I went to Caleb's high school grad and found myself overcome with emotions. It was such a mix of feelings. On one hand, I was so proud of the man he's become and on the other, it was like seeing him for the first time as all grown up.
I've known Caleb since he was 3 or 4. My first memory of him was seeing him in his little red and blue jumper, holding a little nerf football and his security blanket. We fell into an easy relationship, like that of a bigger sister and little brother. And he was just that, my little brother for the next 13 years or so. We had great times together on family vacations, just hanging out, at church. Of course he did all the gross stuff that little brothers are oft to do... come to think about it, he still does all that! But somewhere when I hit my teens and then he hit his teens we drifted apart for a bit. 5 years difference is a lot during puberty and then I left for university. First couple years of university was such a tough learning experience for me. But then isn't it for everyone? But almost 6 years later, 3 different schools, countless of moves back and forth all over I'm back in Vancouver and have been bunking it out with Caleb's family since Christmas.
Wednesday, June 30, 2004
Monday, June 21, 2004
education dilemna
I spent almost all day helping a younger friend study for the provincials, Biology, English, History... And afterwards, it made me realize how crappy the education system really is. Take Biology for example, it's all basically forced memorization. They state a fact but doesn't explain _why_ or _how_. In the DNA translation process, DNA apparently "make a bubble" and then whooaaa it's translated. Okay, not that simplistic but almost! What happened to actual learning? And not to mention what happened to helping kids learn to take a problem and break it down to solve it? We did a practice provincial and he got more than half the multiple questions wrong. When I read over the practice exam, it was all questions he knew! But the phrasing, the way it was asked, they don't know how to interpret that. Where is the free thinking? The application of learned material?
The current education system doesn't teach the kids how to think, how to apply knowledge. They cram stuff into their heads and the kids are able to parrot it. BUT if you take the information they 'know', give it to them in a different format, they can't handle it and it's as if everything you've taught them all went *poof*!
I took each question he got wrong and broke it down for him and he was able to do it, which means the knowledge is there. The critical thinking process of working through problems, comprehending it and dissecting it into understandable parts should be taught. Let the kids work through stuff themselves instead of just stating it as dry fact. Let them think of different and novel ways to look at a problem and solve it! Let them learn how to ask intelligent questions! I find that this happens in university too. You haven't been taught the skills needed in high school and yet that is expected of you when you get into a post-secondary institution. People always tell me that they don't like biology because of the sheer amount of memorization. But lots of things in biology makes sense. There are main concepts and the beautiful thing is, it applies to many aspects in different fields. Yet lots don't see the correlation. I'm not saying there's _no_ memorization to be done. There are and I've complained about it countless of times myself but if you have learned the concepts and know how to apply it, the memorization itself is so easier because now it'll make sense! Retention is another problem *looks for her gingko*
And that's just biology. English is another ballpark. Writing skills, proper usage of grammer, essay formats. I edit papers where "there" and "their" are way too interchangeable and the whole paper was full of "I think...", "To me....", "In my opinion..." I always tell them, I don't care what you think, be assertive, just state it! Kids can go through their _whole_ high school life without having these corrected. I'm amazed actually at how many who don't know the correct use of "there" and "their"!
All this makes me think, can there be changes and will anyone actually put forth the effort to make changes? Somehow, I doubt the answer will satisfy me.
*Rant rant rant*
The current education system doesn't teach the kids how to think, how to apply knowledge. They cram stuff into their heads and the kids are able to parrot it. BUT if you take the information they 'know', give it to them in a different format, they can't handle it and it's as if everything you've taught them all went *poof*!
I took each question he got wrong and broke it down for him and he was able to do it, which means the knowledge is there. The critical thinking process of working through problems, comprehending it and dissecting it into understandable parts should be taught. Let the kids work through stuff themselves instead of just stating it as dry fact. Let them think of different and novel ways to look at a problem and solve it! Let them learn how to ask intelligent questions! I find that this happens in university too. You haven't been taught the skills needed in high school and yet that is expected of you when you get into a post-secondary institution. People always tell me that they don't like biology because of the sheer amount of memorization. But lots of things in biology makes sense. There are main concepts and the beautiful thing is, it applies to many aspects in different fields. Yet lots don't see the correlation. I'm not saying there's _no_ memorization to be done. There are and I've complained about it countless of times myself but if you have learned the concepts and know how to apply it, the memorization itself is so easier because now it'll make sense! Retention is another problem *looks for her gingko*
And that's just biology. English is another ballpark. Writing skills, proper usage of grammer, essay formats. I edit papers where "there" and "their" are way too interchangeable and the whole paper was full of "I think...", "To me....", "In my opinion..." I always tell them, I don't care what you think, be assertive, just state it! Kids can go through their _whole_ high school life without having these corrected. I'm amazed actually at how many who don't know the correct use of "there" and "their"!
All this makes me think, can there be changes and will anyone actually put forth the effort to make changes? Somehow, I doubt the answer will satisfy me.
*Rant rant rant*
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