While browsing for books for the next TEAP assignment, I've stumbled upon a piece of gem called Happiness and Education by Nel Noddings. Leave it to me to be attracted to books with such title.
Anyway, though there's not much information that's relevant to the assignment, I found these particular paragraphs interesting:
I have argued repeatedly that there is no sound educational reason for forcing all students to study algebra and geometry. Both subjects should, however, be offered to students who need or want them. (Recall also that I suggested that all students should be offered risk-free opportunities to explore these subjects) bla bla bla ...I know that there are students who enjoy the material and do well with it. They are not better than students who hate math and love art; thay are different , and their interest should be satisfied ( I love you Nel!!)
and my favourite part is..
Not all students have an intellectual interest in mathematics, nor is there any reason to insist that they should. Perhaps as many as 20 percent do have such interests, and schools should cultivate their interests without imposing them on everyone else.
Ok. I hate maths.
with all my heart and soul, maths is my least favourite subject in the whole wide world.
haha
well, it's because i dont have an intellectual interest in mathematics.
seriously, i don't.
maths is irrelevant to me.
ok i know that maths is important for development blablabla but hey,
as long as i know how much I spend on my shoppings, that should be enough right?
because I know that I am not interested to be an engineer, doctor etc.
why in the world should i learn about derivation, triangles ect?
I think students should be given more freedom to choose whatever they like to study.
Don't impose your sometimes- riddiculous- norms- and -values on them. i.e people in science streams are so much better than people in arts.
like Nel said, students who love maths are not better than students who hate maths. they are just different.
everyone has different interests and capabilities.
we need not insist that everyone can master a particular intellectual task any more than we would claim than everyone can learn to play the violin skillfully or repair an airplane engine.
sigh.
I had to take add maths in school because I was in the science stream. so that was acceptable.
what's not acceptable is that I had to take Maths as well during A levels.
which was absolutely riddiculous.
Why would you forced a bunch of Tesl students to do maths??
We are going to teach Englissshhhhhh for goodness sake and I think its obvious that Maths are not our forte.
For goodness sake, I took the offer to do A levels mainly because I did not want to have anything to do with maths anymore at matrix
and only to discover that I have to take maths paper in order to continue my degree.
riddiculous aye?
2 years of studying Maths for A levels are equivalent to 2 years of pure pain and torture to me.
when i am not interested in that subject, I wouldnt even put any efforts to that subject until the last minute. haha
needless to say, I have somehow managed to pass the paper. If not, I wouldn't even be here in windy Wellington.
but it saddens me when one of my friends who is really good in English didn't make it through because she flunked her Maths paper.
tragic.
all because of a stupid maths paper which is totally irrelevant to what we're doing now.
sheesh.
the point is, let us choose to learn what we deemed as interesting and important to us.
"students who have genuine intellectual interests derive happiness- even joy- from their engagement with a chosen topic" (Noddings,2003, p. 218)
Teachers and PARENTS should be aware of this.
Based on my observations, if you love your children, don't force them to take something that you want them to do. ask them what they like to do and support their decisions. Then both sides would be happy. (Oh if only Jonathan would read this)
Quote of the day:
Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
-Wiliam Butler Yeats-
Today I am grateful for..
my health. Hey, the exams are just around the corner and it wouldnt be cool if I'm suddenly down with fever :P
Alhamdulillah, thank you Allah.
6 comments:
aku jmpe blog ni kt traffic aku~!!!la la la..
owh aku juge berhajat supaya encek jono itu membaca blog ni..
yes3!!!we dun haf to know the ever complicated calculus to check our electric bills eventhough we are the pembuat kire2 bil letrek..yay~!!!world is more fun without math
skian,
akubencimath. =p
oh yuyu sahabat seperjuanganku!
haha
cis cmne ak xleh prasan ko ade traffic tu
hilang anonymity ak
hahaha
weehooo i've found u!
thanx to my dear mr. feedjit! ;)
Yeah, I agree with the argument. We all possess different kind of predominant intelligences (refer to multiple intelligences theory). You don't expect a linguistically intelligent girl like Yuyu to be good at calculus. The same with a logically intelligent boy like Kay to be good in linguistics. Because we are all so different.
Have you read Summerhill by A.S. Neill? An interesting read, it is. About children should be reared in happiness. They got to choose what they want to learn, even whether to attend a lesson or not.
Not directly related with your entry though, but you might be interested in it. I have a copy of the book.
is the book fiction or non-fiction?
Non-fiction. Neill wrote the book to tell the real stories of Summerhill despite the many negative criticisms about his school by the press.
His writing is simple to understand. He really knows how to target public audience.
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