Cultural Whiplash

There is another possible cause for the learning gap, which is that class time for younger students significantly exceeds their patience and attention span. Optimizing class time so that it feels more like play than work is critical to keeping students involved in learning activities. It is very easy for teachers to lose students' attention, which has been more than adequately demonstrated by various studies. In classes that are geared for 'average' students, above and below average students are often stuck twiddling their thumbs while waiting for the next assignment or teacher assistance. It may even be argued that these above and below average students become experts in twiddling their thumbs, so that at some point 'below average' students are constantly demanding and receiving teacher time and attention while 'above average' students get a pat on the back and bother their peers (until they get in trouble). It is important to pair above...

The Learning Gap: Understanding It Dear Parents, Educators, Curricular Writers, and Educational Policy Makers, In the United States, there is something known as The Learning Gap. It occurs in elementary school, when learning is supposed to proceed without interruption, and is terribly distressing in educational circles (as well as to children experiencing the gap from beneath it). There are two important things to note about this gap. The first thing to note is that it has been documented and exists. The second thing to note is that it is misunderstood. The learning gap that does exist may vary somewhat from state to state. However, it is helpful to think of this gap as existing due to a fundamental flaw in curriculum and application of curricular theory. Curricular theory must always take cognitive development into account when curriculum is developed. Curriculum that ignores cognitive development can be counter-productive. The current problem with the learning gap (as I ...

Philosophy is a necessary replacement for polytheism in a monotheistic setting. This is because all of the aspects of humanity assigned to multiple gods require much deeper thinking than the dualistic thinking that becomes more common with monotheism. In essence, the transition from multiple gods (with multiple human characteristics to be considered) to a single God (relatively inhuman and ideal, who only gave humanity its form, not its characteristics) may have changed thinking from multiplistic to dualistic for many generations. Note: As a concession to the human nature of humanity, God gave us Jesus (from the Christian perspective), who was entirely human yet miraculous and ideal (just how entirely human isn't really mentioned, and such writings have been excluded from the bible). In order to maintain deeper and broader thinking on multiple levels and of multiple viewpoints (humanistic) we have to maintain philosophy as a higher order of thinking which is necessary in higher...

I have always been convinced that there is a learning style for each of the senses. One can learn by touch, smell, taste, sound, and vision. If we want to take the 5 basic senses and expand them to include the additional senses that have been added by research over the years, this statement still holds. Academically, people learn primarily by sound and vision. The typical elementary school system is set up so that the bulk of learning is done by seeing, hearing, and doing. In high school, we lose a lot of the doing, and teaching leans more heavily on seeing and hearing. In trade schools, the emphasis is on doing. In culinary schools I think all five senses are used. Some people learn better using a particular sense than others. Some people learn better from auditory lessons, some learn better by visual demonstration, and some learn better by other senses. I think this way because in helping others to learn and in my own learning, I've had to apply the use of the senses, and f...