All posts by k.zheng1

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“Education is growth”

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John Dewey once said, “Education is a social process… Education is growth. Education is not preparation for life. Education is life itself”.

Like the theme of this class, “School isn’t everything”, John Dewey is basically stating the same thing. Although this contradicts what I believe and proved before, that  practical education is most effective, I also believe what Dewey states, that Education is not preparation for life, but it is life itself. Education is not strictly what one learns in school, but learning anything, from how to boil an egg to how to buy a metro card. Education occurs throughout one’s life, learning how to do a certain task at work, how to work the coffee maker in the break room, or even just learning one’s family tree, this is all still education about something. One learns something new everyday, even if they do not realize it. One grows from education, like studying thyself, basically Benjamin Franklin’s theory to better himself by studying himself to correct his faults and adapting the 13 virtues which essentially led to a happier life. Education is also a social process, learning how society works, what one can and cannot say to certain people, like the president or a professor, how to act when one is in different places, like different social structures in different countries, and even how to go about certain things, like during interviews or presentations. School isn’t everything, but education is; knowledge is power.

Introduction Exercise #1

(Late) Introduction Exercise #1

According to Emile: or A Treatise on Education by Jean Jacques Rousseau, a child’s emotions develop as he experiences it, “It needs knowledge he has not yet acquired, feelings he has not yet experienced” (15). Like a child, the beast from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, learns the ropes of society through his experiences. Rousseau’s theory of education by man (society and tradition), things (experience), and nature is reflected in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” through the beast Frankenstein creates; this beast is impacted mostly by society and tradition, which is reflected through his development of human emotions. These emotions evolve throughout the novel, as the beast matures, which explain how different circumstances in one’s life have an effect on their emotional health. I will be discussing the initial development of the beast’s emotions from his time after he leaves Frankenstein’s apartment, his first subtle sensations turning into basic emotions. Next, I will examine the event in which the beast was chased out of a village and how that treatment led him to go into hiding, where he then develops a sense of resentment and loneliness. Then, I will take into account what he learns through watching the De Lacey family, essentially learning how to speak and express his emotions. Finally, I will elaborate on his hatred for Frankenstein after he fails to create another monster for the beast to have a companion in his life of loneliness, which eventually leads to Frankenstein’s death and the beast’s subsequent misery.

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Practical Use

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From the movie, To Sir, With Love by E.R. Braithwaite, Ricky Braithwaite  philosophy of education was to teach his students subjects that are of practical use to them. These subjects included love, sex, marriage and so on. Like Ricky Braithwaite, Professor Lupin, from the novel Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, adapted this philosophy of teaching. Unlike the traditional method of teaching, lectures and reading chapters from books, Professor Lupin instead tells his students, “Would you please put all your books back in your bags. Today’s lesson will be a practical lesson” (130). He simply stated himself that reading from a book can only teach you so much and even the students believed that this was the best way they were ever taught, “That was the best Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson we’ve ever had” (140). Making these lessons practical and interesting gives students more motivation to learn, “In no time at all, Defense Against the Dark Arts had become most people’s favorite class… His next few lessons were just as interesting as the first” (141).  Just like Braithwaite’s class enjoyed his class and style of teaching, letting the students ask any question they had about the topic they were discussing just reinforced their interest in the topic. Just as everyone enjoyed Professor Lupin’s class, they were sad to see him leave, “He certainly wasn’t the only one who was sorry to see Professor Lupin go. The whole of Harry’s Defense Against the Dark Arts class was miserable about his resignation”, showing how much the students enjoyed his class because of his style of teaching (429).

Introduction Exercise #2

Introduction Exercise #2

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How does one learn emotions, to love and to hate? According to Emile: or A Treatise on Education by Jean Jacques Rousseau, a child’s emotions develop as he experiences it, “It needs knowledge he has not yet acquired, feelings he has not yet experienced” (15). Like a child, the beast from Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein”, learns the ropes of society through his experiences. Rousseau’s theory of education by man (society and tradition), nature and things (experience) is reflected in Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” through the beast Frankenstein creates with education by man being the strongest influence of beast’s growth through his development of human emotions. I will be discussing the initial development of the beast’s emotions from his time after he leaves Frankenstein’s apartment, his first subtle sensations turning into basic emotions. Next, I will discuss the event in which the beast was chased out of a village and how that treatment led him to go into hiding, where he then developed a sense of resentment and loneliness. Then, I will take into account what he learns through watching the De Lacey family, essentially learning how to speak and express his emotions. Finally, I will elaborate on his hatred for Frankenstein after he fails to create another monster for the beast to live with, which eventually leads to Frankenstein’s death and the beast’s subsequent misery.

