education

I am currently reading Anzia Yezierska's Bread Givers for my American Lit (1920-1960) class. I just ran across an intriguing passage that I wanted to share:

"Was the college only a factory, and the teachers machines turning out lectures by the hour on wooden dummies, incapable of response? Was there no time for the flash from eye to eye, from heart to heart? Was that vanishing spark of light that flies away quicker than it came unless it is given life at the moment by the kindling breath of another mind--was that to be shoved aside with, 'I'm too busy,. I have no time for recitation outside of class hours?'" (224).

Sometimes it certainly seems like school is a factory and students cannot respond! I want my class to have that "flash," that "spark of light...given life...by the kindling breath of another mind." To me, that's what education should be like. The sharing and exchange of knowledge, ideas, experiences. Students should be able to speak their minds and share with the class. There should be discussion, not wooden dummies. And the class periods should not be machine lectures. Teachers shouldn't be cogs in a gear of a machine. Teachers are people. So are students. And everyone is the teacher and the learner.

And now, I've got to finish this book for class, so--though I wish I could go on--I must leave you with that.