First quarter of the 2010-2011 school year had just come to an end, so I guess that would be the reason for this topic and its amazing timing.
For any class in general, I believe that it should do these few things at the least, such as give the students a general idea of basics, help students decide whether they'd like to work in a profession that involves that kind of work, and teach them something they can use in life one way or another (speaking skills, simple math when shopping, etc).
I'd also like to point out: Why is it we focus so much on the past? Is it perhaps because we don't really know what's in store for the future? I can understand the whole "learning from your mistakes" thing, but it feels like it's all we do in school, just learn about history, the past. In order to keep moving on, we're going to have to stop sticking to what already happened that we can't change, and maybe apply what we learn from history to what we can shape to our liking, the future.
In this class...I actually quite like the way it's going. The discussions are great, and there's not usually too much homework, but I think it can work more on the moving forward thing. The books we read are all pretty old and are set several hundred years ago. However the weekly blogging assignments is definitely an interesting way to teach, and in way, it does move us forward, or at least keeps us up to date, since nowadays everything goes around through the internet. I just wish school didn't always make us read old books.
Haha, old books.
ReplyDeleteI don't really mind reading old books, I just hate history. I'm kind of glad now that I take AP Human Geo because it exposes you to global issues. I've always hated how we all have to learn about American history in grade school. Every year, we learn about the same things. And most of us aren't even going to major in history, so why do we even care about the Battle of Chattanooga? And give it to Ms. Boyle to make Honors World History students write an essay about Renaissance artists or whatever it was. We don't end up learning anything useful! [/rant]
Sometimes I wonder if learning history to such extent is just a waste of time. History repeats itself, because there are always these stupid psychos that do whatever they want. Learning so much, why hasn't anyone prevented these things?
Anyways, I realize I'm writing too much. But that above is my answer to your question, about what CPS/WY should change.