, pushing boundaries of university housing, overcoming obstacles posed by ADHD, autism, and deafness, and solving problems within the educational system.

My thoughts about education at the beginning of the semester I think still hold true, that education is like learning to ski. You start out with the basics, getting the right equipment, learning how to make turns and stop. When you've got that down, move to the green slopes where the beginner skiiers are. They move a little faster and are a little more comfortable on their own. They might get out of control at times, but are constantly trying new things. They are eager and curious about the little bumps on the side of the slope and what's through those trees. Kids in kindergarten and elementary school follow this outline. They start out completely supervised and don't really know what is going on. They listen to stories, but can't really read them independently. They're making friends, learning to share, and building basic social skills.

Once those first few milestones have been passed, it's on to the blue runs. These ones are a little harder; people of all ages going down steeper and narrower slopes. The skiers are in control of their own speed and movement and have a little more wiggle room. In the last year or so of elementary school and middle school, students are given more responsibilities and more freedom. They decide how much time to put into homework, who their friends are, and what their attitude is like towards school.

Once you're very comfortable on the blue runs, you challenge yourself to the blacks. The blacks have skiiers who have been skiing for years. They are confident in their abilities and are pretty good at what they do. They are in complete control of their body movements and are curious about what's around the next corner. In high school, students are in control of a lot of things. They are responsible for going to class, doing homework, housework, and their social lives. In each phase of education, the responsibility is increased along with freedom. High school is harder because students are in charge of a lot of components of their lives and the way they handle and control them is up to themselves.

The double blacks are the highest you can go, but you never really master them. There are many ways to tackle a double black run, and there is never a point when skiiers can say they have learned all they need to know. There is always something you could do better, even olympic athletes have not learned all they can know. The same goes for education. Even after graduation from college, that is not where the learning stops. Learning is continuous and you can never get to the top of the education ladder. There is no top.

One research question I believe is important for the field of education is: What is the best way to change the educational system to better fit our changing society?
I think politicians and certain organizations are trying to reform education, but there are still A LOT of problems within our system. There are many ideas about how to change education to accomodate learning disabilities and change athletic department regulations and education in Africa, but how do we accomplish that. How do we take it from something on paper to a reality?

Everything Shimmers

It became obvious through the breadth of research topics our class presented that education is a broad term. Education encompasses everything from the many way to learn, the settings for learning, and the things to learn. We can conclude that everyone learns something or another. Not every single person can have the same knowledge as another because of what they've learned will have differed from another, or where they learn, or, how they've learned. Home life, schooling, friends, interests all effect what knowledge one acquires. What and how the teachers of Tulane learned in "Floating Foundations" differs greatly from that of the main character of "The Lesson." Although Colleen and Jessica's research papers both deal with the same demographic, the deaf community, both papers maintain completely unique point of views and theses. Additionally, it became evident through the presentations - most people researched things they've dealt with before or have seen and wanted to build their knowledge off. Furthermore, I firmly believe we will forever learn more outside the classroom than inside it. That's exactly what education is, it's the drawing and reflection upon experiences to create one's own outlook or understanding about something. Something is always valuable to someone. So, if this is true, how can we as a society measure intelligence?

Education: A Tree We Need To Help Grow

Education can be described by using a metaphore of a tree. Its s solid structure that slowly changes over time, evolving to new times and supporitng any new dilemas that come along the way. It stands firm through rain or shine, to help people solve problems when they need more information, or need motivation to change their future. You can always count on the fact that it is going to be there, because education is everywhere, and anybody who wants it can find it. It has many branches that illustrate the different aspects of education, and in class these branches are what we have studied. When listening to presenatations and reading the essays assigned, it is clear that education as many different forms, and even with its unique branches, each branch helps people learn and grow in one way or another. For example, we read about the Pueblo cultur. Culture can teach us many things, allowing us to become less ignorant of other people and the world around us. Cultures have different forms of communication, teaching styles and traditions. We also have learned that education can come in many forms whether it be a classroom, online, using difffernt tools such as animals, or as mentioned previously technology.It might even be just living in the real world and learning through experience. Its clear then that all education is is a tool that will help us with problems and questions in the future. Its a tool that is reliable and will help people thrive in their endevors. It will help us appreciate what we have and what needs to be fixed. The branches on this tree of education will always be there for us when we need it. We just need to make sure that we nurture it, and take care of it, and help it grow because if we dont, we will miss out on a great opportunity to learn from it.

Reaserch question: Why is it that some people dont find it necassasry to take advantage of this "tree of education" in their lives, and struggle with things that would be easy to solve if they just would took the time to get a better education? What are the turnoffs of education?

photo link : https://www.nsu.edu/elementaryeducation/images/tree.jpg