Blog Post 10

An Open Letter to Educators

I agree with Dan Brown that education is more than necessary, it’s essential for everyone. He then asks “what does it mean to receive an education?” This question literally made me pause. I decided to think about how I look at what education really means before hearing what he has to say. I decided that it means learning how to function and perform in society whether that is socially and/or in the work field.

What Dan Brown said was that institutional education is something that needs to adjust in order to fit today’s society. He says there are different classes which cause upper class people to have better information and more information than other lower class people. He also said that thanks to the internet, the literal price of information is decreasing.

I can definitely relate to him when he talks about having classes where your professors don’t even know your name and having books that I never even open. Although there is always a way to find help, having so many students in one class makes things a lot more difficult. The book situation is quite obvious, books are EXPENSIVE and if money is coming out of your own pocket on books that aren’t even used, that would be quite frustrating!

Another point I can relate to is the fact that in a majority of my classes, the professor gives you information, you memorize for the test, and then you forget it. This is like Dr. Strange’s despicable “burp back method”. Personally, I believe that the best way to learn is either be being put in a situation where you must apply knowledge. When I am put in certain situations , I feel that I am much more likely to retain the information.

 I love that in EDM, we aren’t tested on the “facts” we memorized. We are judged by applied knowledge. Dan Brown feels that providing students with facts isn’t preparing us for the “real world”. I would have to agree with that.

Dan Brown says that he dropped out of school because “school was interfering with his education”. I can definitely see how this could be true. If I was to base staying in school on his standards, I would only have 2 classes out of 5. The 3 classes I would drop are those classes where teachers simply provide facts and expect us to memorize them before we “burp them back” or are simply completely “over taught” where my teacher believes that “busy work” is the best way to learn. EDM is definitely one of the classes I would keep. It is a prime example of a class that I think other teachers should consider changing to.

Two Questions That Can Change Your Life

The first question, “what’s my sentence?” is very difficult. I tend to be very wordy and always feel like I can write more, so I feel like I would be one to have more of a paragraph like Kennedy. His second question was “was I better today than yesterday?” I actually do ask myself this question a lot already. I have learned through athletics that this question is helpful in life as well. Personally I think that asking these questions are motivations for me. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to leave unanswered questions and I like to answer questions in a positive way. Therefore, my sentence is “I give ALL I’ve got, every day and in everything I do, I live life to the fullest with NO regrets, and I WILL be a success and make a difference in the lives of children.”