Curtis Westbay
Edwin Day
Jennifer GunterMr. Westbay
“Discimus non scholae, sed vitae.”
Seneca the Younger said “we learn not for school, but for life.” He said it about 2,000 years ago. It’s perhaps truer today than it was then.
Students are entering a world that is more disconnected than ever before, in a sense. Yes, technology brings together people from parts of the world that didn’t even know of one another a couple centuries ago. It also creates a scary new world, one in which you can “work” alongside someone you’ve never met face to face and in which you have to endure the anonymous criticisms of hostile strangers online. Anyway, this isn’t the point.
The point is, we should cultivate a sense of humanity in our students in every class. Regardless of whether or not care for their fellow man will be tested on an end-of-year exam, humanity is an essential lesson. We don’t learn just to proceed through curricula, but to better understand what it means to be human, and then to extend kindness and humanity to those we meet.
Students don’t spend enough time learning how to study.
Students spend a lot of time learning content. And so, they can feel justifiably frustrated when that time doesn’t yield success.
Imagine you need to walk 2km, but it’s raining very hard outside. You already took the elevator down 25 stories from your apartment to the front door before you realized it was raining so hard. Sure, it will take extra time to go back up to your apartment to get an umbrella and then come back down, but it’s worth it. Maybe you have a very urgent appointment and you don’t want to waste time, but would you rather end up soaked to the bone?
Maybe it’s not as obvious, but it is as true: students should take the extra time to build effective study habits. They are lucky, in a way, as I didn’t learn how to study until I was already in college, and let me tell you, that first semester felt like I was walking through torrential rain.
Whenever students have a big test coming up, they shouldn’t be passively reading a textbook. If there’s one and only one key to effective studying, it’s activity. The more actively a student studies, the more effective that time spent studying is. So instead of just running their eyes over text until they can’t keep their eyes open any longer, students should get active: make a study guide, rewrite notes, make flashcards, make a game out of studying and play with a friend, quiz a friend and have them quiz you, find additional practice questions and complete them in front of a tutor or teacher, put concepts in their own words (whether or not there is an audience), et cetera. Go get an umbrella. It takes time, but the journey will be smoother and more comfortable.
Mr. Day
Don’t Become Trivia Champions
Ok, so maybe becoming a trivia champion would be kind of cool, but let’s be honest. Trivia is about knowing a bunch of random facts. Sure, if you know a lot of trivia it probably means you know a lot of things, but is “knowing a lot of things” the goal when it comes to education? Do we all go to school to fill our brains with things?
What if those things we fill our brains with are wrong?
What if another thing is discovered that brings into question all previous things?
The point I’m trying to get at is that I believe education isn’t about knowing lots of things, but rather, how to think (critically or otherwise) for one’s self. Things change, and so previous things become out of date (or obsolete). How relevant are the things taught in computer science classes 30 years ago today? How relevant will they be 30 years from now? Economics isn’t a science, it’s theory. Theories definitionally are just possible explanations for the world we live in today which we may look back upon from the future as incorrect,…perhaps even laughably so.
Learn how to think. Learn how to question. Learn how to adapt and evolve your ideas, and most importantly, understand that there are things you don’t know that you don’t know. By focusing on these abilities rather than rote memorization of supposed facts, I believe one can futureproof the value they can contribute to society, which is ultimately what I believe the goal of education should be.
Don’t Become a Jack of All Trades But A Master of None
The term “well rounded” is bandied about way too much, in my opinion. Students believe they need a broad resume of many different things because they believe this is what colleges want.
In reality, when a college sees a well rounded student, I believe what they actually say to themselves is “This students looks decent at many different things,…but….are they actually great in any thing?”
In other words, a Jack of all trades, but a master of none.
I believe specialization is great. In fact, I believe it’s oftentimes preferred.
Let’s say, for example, you contract a serious disease like cancer, and you’re evaluating two doctors who both say they can help you beat it.
The first doctor tells you he has many focus areas, one of which is oncology but he also practices and splits his time among homeopathy, pediatrics, neurology, urology, proctology and cardiology.
The second doctor tells you he only focuses on oncology and that’s where he spends the entirety of his time and effort.
Which doctor would you select? It seems pretty obvious that the second doctor would be the better choice. So, when it really matters, we gravitate towards and value specialization and much more than any purported well roundedness. Do we care if the second doctor cannot swim or hates art and therefore isn’t as well rounded as he could be? Of course not! When it really matters we inherently understand that specialization is our best chance at success.
So, why do students seem to believe otherwise? I see too many students fill their time with activities and projects that have nothing to do with what they want to study in the future, but do so because they believe they need to show that well roundedness.
Focus and specialty is great. As a society, we value it more. Understand that it’s okay to not be good at everything if it means being truly great at something. That thing you become truly great will be prized, and cherished, not just by yourself, but by the world as well.
Ms. Gunter
We are all learners - if we want to be
I always think about teaching through the lens of what I like and what works for me. Often in job interviews, I am asked ‘Why did you become a teacher?’ and my answer is ‘I’ve had good teachers and bad teachers; I became a teacher to be a good teacher because students deserve to have good teachers’. In my opinion, a good teacher is someone who adapts their style and methods to suit their students.
When I was a kid, I was really good at math. In Grade 4, I was doing 8th grade math. However, when I got to Grade 10, I barely passed math and then I never took a math class again. Did I suddenly become bad at math? No. The answer is that I had had two bad teachers in a row (Grade 9 and 10), and I was so lost that it seemed impossible to catch up. As such, my philosophy of learning is that we learn when we a) want to learn, b) try to learn and c) are taught in ways that inspire wonder, challenge, and progress in us.
As you go through your life of being a student, you need to first be open to learning. If you go to classes just because you have to and you just sit there, you won’t learn anything and you’ll waste your time and your parent’s money. Secondly, you need to, learn how YOU learn. Do you learn by repetition? By diagraming? By watching? By listening? Does how you learn change from subject to subject? Does doing research on your own help? Learn how you learn, and you will find that all learning becomes easier. Lastly, seek teachers and classes that will actually challenge you but that will also actually teach you something.
Finally, consider yourself to be a life long learner. Humans literally do not stop learning new things until they die. Embrace that rather than resist it. Learning is growing and progressing. Embrace learning and call yourself a learner, always. Once you embrace the idea that you are a learner, you will be more open to the act of learning and you will find that you enjoy and seek out learning opportunities.