Calling all Teachers (and Lifelong Learners)

I know it’s summer and to some, this call is premature, but its importance means now is the time.

I made the mistake of reading a social media post from a local news station regarding “teaching” the Martin/Zimmerman case in public schools. It caught my attention because I wondered what adding the topic to curriculum would look like. In fact, with or without curriculum, chances are teachers that encourage discussion in class have already addressed it because the kids brought it up. What a teachable moment - NOT a liberal, agenda loaded, teacher/media/union led/out to brainwash our kids opportunity. The ignorance within the social media thread confirmed in me the need to be a teacher as long as I have breath in my body.

As teachers, our job is not to push content, in fact teaching all the content in the entire world is absurd and impossible and it’s just as ridiculous to believe any teacher worth their salt would even try. Real teaching and learning is about the process. We USE curriculum as a medium to TEACH students how to question, assess, compare, extend, draw conclusions from and manipulate information available to them so they can make THEIR OWN informed decisions.

What pissed me off in the social media thread was the abundance of people arguing without any facts. It’s clear that too many of them had teachers who pushed limited, separated content irrelevant to any form of free thinking or even the ability to step inside the perspective of others.

MAYBE Common Core will help address and begin to correct what looks like several generations of emotional, bandwagon riding, card-carrying and often flag waving people who learnt’ their readin’, writin’, and ‘rithmatic, but didn’t learn how to open their eyes and use the tools around them to march forward with the tools needed for informed decision making in their pocket.

No, I do not want to teach children what to think, but rather HOW, by any means necessary. Some crazy revolutionary once said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.” I believe Aristotle’s “educating the heart,” to be to follow what’s on yours. How can you do that if you can’t think for yourself? No amount of content is going to help you there.

I’m fired up! Teachers...who’s with me?