P URPOSEFUL KNOWLEDGE HAS BEEN A CRITICAL MATTER TO ME. My teenagers education, and how formative was what they learned, has been a concern. Socrates represents it very well when he stated that "Education is not to fill a vessel." It is because knowledge in bulk does not produce achievers. Purposeful and formative knowledge does.
During my high school, I had a Science Teacher known by a nickname: 'Mr. Why.' He convincingly believed that if a teacher has intelligent students, and students fail to learn, it is revealing that the teacher fails to teach. Moreover, he advocated that reading books in attempts to memorize lengthy and boring text is ~in most cases~ a waste of students' time that could be invested acquiring much more valuable knowledge.
During all his classes, Mr. Why placed in front of our wide-open and attentive eyes Mother Nature's Laws of Physics. In admiration, we saw Mother Nature performing her miraculous acts. This teacher kept us all so excited that one student loudly exclaimed... "It is impossible not to learn!"
This teacher's nickname was because of his most famous question. Should a student enunciate a Law of Physics, he can be anticipated to ask "Why?" For Mr. Why, it was not enough that his students memorize laws. He wanted us to understand each Law of Physics that we enunciate. Most certainly, Mr. Why made sure that all of us left class carrying an additional load of purposeful and formative knowledge.
At the end of each class, we all were looking forward to his next edifying and uplifting class!
it is of utter importance for parents not to take the path of
least resistance. instead, to become responsible realizing
that parents are their teanagers' only asset.
what parents must do for teenagers: 1.- show them examples
how to do what is right. 2.- look for the spark that socrates
told us about 2,400 years ago, and when found, fuel it.
