Kindergarten Teacher in High school
“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you. If you are determined to learned no one can stop you.”
At my old high school, the majority of kids are not willing to learn, they do not set goals or have the motivation to be great at whatever they may want to do in life. Some may use the excuse “Well he or she comes from a bad home” and I will respond that kids spend twice as much time at school then they do at home. If that is the case, is it the teacher’s responsibility to get the students on the path to success? No, teachers are here to assist students not force greatness upon them. They are supposed to increase the level of imagination and curiosity in this world not diminish it . Educators should not only teach the math’s and sciences but the importance of life and how to strive as a human being. As Dewey said “The point of this common place is that the purpose of school education is to insure the continuance of education by organizing the powers that insure growth. The inclination to learn form life itself and to make the conditions of life such that all we learn in the process is the finest product of schooling.” The further one gets in education the more the school system tells student what to think and not how to think. In kindergarten teachers embrace imagination, and influence the students to think outside of the box.
Obviously a high school teacher can not teach like a elementary school teacher but one could take the same principles and apply them to there classroom. We ask students what they want to be when they grow up when they are young but we do not ask that in high school; when they are about to go college and purse that dream. As educators we should help keep our students motivated to be what they want to be. We can do that by simply asking them “how are you going to purse those dreams?” When a teacher ask a student those type of question and get them saying the steps they need to take out loud to a teacher; they are more like to stick to there plan. My mother who is kindergarten teacher told me “everything you do in your life from this point forward will affect how will your children eat”. When she told me that, it really hit me because everyone once the best for the children. If we as educators could get our high school students to think about their future in that manner, you will see a dramatic change in the population students. Everyone will not be on board immediately, and some may never get it, and that is okay because you can lead a horse to water but cannot make them drink it. As long as you help lead them in the right direction you did your job, because as teachers we are here to assist not force. The purpose of education is less about the content and more about the outside world and seeing themselves in it.
One huge difference between kindergarten and high school is the way teachers present material; how they actually teach. In kindergarten teachers make the students engage with the lesson; talking out loud, with open ended questions to get the mind, in high school not all teachers but some teachers just hand you a worksheet and expect you to learn that way. Any student that is not motivated do great in schooln will fail that class because they are not engaed. Jeff Bliss a high school student made some strong comments to his teacher for doing just that and it struck the entire country.
Dewey, J. (1938) Education and experience.
