May 3
Read to the following blog and corresponding comments and post your comments/reactions on this page.
http://concretekax.blogspot.com/2010/10/alchemist-and-louis-lamour.htmlYou must include the following in your responses:
1. What is your initial reaction to this post?
2. What are Kaechele's contentions regarding The Alchemist and current education trends.
3. What is your personal response to his allegations/blog entry? (See other students' posts)
I. Read through following quotes by Robert Fulghum:
- My convictions have validity for me because I have experimented with the compounds of ideas of others in the laboratory of my mind. And I've tested the results in the living out of my life. At twenty-one, I had drawn an abstract map based on the evidence of others. At sixty, I have accumulated a practical guide grounded in my own experience. At twenty-one, I could discuss transportation theory with authority. At sixty, I know which bus to catch to go where, what the fare is, and how to get back home again. It is not my bus, but I know how to use it. Words I Wish I Wrote (1997)
- Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered. When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be. It Was on Fire When I Lay Down on It (1988)
- There’s another thing not everyone figures out right away: It’s almost impossible to go through life all alone. We need to find our support group — family, friends, companion, therapy gatherings, team, church or whatever. The kindergarten admonition applies as long as we live: “When you go out into the world, hold hands and stick together.” It’s dangerous out there — lonely, too. Everyone needs someone. Some assembly is always required. All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things (1988)
- To insist on one's place in the scheme of things and to live up to that place.
To empower others in their reaching for some place in the scheme of things. To do these things is to make fairy tales come true. Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door (2001)
To empower others in their reaching for some place in the scheme of things. To do these things is to make fairy tales come true. Uh-Oh: Some Observations from Both Sides of the Refrigerator Door (2001)
hee hee
ReplyDeleteMy reaction to this post is that I agree with the fact that schools are controlling the students with standrazation and it has major effect on holding them back from pursuing their dreams and goals. However, Kaechele's contentions regarding The Alchemist and current education trends is that schools are spending so much time on standarized testing and other things that are required from the state that aren't neccessary, while the students are losing their passion toward what they are doing in school because of their families and teachers pressure on them to pass the standardized testing. Therefore, I see that Kaechele's post emerges his voice against standardization and all the rules schools follow, by the state's law. And as Kaechele's mentions in the quote "More important was that school was interfering with my education." I believe that schools are killing students dreams and lowering the chances for them to become successful and reach their goals with passion.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to this post is one of agreement to Kaechele's argument to a degree. I feel as if schools are very much obsessed with standardization and less with exploration. He uses Santiago's experiences as a comparison to today's current system, with him preferring the way in which Santiago and D'Amour go out and look for their personal journeys. Learning through experience and following one's dreams is obviously a good thing, but my personal response to th blog is that many who do so go about it in the wrong way, disregarding anything that is associated with education, even books. To successfully find your personal journey, you must value education of some sort, as Santiago and D'Amour do with lots of reading.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to this post was that I agree but I’m skeptical of the probability of success. I feel like in order to pursue education of your own you have to also learn inner peace and self love in order to be satisfied with wherever you end up in life, even if it isn’t where you initially wanted to. The part that I agree with is the fact that school doesn’t allow enough time for dreamers to become successors. School to me is the net below the tightrope labeled “path to your dreams” that everyone can fall back on.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest contention between the Alchemist and current education trends is the fact that school equates standardization. Santiago learns from observing his sheep, interactions with the people like the gypsy and the old man, and experience. Meanwhile the average western englishman learns from textbooks. He studies from a western education curriculum. He reads rather than experiences.
My personal response to this post is that I absolutely agree. We should shape every aspect of schooling into tools for life farther down the road. I could make the popular argument of “what am I even going to use all these math classes for if I don’t want to do anything involving all this math,” but it goes deeper than that. It is keeping these required classes but using them in a way that we actually will in our lives. I think this article exemplifies progressive learning, and I believe our education systems should be more geared towards experience, because at the end of the day you do more useful learning from experience than you do from reading a textbook.
