"How do we make learning relevant to students"

Post date: May 31, 2012 5:14:31 PM

From Krystal, by Good

I particularly liked the suggestion of Sugata Mitra, an education scientist and professor at Newcastle University in the U.K., that we replace Readin', 'Ritin', and 'Rithmetic with the following:

Reading Comprehension

Information Search and Retrieval

"How to Believe," which sounded like the ability to distinguish between good and bad information: "arming students against doctrine"

As I noted to Krystal, there is still a part of me that wonders whether things like arithmetic need to be internalized before one can really have a good sense of, e.g., how to search and what questions to ask, but I also think those things can be internalized along the way to building other, more relevant skills.

Also, that part about teaching kids to sit quietly and disengage and just deal with the horrible feelings that engenders: yes! I want a wild and rowdy classroom!