Teach them how to fisheducated http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com By Nancy Sungyun Sun, 05 Feb 2012 05:05:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 en hourly 1 By Nancy Sungyun Teach them how to fish no By Nancy Sungyun Teach them how to fisheducated http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/wp-content/plugins/powerpress/rss_default.jpg http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com In defense of teaching good writing http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/in-defense-of-teaching-good-writing/ http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/in-defense-of-teaching-good-writing/#comments Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:49:20 +0000 admin http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/?p=56             Good writing skills may not lead to our students becoming the wealthiest, but it will lead to the likelihood of them having freer minds.   A freer mind is a mind that judges and makes thought out decisions for each situation that arises.  A freer mind also can detect bad rhetoric and avoid being persuaded by the self-interested and self-promoting entertainers of today, who attempt to influence their audience with logic-devoid fear inducing propaganda.

            I look at what is going on with the healthcare issue and see the self appointed authoritative voices Astroturf supposed grass-roots movements and convince the very people who need affordable health care, into thinking that it is bad for them by masterfully hammering away with hot button words.   These self-only-interested entertainers mis-use and reinforce the misunderstanding of any words and any ideas that they choose. 

            I am of the opinion that good writing skills are some of the most powerful tools in enabling and building critical thinking in our children.  Today, many years after my composition training, I see how every essay that I’ve personally written has shaped my ideas and helped me to sharpen my thinking skills. 

            Writing is one of the hardest things for many to do, since it requires the writer to sharply hone in on what he or she is thinking in order that his or her thoughts are put on paper clearly for the reader, and that is an uncomfortable and unnatural thing for most to do.  Fuzzy thinking cannot exist simultaneously with clarity of expression of thoughts and ideas.

            The process of learning how to gain good writing skills offers students an opportunity to become even smarter.  Janet Emig the author of an essay ”Writing As a Mode Of Learning” claims that, “If the most efficacious learning occurs when learning is reinforced, then writing through its inherent reinforcing cycle involving hand, eye, and brain marks a uniquely powerful multirepresentational mode for learning.”  This reminds me of what a master educator had once told me.  She explained that a person who learns something seven different ways has almost no chance of forgetting that which they learned.  Who is to say how many more modes of learning is actually taking place while they are seeing, doing and reinforcing.  I think the scientists of Brain Plasticity would agree with Janet Emig’s theory.

             Going back to my argument that our children need to develop their critical minds…  The alternative will avail our children to a life that is not “fair and balanced.”  Without critical thinking citizens, we cannot hope to have a truly healthy society.  Today the fear mongers are powerful and are very good at manipulating the innocent minds of good-hearted folks.  We must be sure to guide our children/students to become a generation that is optimally educated, powerful critical thinkers who will not be pushed around by the loud and obnoxious soul-less voices.

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]]> http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/in-defense-of-teaching-good-writing/feed/ 1 Barbie’s plastic surgery http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/barbies-plastic-surgery/ http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/barbies-plastic-surgery/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:32:42 +0000 admin http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/?p=42             In 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft, an author of,  A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman, argued that girls should be educated to strengthen their body, heart and mind.  During her time females were being taught to focus on learning how to be physically attractive to men so that they may be cared for by the men.

Consequently, the most perfect education, in my opinion, is such an exercise of the understanding as is best calculated to strengthen the body and form the heart.  Or, in other words, to enable the individual to attain such habits of virtue as will render it independent.  Infact, it is a farce to call any being virtuous whose virtues do not result from the exercise of its own reason.

-Mary Wollstonecraft

            Over two hundred years later, Mattel appears to completely lack a good sense and a sense of responsibility toward how some of their best customers are being powerfully mis-educated by them.  You can read about it at:

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2009/10/13/barbies-fat-ankles-latest-flap-racial-body-image-controversies

 

I am interested in your thoughts.  Please leave me a comment.

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]]> http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/10/barbies-plastic-surgery/feed/ 0 The importance of education http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/09/the-importance-of-education/ http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/2009/09/the-importance-of-education/#comments Wed, 30 Sep 2009 05:53:10 +0000 admin http://www.teachthemhowtofish.com/?p=28

Education doesn’t make you happy, and nor does freedom.  We don’t become happy just because we’re free, if we are, or because we’ve been educated, if we have, but because education may be the means by which we realize we are happy.  It opens our eyes, our ears… tells us where delights are lurking… convinces us that there is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever… that of the mind… and gives us the assurance, the confidence, to walk the path our mind… our educated mind… offers.

- – Iris Murdoch

 

             “There is only one freedom of any importance whatsoever… that of the mind”… meaning that if we are not educated, academically and other wise, we are not truly free.  So if we want our children to grow up to be truly free human-beings, we must find a way to inspire them to fall in love with the idea of educating their minds.

            How do we inspire our children?  We must be inspiring parents and teachers alike.  We must be in love with what we are teaching because if we do, they will.  We must be in love with learning, for if we do, they will.

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