Working it out...
Hi!
I keep getting that question--mostly in Algebra, honestly. You can probably guess what it is: "When am I ever going to use this stuff?" Of course, I could answer, "The next few years as you attempt to graduate" or "When you become a teacher." Or I could give the "accepted" answer: "You're not just learning it to know this subject for a job later in life, although you might need it for that. You're learning so that you can train your brain to think."
But some days that sort of answer isn't enough. (If you're a recalcitrant student it may never be enough.) Why are we working so hard at school? (Well, some of you.) What is so important about education that we teachers cram it down unwilling throats (not all of you and not literally, certainly)?
I talk sometimes about "gottawanna." If that's lacking in a student, then teaching is so much harder. What makes a student want to learn? And please don't answer "entertaining teachers." I know, I know, your generation is the Nickelodeon culture, the ADD and ADHD norm. What makes a student like you want to learn?
I know some of you just naturally like to read or write or even study new vocabulary words. Some of you are more prone to mathematics or science or history or art or music or languages. But we should, I think, be longing to learn new information--all the time. We should all have the "gottawanna" even amidst the "havtadoits."
So help me out here. Why learn? How do you reach those "neverwannas"? What, exactly, is the point? (And what, exactly, is the point to this blog, right?)
Thanks for answering! (Of course, the grade helps, too, doesn't it?)
Love,
Mrs. D
posted by Sister Sara @ 5:34 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
I agree with the two previous posts.
Well, I have been seriously asking myself the past few days what the point of education is, and I have yet to find an answer. Maybe if I reason my way through this blog, I may find the answer myself. Of course I could put some regurgitated material about education being important so you can do amazing in college and getting a job, which is for the majority what happens. But, there are CEO's of big companies with just a high school diploma. I just don't know who they are, my dad used to talk about them all the time... anyways.
I think that God gave us as His children (those of us who are saved) the responsibility to do everything to the best of our ability, without complaining or arguing. So, to reiterate what the q_10 person put, ya, it's a God-given responsibilty to fulfill.
However, is that all that education is? I personally like to make people happy. I hate it when I disappoint people. Want to give me a guilt trip? Tell me (and act out with facial expressions) how terrible of something I did, and why it was wrong, how terrible it was ( :-) ) and how dissappointed you are in my behavior. It will send me into 2-3 day mourning. So, for me, it's doing my best for everyone else, my parents, my teachers, my peers... no, not my peers, ya'll don't care, but people who really do care how I do, what I do, and why I do it. That's my motivation, knowing i'm doing well for someone else, plus doing well feels pretty good. Getting a D on a paper looks so much worse than an A... :-) hope that's satisfactory Mrs. D...
Oh, by the way, writing all that did not change my mind, I still don't like school, going or doing it or anything.
I agree with Ellie. My current motivation for learning when I don't want to is so that I can make it into a good college and get a good degree in a solid career. What we do now, prepares us for college. Teachers are "cramming" stuff down our throats so much that if we're smart we'll start paying attention to what type of stuff matters. Because when you get to college you no longer have a profesor in a small class who cares for each individual person and wants you to do well. You are in a huge class usually, or at least much larger than what we're used to, with a teacher who, although they want you to do well, they most likely won't go out of their way to bring up your grades.
I also think that what teachers say about teaching our brains how to think and teaching us how to be disciplined with our time and all that stuff that teachers say when asked "Why?" is true. It's just that at our young age in this culture the focus is on the here and now, not the future. So we don't want to here about the future and how much we need this education to succeed. We just want the good life now! That's why kids now-a-days don't accept the perfectly wise answer to why we should learn.
Personally, I think some of us are just stupid and need to listen. We have 16 years of our life devoted soley to learning. We should take advantage of it now because if we wait the opportunities won't be there. 16 years of a little learning in exchange for an average of $25,000 more than an uneducated person makes. That's the stat anyways. I think it's worth it.
(Nothing was directed at anybody specific. It was all general...except, of course, when I use "I".)
Well, if I'm going to be perfectly honest, I'm more of a "havetadoit" than someone who really wants to learn. I'm not sure why I have to do everything (perfectionist nature?) even when my parents say it's too late to stay up and finish homework, but I do. Like Steph, I don't really want to be a "working woman," but I also agree that we're supposed to do everything like we're doing it for God, so I guess that's part of why I try so hard. I don't really see the point of education (girls got along just fine when they couldn't go to school . . .), but my parents say it's important, and I know I could never drop out now because then I would feel terrible. Maybe that's it . . . kind of like Marissa I feel like I can't let my family or my teachers down. I still don't really know, but that's all I have to say.
mmhmm this is tough, it's also one of those topics that i am familar with, learning can be such a pain, but the reason i do it is so that i can go to a good college and paly tennis, where i will get a degree in something that will help me make more money and met some good lookin ladies. but usually i forget that incentive. i think the thing that keeps me from wanting to learn is the amount learning give to us, or me for that matter
For me there is a fine line between wanting to do it, and having to do it. There is really nothing I enjoy scholastically besides English, Drama, and Choir. So that leaves all the math, history, and science courses which I detest greatly. So I am not really certain why I do it besides the fact that I have to. I'm not going to be a scientist, or a mathematician, or a theologian, or a historian. So, all these things would appear to be a waste of time. But that's life. So, I guess we learn because God wants us too. I don't what makes me conclude that, but it sounds good enough for the government:)
Consider this graded.
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