A Blog post
Two (Out of Ten) Lessons Your Children Are Learning in School
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Apr 05, 2018 -
Jared Wells
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In Uncategorized
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0 Comments
Apr 05, 2018 
Jared Wells 
In Uncategorized 
0 Comments
Lesson 1: “I don’t know” is shameful and bad.
In school, “I don’t know” is a bad grade on a test, it’s being called on and embarrassed in front of the class. In a student's mind, it means you are irresponsible, lazy, and/or stupid. Now, of course no teacher is explicitly saying these things to students (are they?) but the message is clear: the “good” students are the ones that know the answers, and the “bad” students don’t.
The truth: “I don’t know” is an opportunity for growth. It is the chance to overcome. Finding the answer to “I don’t know” can be as minor as figuring out how to fix your computer yourself, or as world-changing as figuring out how to provide clean water to the third world. It’s an entrepreneur's million dollar idea. Every adventure story is solving a big “I don’t know”! It wouldn't be much of a story if the hero was afraid to investigate where the treasure was, would it?
Lesson 2: Learning is memorizing facts that have no bearing on my life.
I don’t think that it’s unreasonable that students look at chemistry and come to the conclusion that it’s unlikely that their future success is going to depend on understanding the structure of an atom. Does yours? So they go into classes, day after day, looking at education and learning as little more than a hoop that needs to be jumped through.
The truth: Being able to learn well has never been more important than it is today. Careers no longer last 40 years, and your son is going to need to be able more move deftly from one field to another. It’s likely that the things your daughter will need to know to succeed 30 years from now are unknown today. Just as we learn to read via the adventures of Dick and Jane (no 5 year old complains that this story has no relevance to our future success), we learn to learn by studying AP European history, we learn to write by writing essays about Sidhartha, and we learn to think by solving math problems in pre-calculus. Certainly, students might be better served by having more options to to take classes more clearly relevant to their intended career path, but in the end, it’s the skill of learning that is going to be tested when they are adults.
Finals are coming up soon for La Jolla High and Muirlands Middle...is your son or daughter ready? Call or email to schedule some time for class support or organizational/planning support today!
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