Role Playing

I believe role playing is a great way to get ideas out there long as respect for the other parties' opinions is upheld. If this is not the case the whole thing would become just a big shouting match. The point of role playing is to think of things that have never been thought of or brought up in discussion before in a smaller setting. The only problem with this type of teaching is that some people might not get the whole overall point of the role playing. One person might find out the meaning of life while another person is left wondering why they didn't get a chance to speak. However, in a role playing situation the subject of voice is easier to explain. When someone is simply ignored it becomes an issue in role playing. In a lecture type of setting that would be thought of as listening and agreeing.

I also think there is a good point behind having all the kids learn the basics before moving on, but not all kids learn at the same pace. Even though some kids don't get the basics right away they could learn them with another concept later on. It's kind of like algebra. Some things just make more sense with other things. If you don't get the concept right away its okay. It will come back again later. I also think that by holding a child back until they pass a test is not a good thing. Then they are stuck in a grade with younger kids and that would either make the kid feel stupid or pressure him to pass. This puts unneeded stress on the child. This is a lot like threatening a child not to fail. They art going to fail sometimes and that is just a fact of life. Plus in real life are you held back from something just because you don't know something? If that is a fact then no one in this world is ever going to get a job for the first time unless they have schooling in it.

I am a firm proponent of the emotional side of learning. Emotions are the spice of life. If you can't feel good after passing a really hard test then there is no point in taking the test. Accomplishment and achievement are both academic standpoints and also emotional standpoints. If you don't feel like you have accomplished or achieved anything then there is no point.

I think there is a reason school boards listen to higher achieving people than non-achievers. I think that has to do with the sense of understanding we have for those people is greater. Because we are now from a higher part of learning we appreciate people who try to achieve as we did. This gives us an easy excuse for a bias. This we must watch out for though because there still could be great input from less educated or lower achieving people as from the other end. As we have read before in Santrock there are multiple levels of intelligence and achievement is only one of them. Also the money for projects and programs comes from community members so there is a good reason we listen to the more influential people in the community. Its because they are INFLUENTIAL! Duh! That is why they have that name.

Passion

I can very clearly remember a person who influenced my whole life with his passion. This person is Benjamin Kambs. He was my choir teacher in high school and he really was the one who stirred up my passion for choir and singing. If he was not there in my life I don't know if I would have as big of a passion. Whenever I talked about that subject with him he would "light up" so to speak and give me several examples about anything I would ask of him. His ability to give out well informed information about his passion really ignited mine.

On the other hand this was not true at all about my 10th grade English teacher. He would not care about what went on in class or how anyone did in that class. I was usually a straight A student and I managed to get an F on one of my midterm report cards. He would always hand out a lot of homework just before the bell rang and then expect us to finish before the next class. He would never talk about his subject either. He would talk about other things and ramble on about random things until the last few minutes of class. I got an F in that class at one point because the class bored me so much that I just didn't want to do the homework. I felt like it was a waste of my time. The other side of this story is the 11th grade. There was another English teacher that was very passionate about her subject and would answer any question we had about her subject matter. She gave out even more homework than my teacher in the previous year but I was still able to keep up with the work. Because of her passion, I was able to keep my grades up and like the English language once again.