Do you Teach or do you Educate? gives us a wonderful example of how becoming a teacher is not just about filling kids with our knowledge but helping to inspire the desire to learn and developing character and life-long skills along the way. The difference in teaching and educating is like comparing knowledge to wisdom. What good is having the ability and knowledge to do something but never knowing when and how to apply it?
My desire to become a coach and P.E. teacher is not just about rules and how to play, nor is it all about winning and losing. I truly want to teach the importance of teamwork, perseverance, and pride. Coaching and teaching are just the tools I use to help develop the character of the students I teach and the boys I coach. I had the privilege of coaching my first basketball team as head coach this past season and it was one of the most rewarding things I have ever done. Not because we had a winning season, but because I had a small part in shaping the character of these boys into productive men. I really agree with the true meaning of this video, teaching is for the moment but educating is for a lifetime.
Tom Johnson’s Don’t Let Them Take the Pencils Home is written in a comical way to make several points about why education systems that refuse to change, with the use of technology of today, are really doing more damage to their students instead of helping them. For years books, chalkboards, pencil and paper were the core tools of education. We have never thought twice about kids taking home paper and pencil “to learn” with but if you think about it, what are they learning? How to just write or spit back facts? A computer, when used wisely, can offer so much more to a student’s education. This entire course has shown us the value of embracing technology. It offers a new way of learning by engaging the learner in his/her own education. Technology offers a way to show that learning is taking place instead of rote facts remembered long enough to take a test.
In reading other people’s responses to this article, I don’t think everyone understood that this really wasn’t about pencils being harmful. The harm is done when supervisors and administrators are under so much pressure for their schools to perform, that they instruct their teachers to basically “teach the test”. Why do they think that test scores really show the quality of a student’s education? It really just shows facts, rules and processes that students know but how does it show what they have “learned”? Most students are exposed to more technology at home than they are at school anyway and that can be a good thing if they learn at school the proper uses of technology and the responsibility that comes with it. Just like we have never returned to each child having a slate board and chalk after paper and pencil were invented, pencils and composition books cannot compete with the technological “notebooks” that are available today.
Hey Garreth! Your blog is really well written and I can tell you put a great deal of thought into writing it. I especially liked when you said "teaching is for the moment but educating is for a lifetime." I completely agree and I think that everything that you said is the point of this class. We must know how to use the technology as a tool to help better our student's knowledge and understanding of the material. I am interested to see how you are going to use technology in the P.E./coaching field. Good luck to you in the future!
ReplyDeleteGarreth,
ReplyDeleteI am more than impressed with this week's blog post. Not only did you get the metaphor, but you explained it, as well as its significance, better than many other people have. Well done!
I agree with Sarah that your comment, "teaching is for the moment but educating is for a lifetime" is a very thoughtful one. When I was reading the second portion, the connection is made that teachers educate through the outdated way, i.e. Pencils; whereas EDUCATORS who prepare their students for a lifetime, embrace technology because they see that to convey life skills, they must use real life tools. They also see that not only does technology accomplish this, but that standardized tests are counter-productive and not an accurate measure of student intelligence and potential.
Everyone who missed the metaphor should read this post because it does an incredible job of giving perspective and tying it all together in a meaningful way.
Keep up the impeccable work,
Carly