This week has been a “thinking” week for me.

In our Horton discussion, a few issues came up that troubled me. We began discussing the value of story telling as it relates to teaching. One team member quoted Horton, "story-telling activities relate individual human experiences. They make information real and personal." I agree with that observation because it’s consistent with the way I think about life.

Another group member argued that teachers must be careful to make the distinction between activism and teaching. The point was made that many parents do not want teachers to undermine what is being taught at home. Parents want teachers to teach the basics – reading, writing, and arithmetic and avoid controversial issues like politics, ethics, or morality because these subject areas are better taught at home.

I agree with that observation to an extent because I know that I would resent an authority figure like a teacher advocating for example, conservative morality to my child. That would be contrary to my values. On the other hand, if you only learn conservative or liberal morality at home, where is the place to learn what the rest of the world is doing? I am using morality as one example. There are many issues like this.

How do students develop critical thinking skills when our educational system allows them limited access to the bigger world and broader ways of thinking? For younger students, it is easy to understand why parents and teachers limit certain kinds of information. One of my co-workers shared that her child’s third grade teacher discussed cannibalism in class. In my opinion, that’s over the top because most young children aren’t mature enough to understand an extreme practice like cannibalism. Middle school students on the other hand, are beginning to ask more complex questions and are capable of understanding sophisticated concepts (I don’t think we give them enough credit.) They are questioning their world and if they don’t get the answers in school, or at home, where do they go? To each other?

Isn’t there is a place for teaching the origins of Adam and Eve, alongside of Darwinism, alongside of Islam (which is a rapidly growing religion worth knowing about), alongside of Buddhism? It seems that in times past, an education (particularly for young men) was far more robust than it is nowadays. It’s as though we’re afraid of knowledge and information, we’re challenged by it instead of embracing its potential power. Of course, teachers must refrain from advocating one position over another but does that mean that philosophical discussions are off-limits completely? Where do you draw the line? And more important, who draws the line?

The presidential election has brought many of these issues to the forefront. We’ve stopped putting a premium on intellect. We vote based on gender, religious affiliation, skin color, the style of a candidates eyeglass, or whether they have a friendly face. While it seems that intellectually we’re going backwards as a country, the issues, and life as we know it, is becoming more complex than ever. We’re a country of inconsistent thinkers (or consistent non-thinkers) and its roots, I believe, are based in our failure to teach generations of children the life skills they need to become "thoughtful" citizens of this country.

I have learned so much over the past two weeks. It’s been a frustrating process because life is becoming more complicated and I am learning that everything needs to be updated, including me.

My wireless connection is undependable. I’m going to switch to a wired connection asap.
My connection is getting slower. I need more memory asap. I’ve already ordered it and the guys at work have agreed to install it.

I have sound card but somehow my driver got damaged so I had to download another. That was a big fat headache so I lugged my computer into work and got some professional help. It should have been easy but for some reason we had problems. I got it fixed eventually. As I carried my computer back out to my car it started to rain. I slipped and fell but saved my computer. My baby toe got smashed in the process. It’s amazing how an injury to a baby toe can impact the whole foot. The toe is healing but it looks like a little pickle – very gross.

I bought a cheap microphone to see how it would be. You get what you pay for. Patrick advised me to try a better version and I did, and it works very well.

Connect is a great program and Patrick’s camtasia really helped. Some people learn better by a visual demonstration. I researched Connect online and fiddled with a number of settings, but watching Patrick made it all seem so much simpler than I thought. That helped a lot. Also, thanks to Patrick for dealing with me. He has the patience of Job (Job or Jobe?).

Values and strategies are clearer to me. It’s really all common sense. Anyone who thinks about how they learn understands values and strategies innately. Education theory throws me off a bit but it’s useful information once you get to the bone.

I’ve invested a lot of time in this class over the past 2 weeks particularly. I am enjoying myself though.