Blog Post # 10

Do You Teach or Do You Educate?

While this video is very inspiring it doesn't really change how I feel about education and teaching. I would say that I teach and educate because if you try and separate the two, your end results are probably not as favorable as you would like. I believe it is impossible to educate someone without teaching even if you are not trying to teach. It is your actions that teach when there is no intended educational or learning purpose but those watching are constantly being educated by what you do and say. To teach (as defined by Merriam-Webster Online)is:

1. to cause to know something
2. to cause to know how
3. to accustom some action or attitude
4. to guide the studies of
5. to impart knowledge of.

To educate (as defined by Merriam-Webster Online) is:

1. to provide schooling for
2. to train by formal instruction and supervised practice especially in a skill, trade, or profession
3. to develop mentally, morally, or aesthetically especially by instruction
4. to provide with information
5. to persuade or condition to feel, believe, or act in a desired way.

As we teach today and in the future our main purpose should be to educate or develop our students mentally, morally, and aesthetically so they are able to perform in modern society. We want them to know the information we provide to them (educate them mentally) and we want them to know how to find the information if they didn't have a teacher around (condition to act in a desired way). So, you clearly have to teach (the subject matter and by being a role model at the very least) so your students are educated and trying to separate the two is nearly (if not totally) impossible. A teacher's work is never done and that is why teachers must be cognizant of what they do and say even when they leave the "office".

I plan to work around the clock teaching my students and other kids around me even if it is not the subject matter I normally teach. My behavior, my attitude, and my general presence will serve as a guide for those around me. I teach by being who I am and imparting knowledge when I can but educate everyone around me even if it is unintentional.

Tom Johnson's Don't Let Them Take the Pencils Home!

At first glance one may wonder what in the world is Tom Johnson talking about. What do you mean by don't let them take the pencils home? We don't use pencils anymore. Tom Johnson lived in the 19th century and was at the forefront of innovation. So, like Dr. Scott McLeod, author of Don't Teach Your Kids This Stuff. Please? Johnson argues that if we don't allow our children to embrace and cultivate with the new technology they will be behind in the future. Although different, both McLeod and Johnson warns of the impact the technology (as small as a pencil is today) will have on the future. They also joke about all of the dangers involved with the technology that exists during their times. It is almost like they were born of the same breed.





Johnson reached out to the administrators, challenged the research, and denounced the value of "burp-back" education (drill and kill bubble test) and the way students learned then. He had a good point when he said "I take issue with that research. The only measurement of learning was a drill-and-kill bubble test. How is that measuring authentic learning?" Truly, how is that a measure of authentic learning? When students go out to get jobs today and even then, they are not given a standardized test (most of the time), they are tested on what they know and can do by their performance on the job. So, it is not always about a limitless array of knowledge (unless you are on jeopardy); it is about how valuable you are in the workforce which you can prove by your performance at any job.



Take, for instance, Mark Zuckerberg (founder and CEO of Facebook) and Bill Gates (founder and CEO of Microsoft). They have been able to forego the higher educational system because of what they know and have created based on that knowledge. There was no need for them to take a standardized test to prove they were smart. They let their product do the talking for them. And, when you are hired to work at one of these establishments, they do not test your general knowledge or care how you performed on the ACT or SAT, they want to know if you can program so you create better operating systems. With the onset of the pencil in the 19th century, it was not how well you could fill in a bubble but what you could create with that pencil and paper. What words would come out of that very imaginative mind of a student? What impact can you make with your writings?



Johnson wanted to prove that the pencil was not the bad thing. It was a tool for innovation beyond what one could imagine at that time. Regardless of whether or not the students used the pencils to write poetry or novels, they were creative when they used them at all, even if it was just for Hang Man or the pen pal networks. Johnson tried to "see the light" in this technology and help others understand that "yes" this is unfamiliar territory, but the possibilities are endless with a pencil. The point is...it's not about the pencil at all; it's about how far you are willing to go to explore and except the advancements of the future.