This is my first post. It’s about making education meaningful.
Meaning. That’s it. If you think about it for a second, it’s all we have.
Meaning makes us human. It is the ‘human’ part in human being.
If we want education – or anything for that matter – to be of any importance, it needs to be perceived as meaningful. Important. Worthwhile.
Yet, when you were a student and sitting in class, or at home doing homework, how often did you wonder, “What’s the point to this?” And if you were not able to come up with a good answer to your own question, what happened? This likely happened:
You thought:
This is pointless.
This is stupid.
This sucks.
I hate this.
And, if you were (or are) like me and had that experience often enough and in more than one class, you probably thought, or uttered, or whispered, or vented, or screamed at the top of your lungs …
School sucks!
Learning sucks!
Why do I have to do this?
Why do I have to be here?
This is pointless.
It’s meaningless!
Powerful words. Powerful thoughts. And what’s scary is how ubiquitous they are.
Maybe you were one of the lucky ones; one of those students blessed with a fantastic imagination that could find the excitement and meaning in everything you studied, or even more blessed with amazing teachers who were able to bring the latent meaning to life for you. Nevertheless, you – like me and all of us – have overheard others speak those words.
I’ve heard them in my own classroom as a teacher. I’ve heard them in hallways. I’ve heard younger cousins say them at dinner parties. Kids of my friends. TV shows. Movies. YouTube.
This is pointless. This is stupid. School sucks. Learning sucks.
Wow. We can’t afford to have this attitude.
Education needs to become meaningful for everyone. That’s what I want this blog to be about. I’m excited to get it started.
