> My children introduced me to the book, the year
>>the two oldest dropped out of high school to self-school. Now that
>they
>>both are safely on academic scholarships at the colleges of their
>>choice, in computer programming and environmental engineering, I can
>>safely say that it was the best thing they ever did and if the
>youngest,
>>who's still in high school, wants to do it also, I'm all for it.
>>Wow, congratulations! They are fortunate to have a mother as
>understanding
>as you . . . I can only imagine the roof that some parents would hit .
Just to clarify-I am NOT a saint. I, too, hit the roof. It took a year
for the oldest to convince his parents this was a good thing. When the
younger child turned in his books 5 days after we let the oldest "drop
out" the grandparents thought the world was going to end and the
parents weren't too sure either. Only in hindsight can I be so
confident!
>. .
>It's a real credit to them what they were able to accomplish.
>> This was the point of the book-from elementary school we
>>train our children to learn for a reward-a star, an A, a
>scholarship-and
>>not because of the intrinsic value of knowledge.
>>That's what I was trying to get at when I was talking about "learning
>as
>contest" as something to be avoided, but I think you say it a lot
>better, here.
>>Do you think that even when faced with a bunch of students who have
>been
>trained to "learn for reward," there's hope for transcending that
>mindset?
>How would you structure a course so that it wasn't like that, but still
>fit the college or university's requirements?
>I'm not sure-the author makes the point that only in graduate school do
you learn because you want to, and what you want to (though I know even
that's not 100% true!). Funny you should ask about a student's point of
view-on thhe day the newsgroup exploded with this topic, one of my
children sent me a "humorous" piece on "what the professor means when
he/she says". The image of the professor in this piece could hardly be
called flattering, but unfortunately I found some of it funny, because
there's a grain of truth to it. For instance, when the professor says
"we're going to be spending some time on this topic" he/she means "I
did my dissertation on this". I don't think the "us/them" ever goes
away-it's like trying to be your child's best friend-it can make you a
lousy parent. But the best parents, and the best teachers, still
remember what it was like to be a child or a student, see the child or
the student as a person, not a thing to control, and try to bridge the
gap as much as possible.
*****************************************************
Julia Frugoli
Dartmouth College
visiting grad student at
Texas A&M University
Department of Biological Sciences
College Station, TX 77843
409-845-0663
FAX 409-847-8805
"Evil is best defined as militant ignorance."
Dr. M. Scott Peck*****************************************************
