Why Do We Teach What We Teach?

I had the privilege of attending a graduation ceremony at the RCMP Depot in Regina this past week – my daughter is now an RCMP officer. Goedkoop Nike Schoenen It was most impressive – they do put on a show! However, as I was watching the very lengthy precision marching display her troop put on for us (in their beautiful red serge uniforms) I began to wonder why there was such a heavy emphasis put on teaching them to march. I understand the need for discipline and teamwork, as well as the ability to follow orders, in that profession. Fjallraven Kanken Large

What I don’t understand is why you would develop these abilities by training a skill they will have very little use for afterward. nike air max 1 femme I have yet to see one of our local officers ‘marching’ around town!

What does this have to do with an education blog? There are conversations going on in education regarding the benefits of teaching certain skills given the time required to gain those skills. Fjallraven Kanken 16L Are we wasting children’s time teaching them skills they may not use much, if at all, in their everyday lives?

Many of you are dealing with the on-going dilemma of whether to teach handwriting or not. There are two definite schools of thought on this. One says the skills a child learns while learning to handwrite will benefit them in many ways. fjallraven kanken goedkoop The other says – “why waste their valuable learning time teaching them a skill they will rarely use?” How often do any of us use formal handwriting anymore?

Personally, I think it comes down to individual student needs. I see my granddaughter, now in grade 3, anxiously waiting to learn to handwrite. But I also remember so many of my at-risk students who struggled with learning to print and then had to face yet another obstacle with handwriting. Kris Bryant Authentic Jersey If our goal for these children is to have them able to express themselves in print, should we allow them to become as good as they can with one skill rather than confuse and frustrate them with a second skill that accomplishes the same thing? For these children, a better use of their time might be keyboarding.

In previous blogs, I’ve ‘ranted’ about the emphasis that is so often put on teaching upper case letters and letter names. If our goal is to develop early reading skills, children need to learn lower case letters and letter sounds – the names and upper case have little, if any, connection to early reading. mochilas kanken baratas Again, our average and above average students are able to differentiate between all this information. For our at-risk students, we are wasting their valuable learning time teaching them skills that will not benefit them in learning to read and, in fact, will typically confuse and frustrate them more.

In the area of math, there is often controversy about teaching the basic facts and processes – calculators are a part of everyone’s life these days. zonnebrillen kopen ray ban Do we just train them to use calculators properly? I remember giving my students fact tables to ensure their calculations were accurate. And what about algebra? Others question the value of teaching music and the arts in school. According to the RCMP theory, children will gain many other benefits from learning these skills, even if they don’t use them in real life. nike air max 1 goedkoop There is research stating we need to keep learning throughout our lives in order to maintain good brain health.

There are no ‘cut and dried’ answers to these questions and the discussions will continue. Hopefully, this blog post will generate some discussion between colleagues at your school. I think it is good to examine what we are doing and confirm that our goals meet student needs. Definitely, we must expose children to as much information as possible so they have the opportunity to make good choices when they need to.