I had a profound experience with my granddaughter this afternoon. Please indulge me if this is a little long, but I believe it will be worth the read. She asked me to read her some books, which I gladly did. I read the books with great enthusiasm and voice inflection to make the reading more interesting. I read each book word for word from beginning to end. After I completed a book, she then took the book and wanted to read it back to me. When she began to read the book back to me, I noticed that she was not reading the words, but she was creating a story based on the images she saw and the recollection she had of the story. The light bulb went off. Was she wrong? Well, if I wanted to understand what the words in the book said, then the answer would be yes. But, she was exercising her mind as she was creating the story (and adding some great words like awesome!). How do we teach our students? Do we teach them that they must comply with exactly what the teacher wants to see? Or, do we allow them to exercise their minds, recognizing that in life, there is no one right way? Are there consequences for their decisions? Absolutely! But what great accomplishment was ever achieved without error? Isnt our current form of government proof of that? If we want to get back to that spirit of ingenuity in our country, we better begin by teaching our children how to think, instead of telling them what to think.
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 22:21:54 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015