10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

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Michelle Xu
YOYO member
文章: 1
註冊時間: 週六 9月 28, 2019 4:20 pm

10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

文章 Michelle Xu »

Hi, this is Michelle. It’s my first time to be a host. I was a teacher, so let’s talk about school education this week. Every one of us has spent quite a long time in school. What’s the purpose of school education? How should it be implemented? What have you learned from your schools and teachers? Let’s explore these issues. By the way, Sir Ken Robinson‘s talk is not only inspiring but also humorous. You shouldn’t miss it.

Session 1
Sources:
“Do schools kill creativity” by Sir Ken Robinson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

2. Article from School Education Gateway
(https://www.schooleducationgateway.eu/e ... opment.htm)

Schools have an important role to play in helping young people to develop and manage their physical and emotional well-being, and to live and work with others in different contexts.
Key areas include: social interaction; developing a healthy mind, body and lifestyle; and knowing one’s own strengths and weaknesses and how to develop competences.
Learning experiences can be opportunities for developing the skills to reflect critically on and manage one’s own lifestyle, and to communicate and collaborate with others. They can also encourage young people to have an attitude of aspiration and the desire to set and achieve goals, and of tolerance – valuing diversity and respecting others, and being prepared both to overcome prejudices and to compromise.

Questions for discussion
1. Why do we go to school and what can we learn from school?

2. What is human ecology? Do you agree with Sir Ken Robinson that we should start to reconstitute our concept of the richness of human capacity?

3. In Robinson’s speech, he said, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” What do you think about “making mistakes”? Will you take them as stepping stones to greater things in life?

4. If you were the minister of education here in Taiwan, what would you emphasize most? (whole person education, creativity, humanity, virtues, academic ability, specialty, arts…)

Session 2
Source:

“Kiran Bir Sethi teaches kids to take charge”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Y2sj_G4Njg

Questions for discussion
1. Like Riverside School in India, do you think teachers should teach students to take charge of the betterment of the society? Why does it matter? Can it really develop the potential that resides inside them?

2. Do you believe that students taught to take charge of the betterment of the society can also perform well in subjects learning?

3. Do you believe that subjects like math, English and science are more useful for work, so school should highlight these subjects rather than other subjects like arts, humanity or physical education?

4. Talk about the schools that you have been educated in which had courses refer to project-based learning, competency-based learning, collaborative or group-based learning that have benefited you a lot.

5. Talk about the teachers that had special teaching methods or teaching styles that have inspired you a lot.

*************************************************************************************
Agenda:
3:50 ~ 4:00pm Greetings & Free Talk / Ordering Beverage or Meal / Getting Newcomer’s Information
4:00 ~ 4:20pm Opening Remarks / Newcomer’s Self-introduction / Grouping
(Session I)
4:20 ~ 5:00pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
5:00 ~ 5:20pm Summarization (20 mins)
5:20 ~ 5:30pm Regrouping / Instruction Giving / Taking a 10 Minutes Break (Intermission)
(Session II)
5:30~ 6:10pm Discussion Session (40 mins)
6:10~ 6:30pm Summarization / Concluding Remarks / Announcements(20 mins)
***************************************************************************************
聚會日期:列於該貼文主題內
聚會時間:當天請準時於 16:00 pm 到達 ~ 約 18:30 pm 左右結束
星期六聚會地點:丹堤濟南店
地址、電話:台北市濟南路三段25號 地圖 (02) 2740-2350
捷運站:板南線 忠孝新生站 3 號出口
走法:出忠孝新生站 3 號出口後,沿著巷子(忠孝東路三段10巷)走約 2 分鐘,到了濟南路口,左轉走約 2 分鐘即可看到。
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給新朋友的話:
1. 請事先準備 2~3 分鐘的英語自我介紹;會議結束前可能會請你發表 1~2 分鐘的感想。
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Rock
YOYO member
文章: 2161
註冊時間: 週三 10月 31, 2007 9:03 am

Re: 10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

文章 Rock »

Hi, Michelle, nice to have you as our host. I bet this first time hosting is something special to you, right?

Being a current teacher, I like this topic a lot because it's a chance for me to give something back to Yoyo. Many people believe that school is a place for "greatness", which it is not. The main reason that kids are sent to school is:

Babysitting

Keeping the children in one piece is the number mission. No dangerous activities should be done in school, or the mission could fail. With that said, telling kids to stay away from danger after school is also a must. Joining demonstrations in Mong Kok is not encouraged. Calling their parents bad names is forbidden, too. Safety first.

As for teaching, there are several things to be done. The first one is brainwashing, or the so called "education". Thanks to secularism, God and gods are out. But man-made deities still rule and Confucius is one of them, who makes the confused more confused. To cure the confusion, the "educators", or MOE for short in Taiwan, invents history for our lovely kids, which, if you think about it, makes no sense at all, since it's a singular noun but comes in many different forms. And the result is, they call it "independent thinking", which makes it sound like a good thing, but what it really is is a shifting of burden and responsibility of answering the unanswerable questions from the adults to the kids.

The second thing to be done is to teach the students how to make money in the future. But we all know it's bullshit at times since many teachers are poor and don't know how to make money themselves....
In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

文章 Kooper »

We tend to be super idealistic in the discussion of how school education should change. Down to day-to-day implementation, however, we oftentimes can’t help but being constrained by our own school experiences, by deep-rooted legacy that we unwittingly inherited as students. Here is one of my humbling experiences:

I subscribe to the idea that talent can be diverse in forms and that all school subjects are equally important for the purpose of education. But when my daughter started spending truckloads of time practicing singing for her music class earlier this year, I was overwhelmed with anxiety. At that time, a major nationwide examination was just on the horizon. The exam was going to determine her next stop at a senior high school. Obviously getting an impressive grade in the music class was not going to help her performance in this potentially life-determining test and instead could be the other way around. It took great efforts to bit my tongue and not to nag my daughter about her music fever.
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Christine
YOYO member
文章: 197
註冊時間: 週三 8月 31, 2005 7:34 pm

Re: 10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

文章 Christine »

Finally we have Michelle to be the host :)
This is a good topic, and I do look forward to the meeting particularly it’s prepared by an experienced teacher.
It’s great to have Rock and Kooper shared their thoughts and experiences too.
Kooper
YOYO member
文章: 2725
註冊時間: 週三 4月 11, 2007 11:40 pm

Re: 10/19(Sat.) Why do we go to school? (Host: Michelle)

文章 Kooper »

Attendees(19): Iris, Jerry, Christine Hsiu, Kooper, Gloria, John, Sherry, Kat, Morris, Ramesh, Sunny Sr., Leon, Jason Yuan, Steve, Winston, Lydia, Shirley, David Jr., Michelle (host)
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