I taught my first high school class today. English Lit, which I love! The students were NOT interested, why? The one question I've been thinking about lately is youth in school and why it's not taken seriously. Sure, I can understand that there may be more um, interesting (hormonish) things going on but still, these ADULTS will be in college or worse yet, working in few years time. Why doesn't this sink in?

One reason I can think of topically is that education is being taught as ed_cation. The u is missing. Without a u, education sounds more like vacation or caution. What? Yes, students don't own anything they do. Ideas are distilled onto a worksheet destined for the bin, destined for the dump. Are ideas just something to be seen and tossed? NO! How can we make learning a point of pride?

Did I mention that I HATE worksheets? Let's strip away the tedium, toss in the conversation. If we say these students are adults then let them be. Save the tedium for test days (which come often enough to dull the importance), teachers should know where their students are at anyway without having to constantly force them to complete a worksheet.

Open ended questions can bring upon more learning that any well prepared worksheet because the questions come from necessity.

I wish I were a better writer, but still ... many people have written before and they should be appreciated. Appreciate Paul Graham and his thoughts:

http://www.paulgraham.com/hs.html?dsq=41851049#comment-41851049