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| Death of Socrates |
On a Yahoo Group, of which I am a member, a discussion topic came up that has really got me thinking about TJED Conveyor-belt and the vast number of TJED based classes. I felt it need to be answered a bit more. So many people are looking for classroom environments for their Love of Learners and Scholars and I wonder if the choices out there meet the mustard.
Quote from a "TJED Muse" post: "When I asked the kids what they thought they'd REALLY like this class to look like, almost all of them agreed that they wanted to have a "sit down and take notes and lecture" part to the class each week, and they wanted it to last for 15 minutes. They also wanted a test. That was their request. Now, I wouldn't have designed a TJ Ed class that way, but it is what they wanted. So after four weeks, I talked to them again, and asked them what they had noticed. They noticed that they LIKED the lecture/notes, because they wanted to make sure that they were able to do that like the kids who attend public school."
My Answer: Have you ever considered that the reason these students asked for that type of learning environment is because that is the only picture of education that they have in the world today? Let's consider some other learning environments that brought people from thousands of miles away in a time when travel was difficult and time consuming, for example; Socrates, Aristotle, and Euclid.
How did they teach their students? Did they have tests, pre-essay and post-essay samples, or a syllabus? Or, did they inspire through asking and answering the tough questions, challenging the status quo, and showing by example what it takes to think for oneself? They taught their students in a Socratic discussion style in which they asked questions, deep thinking questions, and tried to answer them. These thinkers did not send out the questions before hand, rather they came up within the discussion.
As I read and study the great thinkers through the classics, I see very little classrooms that look like what we know today. For myself, I don't want my kids to get more of the world, I want them to get more of what is lost...a true educational experience that steps outside the box and asks the hard questions. In order to do that, it might mean taking the road less traveled and searching for those educational experiences that will impact them the most rather than a plethora of mediocre, which there is plenty of out there.
Does this mean we never experience the conveyor-belt? Of course not! There is too much around to avoid. But what it does mean is that we are careful and purposeful in what we choose to spend our time doing. There are many good things out there, but are they the best things? Only each family can answer that question for their family. I do hope, however, that we each keep the goal in sight as we make those decisions. Will this class, teacher, mentor, school, book club, group, friend, etc. lead my child closer to their end goals? Is this the best choice, or just a good choice?
For more on Socratic discussion, see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socratic_method and
http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/the-role-of-socratic-questioning-in-thinki\ng-teaching-learning/522
