Connection to the World
The notion that students work harder when they understand how
their learning connects with their culture, family, neighborhood,
and personal concerns is an idea that has been around since John
Dewey. This doesn't mean that teachers have to pander to popular
culture. It means that we search for ways to help students
translate the real dilemmas of their time-about the quality of
their lives and their neighborhood, about fairness and prejudice,
opportunity and despair, friendship and betrayal-into the subject
matter at hand.
Passionate teaching can only be recognized, ultimately, in terms
of students engaging in productive learning that connects with
real-world problems and events. If we are to succeed in our work
with students, we must realize that what they produce and the
habits of mind that allow them to be productive matter most. The
old notion of "Well, I've laid it out there for them-whether they
pick it up or not is their business" cannot serve us anymore (if
indeed it ever could). We need to nurture the growth, not just
scatter the seeds, of knowledge and skills among a great
diversity of students. Mutual respect comes when teacher and
students realize that the work is real and useful, has value in
itself, and that acquiring certain skills and knowledge and
attitudes allows them to accomplish something they recognize as
important.
Education is, after all, about enabling students to know and do
important things and to act as decent, responsible, and
thoughtful people. Our preoccupation in schools should be with
nurturing the capacity within students to learn while they attend
school and to continue to learn on their own when they have left.
Not everything we teach must immediately become connected to the
"real world"; nor should teachers be thwarted by their students'
lukewarm reactions to subjects that we adults are passionate
about. Part of what makes us important role models for young
people is the patience we display when something (a book, a play,
a scientific article) doesn't engage us immediately, the
appreciation we show for hard work on difficult-to-learn skills,
and our faith that persistence and diligence pay off over time.
Whenever we can inspire young people to put to use the knowledge
and skills they are trying to acquire, by accomplishing some task
that is respected in the world beyond school (e.g., tutoring
younger kids, creating a nature trail, using math to help
families with shopping or taxes, organizing an environmental
action, writing for community audiences, rallying around a local
issue) students are much more likely to understand why they
need to acquire the basic skills that make for success in such
efforts and to be willing to work hard to learn them. Students
who employ their fledgling grasp of geometry to design a
playground for a neighborhood pre-school appreciate both what
they know and do not yet know about the subject.
(Fried, pp45-7)
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