Sema Culhaci
Language Development
Journal III
8/5/10
Journal III
The text "We should Cherish Our Children's Freedom to Think" by Kie Ho was a somehow creative and innovative view on education and its outcome. He emphasizes the aspect of creativity and opposes to the attempt of just teach content knowledge. A main focus of the text is the fact that students shouls be allowed to "[...] freely speak, write and be creative" (Kie, 114). I agree with this since this is the core element of a democratic organization of schools. Students' voices must be taken seriously and their freedom to express themselves critically must be ensured in an appropriate classroom environment. When achieving this, students' self-esteem raises and they can experiment experiment with ideas and feel free to say whatever they want without fearing any constraints. I like this aspect of being independent but I think it is very sad to see that nowadays lots of students lack general knowledge about important historical and political events. They cannot make connections between this general world knowledge and the concrete facts they are being taught at school. Rather this approach of having the freedom to think often leads to confusion and fuzzy concepts about the world. Thus I believe that a balance between creative ways of thinking and gaining knowledge through mere facts is of great importance.
Sema,
AntwortenLöschenI agree that it is important to take students' voices seriously, especially when those students are marginalized by society. The classroom should be a space, as you've mentioned, that is democratically organized to ensure that all students feel equally valued and empowered to learn. I also like how you've highlighted the importance for students to learn meaningful content so that they can have the knowledge necessary to act as intelligent individuals in a democratic society.
Take another look at these phrases: "a somehow creative and innovative view" and "opposes to the attempt".