My initial reaction to this post was that I agree to a certain extent. School shouldn't be all about standardization, but I do think that when it comes to education, there should be some structure so that students have the basic knowledge they need to peruse whatever else they might be interested in. I definitely agree that there are many different ways to learn, education doesn't always have to be in a classroom. Kaechele's contentions regarding The Alchemist and current education trends was that schools are so busy covering curriculums and meeting standards that they forget to allow kids to acknowledge their dreams and passions. Education has always been tied to schools, universities and professors, so most assume that that is what education is and that there is no other way to get an education outside the typical classroom setting. My personal response is that in order to be successful in life, that education of some sort is a basic necessity. The education system should be set up to help children get the necessary tool to pursue their passions and dreams and in doing so also providing them with the basic knowledge to be able to be whatever they what to be in the near future.
ReplyDeleteI started going to school when I was five, and it was always planned for me to continue and move onto college, so this is a lens I have not looked through before, but I do agree for the most part. My initial reaction was of agreement. I agree that most times we get lost in the attempt of covering the curriculum that this leads to the loss of creativity and blurred dreams for most students and even teachers. Kaechele believes the englishman in "The Alchemist" represents Western education and that western education should expand and follow Santiago's learning ways. Instead of primarily book use and curriculums we should learn from nature and exploration. Kaechele believes current education trends interfere with the pursuit of passion and creativity, and that it is not what education should be. I would mostly agree with this blog entry. When kids first begin school they are very creative but by the time they are done that creativity is almost always gone. I agree for the most part but would not agree entirely because I think electives are an outlet for creativity and help students pursue their passions. Art, theatre, band, orchestra, technology, PE, and all the other other electives serve as an outlet for student creativity if not heavily run according to the curriculum which they usually are not.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the second paragraph, I agreed with the post instantly. I too believe that school focuses too much on curriculum over learning. The Alchemist is mentioned as a metaphor for two different types of learning. The Englishman represents learning through books, which is the education system we currently possess. On the other hand, Santiago represents learning through experience, an ancient way of learning.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the blog post, I became angry at our current education system and our inability to change it. I also found it hilarious that Louis L'Amour stated that he dropped out of school because it was interfering with his education.
My initial reaction to this post is that I 100% agree with the authors thoughts. The second we are placed into school we are placed onto a path of education for years full of expectations we are supposed to meet. Our school systems don't allow children to find their own passion naturally, rather they force passions onto children. The author uses the alchemist to show how in eastern education children learn more naturally but in western learning we use an artificial form of education essentially. The author believes we should all learn more naturally to truly grow. My personal response to this blog is that I agree with the author fully and I am angered at the reality of our school systems here in America.
ReplyDeleteMy initial reaction to this post is that I 100% agree with the authors thoughts. The second we are placed into school we are placed onto a path of education for years full of expectations we are supposed to meet. Our school systems don't allow children to find their own passion naturally, rather they force passions onto children. The author uses the alchemist to show how in eastern education children learn more naturally but in western learning we use an artificial form of education essentially. The author believes we should all learn more naturally to truly grow. My personal response to this blog is that I agree with the author fully and I am angered at the reality of our school systems here in America.
ReplyDeleteReading this blog, I was in total agreement. I feel that as seniors, we are more able to relate and have a more valid and clear understanding of what education means more than most people (excluding those who have pursued higher education in a tradition setting). Thirteen years in a set routine of classroom, lecture, book work, homework, and tests certainly has been eye opening. I completely agree that this traditional classroom setting has by no means contributed to what I hope to obtain and pursue with my life.
ReplyDeleteI feel as if all of the individual aspects of myself have been made and developed outside of school. That's not to say that school hasn't aided my endeavors, but it has been that the education provided to me has not been my primary driver, because, like the blog has posted, the education system does not allow for the growth of an individuals aspirations.
This is what Kaechele alleges, that unlike Santiago in The Alchemist, today's school systems can't provide the same kind of learning that nature and personal experiences would and do.
I personally believe that traditional school is too confounding, driving every student towards the same level of learning. Achievement is not personal through school, it is meeting other adults standards that have been laid out, and if an individual does not fit those guidelines, they are seen as failures. However, they too can reach that same level of fulfillment simply through other means, not necessarily needing to be met through a classroom environment.