Thesis Exercise #2

Changes in the beast by treatment of man

Rousseau’s theory of education by man, nature and things is reflected in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein through the beast Frankenstein creates; the strongest influence of beast’s development is education by man because the beast is most affect by it, through his development of human emotions, like love and hate, which essentially drives the plot of the novel.

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Teaching method that actually worked!

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E.R Braithwaite, a new teacher at Greenslade School, a secondary school, learns how to teach a group of students who are classified as “difficult” because they do not comply with the traditional forms of education because of their lack of respect for authority. Being black was definitely a disadvantage for him, seeing as the students did not respect him because of that fact, but he persists and tries a different approach to teaching them, giving them respect for their age, and asking them to have certain manners now in class. I think this made a huge difference in their minds for many different reasons.

By giving these students respect, Braithwaite earned theirs because they finally felt like someone genuinely cared about them and saw them as blooming adults, which they were. Giving them this sense of power gave these students the drive to prove their self-worth, to actually accomplish and learn things. By letting his students choose the topic they discussed in class, the students expressed real interest in the topic and the conversation just flowed. There was nothing strained about the conversation, since Braithwaite gave the students permission to ask anything they wanted. He let them explore the thoughts in their mind, answered any questions they had, and let them expressed their opinions. This was completely new to them, and being treated differently and learning in this kind of environment made these children not only better students, but better people, being able to survive in the real world with the different topics they discussed, like sex, love, marriage, etc.

I believe this was very important to them, treating these students like adults and teaching them things that actually meant something to them, to entice real interest from them. One can see how the students perception of their teacher changes throughout the movie, with good reason! In my opinion, Braithwaite could not have gotten through to his students any other way since I believe that in order to learn, a student must first be motivated to learn and express interest in the topics one is learning.

 

 

 

Peer Response Post

Happiness and freedom is key to an enjoyable childhood

This is my peer response to Gabrielle’s post.

I agree with Gabrielle when she states nature and experience were Rousseau’s main focus. He kept Emile away from the traditional school system, so he could fully develop his skills and imagination freely. Giving Emile freedom, he gained the “wisdom of a child” while being “free and happy” (Rousseau, 14), as Gabrielle states.

However, in the novel Black Shack Alley, Jose’s experience from formal schooling was very different from Emile. Jose’s teachers had the utmost authority; anything a student did that undermined their authority or even if they made a mistake, the teachers had the ability to beat them. Jose even describes the principal, Mr. Stephen Roc, hitting children with his bare hands, “… the entire proceedings unfolding not without his clouting him a few times on the back of his neck or ears” (Zobel, 104). This is obviously very restricting, making the children afraid of making a mistake or even speaking their mind, their learning driven by fear, “…waiting to receive the fatal blow on my head, on my back, even wising it would land as quickly as possible” (Zobel, 94). Because of this very strict way of learning, Jose implies how unhappy everyone was, even wishing his instruction mistress, Mam’zelle Fanny, were dead, “As for me, she made me wish night and day that she were dead and I had sworn a long time to burn her alive when I grew up” (Zobel, 92).

According to Rousseau, a child should be able to “live the life of a child” (Rousseau, 14), but that is not the case with Jose. Gabrielle makes a very good point when she proves that Jose was limited in what he could do because of the arrangement between Mme Leonce and M’man Tine. Jose even states himself, “I had never been prevented from playing. As a result, the time I spent each day at Mme Leonce’s dark kitchen and yard was for me a horrible experience” (69). What child would want to spend their free time doing chores for another person, a person they did not even live with!

As Gabrielle states, Rousseau’s idea of education, especially for young children, includes freedom and happiness, but Jose rarely had both. Although he was free at school, he could not fully utilize it because of other people who used their over him to do what they thought was best. Jose was rarely happy due to his empathy for his classmate’s misfortunes or even his own troubles which he had to deal with. These influences do impact a child’s motivation to learn, which is evident when Jose goes on to study at lycee towards the end of the excerpt.

