Gate keepers and Education
I understand why my comment was deleted. Steve told me it was because I included a link. Yes, I like to include links during comments because their story reminds me of my story or something that I have read somewhere else.
Steve's blog is a blog on education and Waldorf education. Part of me was peeved, sure, he suggested I repost my comment without the offending link but then I immediately thought, Wait a minute! He's one of those people!
You know the type, you must do it this way, no exceptions. I've set up a rule and by this rule I shall live. Sorry sir, you have to check your bag in. Everyone has to go through the scanner. Etc, etc. Blah, blah, blah. So, as you can imagine, Steve does a lot of deleting of comments.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spam, I get it. I have had 2 blogs for about 2 years, but blogger is intelligent enough to detect these things. Amazing. Or click on the link and read a different view, or a story that adds value to yours. I thought blogging was community building?
This little incident reminded me of a story I heard from Wayne Dyer. He talked about how a guard at some major airport was willing to die for his “duty”. Apparently the mechanical arm that lets cars go in and out of parking lot broke. So cars just waited in line for some insane amount of time before people started getting out of their cars to investigate.
Eventually, folks were like, we don't care, we're driving out of here, you can't keep us here. And the guy, who was a nice guy I'm sure, was like, no I can't let you out until you have paid or whatever. I won't lift the mechanical arm.
Well, the drivers did what they said, they lifted the arm and drove out and the guard jumped in front of the car and died. This story just illustrates how folks will not think for themselves or logically in the name of “rules”.
This is the way we do it, mentality, is at the meaty middle of education's problems. We need to not only teach our children to think critically, but think and act critically ourselves.
I'm willing to wager everyone has a story like this, a time in which they encountered someone who wouldn't bend the rules in a particular circumstance. And why? Were they afraid of being fired?
At the language school where I teach, we read a rules memo on the first day of class. It's in Thai, so the students read it, and they always chuckle or laugh when the rule, “Don't speak Thai” is read. Why? Because it's almost impossible not to speak their native language, even though they are trying to learn English.
When I'm in Thai class, we students speak English too! It helps to have someone explain things again or just talk. I think it can also make the class more enjoyable. Learning another language is exhausting.
The ironic thing is, teachers have a tendency to be gate keepers. See the above reference.
Steve's blog is a blog on education and Waldorf education. Part of me was peeved, sure, he suggested I repost my comment without the offending link but then I immediately thought, Wait a minute! He's one of those people!
You know the type, you must do it this way, no exceptions. I've set up a rule and by this rule I shall live. Sorry sir, you have to check your bag in. Everyone has to go through the scanner. Etc, etc. Blah, blah, blah. So, as you can imagine, Steve does a lot of deleting of comments.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Spam, I get it. I have had 2 blogs for about 2 years, but blogger is intelligent enough to detect these things. Amazing. Or click on the link and read a different view, or a story that adds value to yours. I thought blogging was community building?
This little incident reminded me of a story I heard from Wayne Dyer. He talked about how a guard at some major airport was willing to die for his “duty”. Apparently the mechanical arm that lets cars go in and out of parking lot broke. So cars just waited in line for some insane amount of time before people started getting out of their cars to investigate.
Eventually, folks were like, we don't care, we're driving out of here, you can't keep us here. And the guy, who was a nice guy I'm sure, was like, no I can't let you out until you have paid or whatever. I won't lift the mechanical arm.
Well, the drivers did what they said, they lifted the arm and drove out and the guard jumped in front of the car and died. This story just illustrates how folks will not think for themselves or logically in the name of “rules”.
This is the way we do it, mentality, is at the meaty middle of education's problems. We need to not only teach our children to think critically, but think and act critically ourselves.
I'm willing to wager everyone has a story like this, a time in which they encountered someone who wouldn't bend the rules in a particular circumstance. And why? Were they afraid of being fired?
At the language school where I teach, we read a rules memo on the first day of class. It's in Thai, so the students read it, and they always chuckle or laugh when the rule, “Don't speak Thai” is read. Why? Because it's almost impossible not to speak their native language, even though they are trying to learn English.
When I'm in Thai class, we students speak English too! It helps to have someone explain things again or just talk. I think it can also make the class more enjoyable. Learning another language is exhausting.
The ironic thing is, teachers have a tendency to be gate keepers. See the above reference.
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