Teachers Attitudes Toward Students (pay, middle school, grade, mathematics)
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He was monotone and emotionless but he knew his material. Often people who are extremely intelligent lack people skills. It would be a shame to lose what they learned in a lifetime because they're boring.
They don't have to teach. There are other ways to pass along knowledge.
They don't have to teach. There are other ways to pass along knowledge.
Passing knowledge directly is the most efficient way. While the class was boring, I'm glad I had the chance to hear from HIS mouth what HE did. A third party retelling a story always loses something.
Why, in the world, would you want to exclude someone who is brilliant from passing on knowledge directly just because he's boring? IMO, that shows no value for what he had learned in his lifetime. Entertainment should not take priority over learning from the masters.
We had to do both in my high school chemistry classes. Early 70's. Public school.
I have never seen the logic in memorizing the table. I tell my students that the better they know their way around it, the faster they'll find answers but I leave it up to them to do the work of learning their way around the table.
Why, in the world, would you want to exclude someone who is brilliant from passing on knowledge directly just because he's boring?
Where did I say I wanted to exclude anyone? I said there are other ways to pass along knowledge. Not all learning is done in a classroom setting. And there are MANY ways for wisdom to be recorded for the ages.
Think outside the box. As it is your boring teacher only reached a limited number of students. Challenge yourself to think of ways all he knew could have been passed along to YOUR students. Think expansion, not restriction. And while we are expanding maybe it should be entertaining enough to keep everyone awake.
Because no one is going to put the Youtube generation to sleep quicker than your boring professor and then learning will REALLY take a dive. Educators in this country would be well served to acknowledge that and think of ways to capitalize on it.
Last edited by DewDropInn; 08-06-2012 at 09:12 PM..
That's fine, if they fall asleep then they don't learn. They are hurting themselves, not the ones that already have their education. No one "made things fun" for me in high school and I did just fine.
That's fine, if they fall asleep then they don't learn. They are hurting themselves, not the ones that already have their education. No one "made things fun" for me in high school and I did just fine.
What I find interesting is back in the heyday of education in this country, no one made education fun. Yet, today, we blame boring teachers for kids not learning. What changed? Why do kids today require entertaining to learn and why is tha trequirement even acceptable? How come no one complained when we were kids that the problem with education was that teachers weren't entertaining enough? Could it be that kids knew it was their job to listen and learn and they actually did their job??
Today it's taboo to say that. You CANNOT blame the child in any way for failure to learn. It's the system or the teacher's fault if they don't learn. I think the reason that teachers not being enetertaining is blamed is that a really fun teacher can suck in kids who resist learning BUT that doesn't make the fact they resist learning for the other teacher's he has the teacher's fault. Not all of us are entertaining. Teaching is the only profession I can think of where perfection, for teachers, is the goal. Most professions accept that there are some people who are really good at them, some who struggle and, perhaps, shoudln't be there but most are average.
I can count on one hand the entertaining teachers I had from high school through college. If being entertaining were a requirement when I attended school, a lot of classrooms would have been empty.
Where did I say I wanted to exclude anyone? I said there are other ways to pass along knowledge. Not all learning is done in a classroom setting. And there are MANY ways for wisdom to be recorded for the ages.
Think outside the box. As it is your boring teacher only reached a limited number of students. Challenge yourself to think of ways all he knew could have been passed along to YOUR students. Think expansion, not restriction. And while we are expanding maybe it should be entertaining enough to keep everyone awake.
Because no one is going to put the Youtube generation to sleep quicker than your boring professor and then learning will REALLY take a dive. Educators in this country would be well served to acknowledge that and think of ways to capitalize on it.
The most valuable thing he brought to that classroom was discussion of the material. This is, normally, the case when you are dealing with someone with a lifetime of experience. There is NOTHING like talking to the person who actually developed something in a two way conversation. Seriously, the Youtube generation needs to wake up and realize that before a lot of first hand knowledge is lost. Watching a video of someone talking to a camera isn't the same as being there and being able to ask questions and have them answered.
Boring or not, he belonged in that classroom not because he was a great teacher but because he was a great scientist and we had much to learn from him. All it required was staying awake and motivating ourselves. I see no reason that students shouldn't be responsible for that little when it comes to their own educations. If a student doesn't want to do what it takes to stay awake and motivate themselves, I question whether they deserve an education. Unfortunately, we're dealing with generation special AKA the "it's someone elses fault not mine" generation.