Peer Response Post

No where without education and motivation

This is my peer response post to Ariane’s post.

I completely agree with Ariane’s thoughts of how Frederick Douglass’ theory on education from the narratives of his life are reflected in Malcolm X’s autobiography. Education, no matter how it is acquired, is very valuable and useful when trying to understand certain situations; in Douglass’ case it was understand and escape from slavery, while for Malcolm X, it was to articulate his thoughts in a correct, more formal manner, basically what he wanted to share with his role model, and later mentor, Mr. Elijah Muhammad, “I became increasingly frustrated at not being able to express what I wanted to convey in letters that I wrote, especially those to Mr. Elijah Muhammad” (1). Malcolm X, being a drop out, did not really receive formal education, and taught himself to widen his vocabulary while he was serving time in the Norfolk Prison Colony. He starts off by copying every word from the dictionary and then reading to himself what he wrote to slowly teach himself these words, “… I copied into my tablet everything printed on that first page, down to the punctuation marks” (2). As Ariane states, in order to gain respect for his thoughts, he must first learn how articulate what he means, which he does through his studies in prison.

Another issue I want to touch upon is their self-motivation to learn. Douglass found ways to learn to read and write, and being a slave it clearly was not an easy feat to accomplish. Down at Durgin and Bailey’s ship-yard, using the left over timber to write on, and telling other boys he could write as well as they do, which would then start a competition between the boys to top what the other one knew was how he got his education, “In this way I got a good many lessons in writing, which it is quite possible I should never have gotten in any other way” (21). Meanwhile, Malcolm X’s motivation to learn stemmed from wanted to articulate his thoughts, but starting off reading books he did not understand almost left him defeated, but his own motivation to better his vocabulary prevailed, “… I would have quit even these motions, unless I had received the motivation that I did” (2). Without this motivation, these influential people would not have had a great impact on American history, becoming icons for their era.

Through the lens post

Studying thyself

Descartes would applaud Benjamin Franklin for trying to attain moral perfection; one of Descartes biggest theories was to study the self, “… I entirely abandoned the study of letters, and resolved no longer to seek any other science than the knowledge of myself, or of the great book of the world” (6). Descartes believed studying the self would reveal more about your own reasoning, rather than being swayed and guided by society and what you learn from formal education. Through this, he feels he has had greater success than anything he has learned from books or travelling.

Franklin studied himself and saw he had many faults, so he sought to correct them, “I enter’d upon the execution of this plan for self-examination, and continu’d it with occasional intermissions for some time. I was surpris’d to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish” (150). In his autobiography, he outlined how he was going correct his fault and attain moral perfection, by following these 13 virtues: Temperance, Silence, Order, Resolution, Frugality, Industry, Sincerity, Justice, Moderation, Cleanliness, Tranquility, Chastity, and Humility (146). He set out to adapt all these virtues by slowing integrating them into his life, one per week, and kept a journal of all his faults that he wished to correct in relation to the virtue. Without knowing the outcome, one can just imagine that Franklin’s overall quality of life improved. He became a happier man, “…yet I was, by the endeavour, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been if I had not attempted it” (151). I believe Franklin studying himself and applying these virtues, making his life better, is the perfect example of Descartes theory to study the self.

Free post, Weekly Post-Check-In #3

Sapere Aude (Dare to be Wise)

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This writing from Kant completely coincides with the core topic of this class. Immanuel Kant writes in “What is Enlightenment?”: “Have courage to make use of your own understanding! is thus the motto if enlightenment. ” Kant is pushing us to step out of our comfort zone and search for for new ideas and to stop relying on the orders of others.

In our class, we are essentially publicly challenging and making use of our reason by creating new theories in the way people should be taught. In the first reading we had in the class, Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar, the author tells us a story of how a teacher reproached him for telling her students that there are different ways of obtaining an education, rather than going to school. If we were to view this situation from the point of view of Immanuel Kant, Kant would say that what the teacher is doing is preventing the next generation from thinking for themselves, essentially telling them you have no other alternative. This is the type of thinking is what we are trying to combat in the theme of this course. To be enlightened doesn’t necessarily mean going through traditional schooling. Let us take Frederick Douglass as an example; Here we see a man, prevented from having a formal education, however, through his desire to learn, he was able to become a great and influential man and writer of the 19th century.