At this point in my summer, I am about a quarter through my second reading. I am hoping that I will be able to pick up my pace since I finished taking the ACT this week! Thus far, I have found “A More Beautiful Question” more interesting than “Better Living Through Criticism.” I also think that “A More Beautiful Question” is easier to read. I have browsed through a few Brain Pickings, and I am excited to work on them in the near future because I will have much more time to devote to working through them thoughtfully. Based on what I have read so far, I am interested to see how this class will function. I am hopeful that it will improve my question asking, perspective development, and close reading skills. For the purpose of this blog post, I would like to focus mainly on what I have read so far from “A More Beautiful Question.” Below you can read further explorations of thoughts that I began developing first in my Common Place Book.
The first quotation I wrote down in my common place book from this reading was “What makes it funny, though, is the comedian’s brutally candid description of how frustrating it can be to be on the receiving end of kids questions. The adult, in the case, becomes exasperated, insecure, aware of his own ignorance, and reminded of his insignificance - all because of that word why.” The description of the comedians bid got me hooked on this reading. As a person who does a lot of babysitting, tutors children, and started a date night summer camp, I am well acquainted with this feeling. In fact, I almost found it validating to read the words “the adult, in this case, becomes exasperated, insecure, aware of his own ignorance, and reminded of his insignificance.” And though I found it relatable from an adult perspective, I also found it funny from a question asker perspective. I have attended Galloway since kindergarten, and I think it is fair to say that they are much more welcoming to question askers than the rest of the world is. And because I have been encouraged to ask questions, dig deep, and go off scripts throughout my entire education, there have been times I have felt like a foreigner when I journey outside the Galloway bubble. The intrinsic curiosity that is so encouraged with in our school walls is considered disrespectful in many communities. The place I have ventured and found people who find questioning most disrespectful is my Grandparents baptist church. I feel this is interesting to include because much of America and education was built by religious people, and through there is suppose to be a separation of church and state today, in rural towns where the majority of people share beliefs, there is no one to enforce this separation. I feel this is an additional factor in how schools, jobs, and the world around us is changing. As stated in the reading “teachers are very susceptible to external influences; their understanding of the goal of teaching directly affects how they respond when children spontaneously investigate.” What is going on in where schools are is obviously going to affect the students experience and the teachers methods. I found it fascinating that people have found “schools in many industrialized nations were not, for the most part, designed to produce innovative thinkers or questioners- their primary purpose was to produce workers.” This makes a lot of logical since, and I think that this gives us great insight into the financial divide which exists in our country. It seems that those who with more money who could afford to question things or those who were brave enough to question things became the people who are in control. This would be aligned directly with what is happening now. I, coming from a place of privilege, have gone to a school that has allowed me to ask questions and seek opportunities and change. I feel that for the most part, I can do or be what I want to be. On the other hand, people I know who have not had the chance to learn in such an open minded community do not feel the same way. A part of the reading which I wish I understood more is the quote “Interestingly, the more preschool models itself after regular school - the more it becomes a venue for loading kids up with information and feeding them answers to questions they have not yet asked - the more it seems to squelch their natural curiosity.” I understand that children will be more likely to enjoy learning information if they are the ones raising the questions, but I think there is a delicate balance to strike. How much structure is too much? How much information is too much? On one hand, children will be able to ask more complex and skillful questions if they have a certain layer of common background knowledge. On the other hand, how do you teach that information and how do you decide what common background knowledge is most meaningful or useful? I think that the reading further explores that. The three main questions focused on by Meier start the conversation of what makes learning meaningful and impactful. First, Is a test - driven education the most likely path for producing an inventive and feisty citizenry? I personally do not feel it is, but I think is varies for different people. Some people are highly driven by test taking, scores, and competition, and I think there is a place for that personality in today's industry, but I also think people who are not test oriented should be penalized for the way they process. This is what makes public education so difficult. In theory, we want all people to have equal education, so we use testing to measure education, but we also know as a society that tests cannot truly measure intelligence. The second question is “what would it look like and sound like in the average classroom if we wanted to maek “being wrong” less dangerous?” I really like this question, and I enjoyed the exploration of it that came further in the writing. I think that it is incredibly disturbing how much background affects education. This is a problem that is far bigger than the classroom and this question should be addressed in all parts of life. The third question was “ What might the potential for humans be if we really encouraged that spirit of questioning in children instead of closing it down?” Galloway is not a utopian society of learning by any means, but I think it does an excellent job of encouraging the questioning spirit. I think that if all schools functioned more like this then we would probably have more empathetic, exploratory, and fascinating people in the world.
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AuthorElizabeth Finley is a 12th grade AP Lit student. She enjoys theater, dance, singing, playing the piano, and watching movies. If she could only do three things before she died, she would go on a Safari, sky dive, and visit her grandparents at church and help them work in daycare. Archives
December 2019
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