Why? Why is it that you don't know how to articulate yourself. Is your vocabulary limited? Is your range of thinking limited? Do you have emotional issues and don't know how to properly express yourself?
Twice today, I heard this same exact phrase. In a college classroom that's highly unacceptable. I heard it a lot in high school too, even by some people close to me whom I thought were on a different level intellectually.
What is it about society (because its definately a product of society) that makes it hard for people to articulate? Is it the hours spent in silence on the computer, or the music that expresses our feelings for us so we don't have to? Are we just not trying? Unmotivated to express because we think no one is listening?
From an educator's point of view it has to be a struggle getting kids to cooperate when they can just use this outlet "I don't know how to describe it", or "I know it I just can't put it into words". See to a kid that's just enough to reassure the teacher that they may have read or done the assignment, but not enough that they have to bear their soul or actually speak up in class. Do they see that as a problem? That kids are stifling behind masks of understanding and words they don't know how to expell are choking the life out of them.
Oh but we as students can express everything but whats needed in class. We can talk about how much we hate this or love that artist. We can argue fluently about basketball teams, or pop stars but when it come to academic expression we're mute. Where is the gap? What is getting in the way of true educational freedom and expression?
Jan 27, 2010
Theories on Education; A Look at Greg Mortenson and Girls Education
I recently went to a presentation by a man by the name of Greg Mortenson. This American humanitarian went to Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan and is fighting illiteracy with ferocious vigor by building schools in the rural areas. A majority of his schools are built for girls which is a really difficult undertaking because of radical Islamic tradition that women don't go to school.
One of the things that stuck out the most to me was this theory:
In the middle east where Mortenson's work is centered the Taliban sponsor many schools that center their education in hatred of the Western world and strict religious adherence. These schools do little to educate students about other worldly matters or even basic fundamentals (in Mortenson's book, many of the teachers in these schools didn't even know how to read or write).
A little known fact is that in order to join the Taliban (the terror group organized by radical Muslims responsible for 9/11) a young man must have his mother's permission. When I first heard that I had to ask myself what kind of mother would let her child join that kind of organization. Well the answer is an uneducated one. The more education a woman has the more she will know about what's going on around her. Therefore she wouldn't allow it.
This was really his whole point; that through education we could curb the Taliban and other radical groups from the ground up.
Then I began to realize that we in America (especially in urban areas) have a similar issue (on the topic of population control). Our rate of teenage pregnancy could be directly linked to lack of education. I don't mean fundamental education because we have that, by the time these girls get pregnant they at least know how to read and write, but they have serious deficiencies in knowledge of the world around them and their own emotional workings (as our societies get more complex our education will have to get complex too, simple english, math, science, history won't be enough).
So one way to fight this battle is, starting from a young age, focusing a lot more on self reflection and knowledge, along with worldly knowledge. Especially a practical knowlege such as that learned in a Family and Consumer Sciences class. Classes that teach how to file taxes, getting jobs, taking care of children and managing a household. This kind of education in combination with focus on the internal being could help reduce teenage pregnancy.
One of the things that stuck out the most to me was this theory:
"If you teach a boy you educate an individual, but if you teach a girl you educate a community"He pointed out that when girls go to school they bring the education back to their parents and especially their children. Mortenson said that when girls were educated the population of some places leveled off because they were less likely to get married/ reproduce early. This kind of thing is especially relevant in places like Africa and Afghanistan where girls are married off by the age of 12 to start a family.
In the middle east where Mortenson's work is centered the Taliban sponsor many schools that center their education in hatred of the Western world and strict religious adherence. These schools do little to educate students about other worldly matters or even basic fundamentals (in Mortenson's book, many of the teachers in these schools didn't even know how to read or write).
A little known fact is that in order to join the Taliban (the terror group organized by radical Muslims responsible for 9/11) a young man must have his mother's permission. When I first heard that I had to ask myself what kind of mother would let her child join that kind of organization. Well the answer is an uneducated one. The more education a woman has the more she will know about what's going on around her. Therefore she wouldn't allow it.
This was really his whole point; that through education we could curb the Taliban and other radical groups from the ground up.
Then I began to realize that we in America (especially in urban areas) have a similar issue (on the topic of population control). Our rate of teenage pregnancy could be directly linked to lack of education. I don't mean fundamental education because we have that, by the time these girls get pregnant they at least know how to read and write, but they have serious deficiencies in knowledge of the world around them and their own emotional workings (as our societies get more complex our education will have to get complex too, simple english, math, science, history won't be enough).
So one way to fight this battle is, starting from a young age, focusing a lot more on self reflection and knowledge, along with worldly knowledge. Especially a practical knowlege such as that learned in a Family and Consumer Sciences class. Classes that teach how to file taxes, getting jobs, taking care of children and managing a household. This kind of education in combination with focus on the internal being could help reduce teenage pregnancy.
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