I learned from Dr. F because because I knew that it was my job to listen and learn. I knew it was my job to motivate me not his. Still I wish I could sit in that classroom again...an older me...who appreciates even more that my education is my responsibility. I find it interesting that while the current generation of students blames the teacher for their failure to learn, I look back and think I didn't do enough to learn all I could have.
IMO, those who could not keep themselves awake and motivate themselves to learn in Dr. F's class didn't deserve what was there for the taking. I just wish I hadn't been broke. I was one of only a handfull of students he offered to take under his wing with an unpaid internship. One of my requirements for graduation was 12 months of paid internships for graduation. We couldn't work that out with the school or my finances. I wish I could have taken that internship. He was hard and boring and had the people skills of a gnat but he was brilliant and I could have learned a lot working for him.
Last edited by Ivorytickler; 08-07-2012 at 07:37 AM..
They don't have to teach. There are other ways to pass along knowledge.
AMEN to that! Fortunately, universities have come into the 21st century and are well aware of what it takes to make information more interesting. I don't care what anyone says, the majority of people NEED to be entertained. They need stimulation. Oh sure, there are a few people out there who don't care about the entertainment/social aspect, but the majority of the students (adults AND childen), do far better when there's some "shock value" going on. Whether it's humor or extremism or plain old animation, it's a whole lot easier to sit still and stay focused when there's some entertainment happening!
AMEN to that! Fortunately, universities have come into the 21st century and are well aware of what it takes to make information more interesting. I don't care what anyone says, the majority of people NEED to be entertained. They need stimulation. Oh sure, there are a few people out there who don't care about the entertainment/social aspect, but the majority of the students (adults AND childen), do far better when there's some "shock value" going on. Whether it's humor or extremism or plain old animation, it's a whole lot easier to sit still and stay focused when there's some entertainment happening!
Decades ago I was in an elementary school district that Walt Disney himself took a shine to. So he provided our schools with endless hours of his educational films . He was a man who knew the value of learning and entertainment. If it was good enough for Mr. Disney.....
(I can still remember him on closed circuit TV explaining to us kids his vision for Disney World. He had a huge set-up that explained where everything was going to be. He pointed out different structures and talked to us about how everything was going to be interconnected. He had such a dream and he shared it with us. Who knows how many architects and scientists and artists and and who-knows-what-else he inspired. I look back on it and think, wow, he was explaining urban planning to 6th graders.)
Last edited by DewDropInn; 08-07-2012 at 07:27 PM..
Decades ago I was in an elementary school district that Walt Disney himself took a shine to. So he provided our schools with endless hours of his educational films . He was a man who knew the value of learning and entertainment. If it was good enough for Mr. Disney.....
(I can still remember him on closed circuit TV explaining to us kids his vision for Disney World. He had a huge set-up that explained where everything was going to be. He pointed out different structures and talked to us about how everything was going to be interconnected. He had such a dream and he shared it with us. Who knows how many architects and scientists and artists and and who-knows-what-else he inspired. I look back on it and think, wow, he was explaining urban planning to 6th graders.)
And grooming future customers...
The problem with entertainment in eduation is the more we entertain, the more kids think they must be entertained to learn and that it's our fault if they fail to learn. It's not they didn't learn it because they didn't pay attention, it's they didn't learn it because we didn't make it entertaining enough. And the bar keeps getting raised on what they consider entertaining.
The first year I taught chemistry, after finishing our first lab, one student left my room exclaiming "This class is gonna be COOL!"....Last year I did the same opening lab and got "We've seen this a hundred times on you tube.". Now what? I need a new, MORE exciting opening lab because they've all made works bombs before. Never mind there was an actual chemistry lesson I was trying to teach with that lab. It's now boring.
Many of my labs are BORING but they teach the concepts. There is nothing about mixing salt water and sugar water and determining their freezing points that is, remotely, exciting (especially when compared to youtube) but it teaches the concept that freezing point depression is dependent on the number of particles present not the type of particles present.
The truth is, I'm the only one in my class who gets to do exciting chemistry because I'm the only one who knows what I'm doing and then I have to be very careful that my students don't try this at home. There's some scary **** on youtube . I don't know whether to mention it and tell them how scary it really is or leave sleeping dogs lie and hope they never stumble across it.
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. I don't know whether to mention it and tell them how scary it really is or leave sleeping dogs lie and hope they never stumble across it.
