WHAT TO DO NEXT: DUE BY 11pm FRIDAY OCT 16

THANKS FOR SENDING YOUR REVISED EDUCATION NARRATIVES.

I’LL SEND COMMENTS AND GRADE SOON.

We’re done writing education narratives, but I do want you to think about a couple of things before we move on to our next unit, which is about curiosity—and those are, basically: how do people get curious? How do they lose curiosity? What are YOU curious about? We’ll be spending this next week reading and thinking about those types of questions and introduce UNIT TWO.

 

1) READ: “A Talk to Teachers” by James Baldwin.

https://www.spps.org/cms/lib010/MN01910242/Centricity/Domain/125/baldwin_atalktoteachers_1_2.pdf

 

2) POST: ON BLACKBOARD DISCUSSIONS, Write at least 200 words.

In “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin writes:

“I would try to make [the student] know that just as American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it, so is the world larger, more daring, more beautiful and more terrible, but principally larger – and that it belongs to him. I would teach him that he doesn’t have to be bound by the expediencies of any given administration, any given policy, any given morality; that he has the right and the necessity to examine everything.”

  • First of all, what do you think of what Baldwin was saying? What do you think he means when he says “the world is larger?”
  • Secondly, what do you think you have the “necessity” to examine, or the obligation to learn about? To put it another way: what do you wish had been taught in school that wasn’t? Why do you want to know about these topics?

 

THINK: WHAT RESEARCH TOPIC DO YOU TRULY CARE ABOUT.

 

3)  READ: “Schools are killing curiosity”

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2020/jan/28/schools-killing-curiosity-learn

 

4) POST: ON BLACKBOARD DISCUSSIONS, Write at least 200 words.

  • What is something you were interested in when you were a kid? Are you still interested? How did asking questions help you learn more about that topic?
  • If so, how has your curiosity changed and grown over the years? And what role did the educational system play in your curiosity (good or bad)?
  • If you are not interested in this topic anymore, what do you think happened to that interest? Do you remember the specific time you LOST interest?  What did you become interested in instead (and why?)

 

5) READ: UNIT TWO Annotated Bibliography (It’s Under Blackboard Content)

This will give you an idea about what we’ll be doing.

 

THINK: Start thinking about a topic you are interested in, something you might want to know more about.  This can be something heavy, like police brutality, or it can be something that seems on the surface more light-hearted, like ballet.  The only criteria is that you are actually curious about it.

This may seem like strange advice, but it can be helpful to go for a walk and think about topics you’d like to write about. Come home and jot down a few notes.