Don't Delay

In my culture, education is the most noble human activity. We need to understand how people think. See the new book on amazon.com: "Teaching and Helping Students Think and Do Better".

Here in Australia, the bulk of our culture tells young people "don't be curious, have contempt for intellectuals, rush into everything without thought, and above all: buy, buy, buy". And it's not only popular culture: universities market themselves as the quick and easy way into high-paying corporate jobs, and underplay effort, curiosity, and scholarship. They subtly inform lucrative overseas students that it's almost impossible to fail (which it is, as administrations routinely override lecturers' marks for full-fee-paying students, and ignore wholesale plagiarism).

My point is, that to ignite any curiosity or love of their subject here (and it may be different in the US), teachers have to do battle a whole culture, which is enervating, dispiriting, and in the end is clearly going to be beyond the 'average' teacher.

its a very deep quote, and really nice too..

Nice stuff

I have never forgotten one high school history teacher. Why? He caught our attention the first day with a dramatic beginning and a few well chosen words. There was no attendance taking or writing his name on the board. He just walked in and stood there looking around until we finally got quiet. Then he said in a ringing voice, "What IS power?" Several people offered definitions. He then informed us, "Power is the ability to influence people. A study of history is a study of power." We were riveted and most of us stayed that way throughout the year. He made us think, wanted us to talk more than he did. He was tough, but he was a great teacher, very passionate. Mr. Cozine.

In Australia, the bulk of our culture tells young people "don't be curious, have contempt for intellectuals, rush into everything without thought, and above all: buy, buy, buy". And it's not only popular culture: universities market themselves as the quick and easy way into high-paying corporate jobs, and underplay effort, curiosity, and scholarship.

Education and reflection - the main engine of evolution and development

As I am currently conducting research on student engagement and participation for an Education Research course that I am enrolled in, I enjoyed taking time away from my paper to read this article and reflect on my own motivation. After 10 hour days of extensive literature reviews and survey creation, I was seriously questioning WHY I chose to do this; Thank you for reminding me that just because I am not a raging California wild fire, doesn't mean I won't succeed. I just need a little bit more encouraging to keep the fire going. This article gave me just that...

Thank you for your analogies. This will to learn is my quest with my 13 year old who had lost his will in school. As a new homeschool mom, I spend a fair amount of time researching and thinking about "how" to learn. My experiences concur with your writings. It's a delicate balance as I daily watch for sparks. Then, I look for ways to ignite learning without smothering the spark in our quest for fire.

I'll probably quote you in my own blog, The Homeschool Regel...Journey of a Struggling Learner. http://thsregel.blogspot.com Thanks for your insight.

Yeats didn't really say that. Its just a popular uncited quote attribution.

While I largely agree with the principle the supposed Yeats quotation represents, I defy anyone on the planet to find this phrase anywhere in Yeats's poems, plays, essays, speeches, letters, or diaries -- or in anything else he actually wrote. For the record, the word "pail" appears in Yeats's published poems a total of zero times.

:)

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