Blog Post #10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?
Teaching is something I have always enjoyed doing as far as I can think back. Being able to help someone master a skill gives one a feeling of achievement; not only for whoever is learning, but for oneself as well. The words teaching and educating at times are viewed to have the same meaning, but are quite different. My major is Secondary Education-Mathematics which requires me to teach the necessary skills that are needed for the next level of Math beyond what I am teaching. There are some teachers who do just this and continually move forward each year with the same plan of attack. I have had my opportunity of being taught by such teachers who teach, but DO NOT educate.

When a student is educated the material stays and never leaves. I feel that education is the lesson behind the skills being learned by the student, and I also think Edm310 is a helpful way to educate an educator on the proper ways of educating. Wikipedia defines the word as the formal process by which society deliberately transmits its accumulated knowledge, skills, customs and values from one generation to another. This screams out to me that educating isn’t just teaching, but it’s instilling ones data/information on things that correlate to the subject being taught, as well as helping the students master the skills. Teaching isn't the hard part, it takes a lot to be able to educate and it starts with the TEACHER.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!
“It is what it is.” This statement is thought and used by many before they even know the background information of a situation. We sometimes jump to conclusions because we are too afraid to face the outcome of things that frighten us. To me this post stands as a metaphor for situations that are not evaluated fully before jumping to conclusions. I first thought that Gertrude was acting like a narrow minded person by saying that lower-income children would use the pencils to play hangman, or for some other uneducated purpose. Just as Lisa stated in her comment the children may not be doing anything productive with the pencils but at least it is not something negative.

The basis of keeping a child entertained and making them feel learning is worth while is to show the quality and ability of whatever it is they are using/learning. I loved that Mr. Johnson evaluated the situation by meeting with the students and parents to explain the different uses pencils. Once the lessons have been taught it is now up to the student to apply the skills. I was a little confused at first by this post, but after looking over the related post by Larry Ferlazzo I then realized that people will take anything and run with it. Mr. Ferlazzo's post made better since, in a sense of computers affecting students test scores, because it is easier to find substantial information on that. This makes Mr. Jonhnson's post all the more better because although it seems rather simple when finding a solution it is not. We should always find background information and use it when giving our own opinions on such situations.