Wednesday, November 19, 2008
I am taking a class in Adolescent Development and last night we were discussing "Ecologic Theory" of social development. I will leave it up to you to research the particulars of this theory as I want to discuss one thing that struck me as somewhat unsettling. That is the idea that what we know as individuals changes in relevance to other ,through time. Now as a wannabe history teacher this might be one of those "duh" moments. But on a personal level it made me feel some what irrelevant. I mean,what I know about the 1960's, the Civil Rights Movement,the anti-War Movement,etc. comes from some very personal experience and observations. Does this mean that if I become a history teacher that my students will not see the value that is inherent in what I bring to class because it happened too long ago? How does this work in the real world? any ideas?
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4 comments:
I think that you need to relate it to what is happening today to make it relevant to your students. For example, compare the Vietnam protest movement to how many of the students may feel about our involvement in Iraq. This way you may show them something that was useful during Vietnam, that they may not have thought of.
What does anyone else think about this?
Kurt
I think that no matter what you teach, your students will not receive the message in the same way by everyone because each of your students will be coming from a different place. You cannot make them receive the message a certain way. Therefore, I agree with Kurt - it has to do with the way you deliver the message. A lot of what we have read of adolescents in that class, especially from the "Fires" book, has indicated that students learn matterials better when you can link it to something to which they can relate and if students see you are passionate about what you teach. I think if you teach with enthusiasm and passion and you can somehow link things to your students, that will make a huge difference. Even relay your feelings about the topics you teach as well you can have a tremendous impact on what they take from your classroom.
My brother always kids around and says why do we have to learn history, it already happened. He thinks that just because I study mathematics that I would agree with him, but obviously I don't. If we don't learn history, how do we know not to make the same mistakes again? I think in order to make history relevent to kids today, you do have to relate it to something current. Although, I think it is important when comparing something to history to point out the similarities as well as the DIFFERENCES. I know a lot of people these days compare the Iraq war to the Vietnam War. It's important to discuss the similarities and differences.
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