After class thoughts

In class today for those who were not there, we had a very interesting conversation about how democracy and "idiocy" plays a part in the classroom. Many times in the class I found myself being reminded of my school experiences.

I pride myself on being lucky to the fact that I went to an exceptional high school and had many exceptional teachers. Although as we all know there are always kinks in the chain. My freshman year I had a physics teacher who was horrible, let me clarify. He spoke to us as if we were "kids", and had no problem referring to us, as well as our parents on back to school night as kids. That was red flag number one for me. Also he taught in a way in which he thought that everyone knew exactly what he's talking about, even though physics is a hard subject in it's own, he didn't seem to explain the concepts as much as he should have. This being said, about 75% of my class was failing. Once this was brought to the attention of the administration he was fired. Naturally it took the rest of the year to find someone else, but the students were told that our teacher "was not offered another job for the upcoming school year." So in my situation I felt lucky that my administration as well as the people around me saw that there was a problem that was large enough and had to be handled.

Also we talked about the fact of conforming to what we are told to be. At which I brought up the song "American Idiot" by Green Day. I think that this song is fantastic at getting a certain message across. That message being that we don't need to conform and that we all should have a mind of our own and use it! It's also comforting for me to know that I finally have been in classes were I feel, as well as other students, not shy to speak our mind. I feel like the biggest difference from high school to college was the fact that teachers are actually interested in your opinion and not necessarily how much information we can memorize. I also remember the first few weeks of school raising my hand to be excused for the ladies room, and the teacher telling me that I didn't have to ask and just go. I was shocked when I first heard that. For me college has been a learning experience for myself and how I think. I feel like my critical thinking skills have increased so much I can't even recognize my own thoughts.

One thing I wish to accomplish in the future if I teach is the encouragement of free expression and critical thinking. I feel like the school systems will be much better if they promote the students to critical think.