Teacher Introduction

Article Debates

Sequestration cuts will shortchange students, universities say

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/03/02/cuts-will-shortchange-students-universities-say.html

This article discussed the issue of  across the board spending cuts. The government is planning on cutting millions of dollars from university’s fund that they usually receive. I believe that cutting money from universities is one of the worst possible ideas. Those places are where the future world leaders are learning everything they will need to know in life and we definitely do not want to take away from that.

K-12 student database jazzes tech startups, spooks parents 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/03/us-education-database-idUSBRE92204W20130303

This article discussed a new database that different school districts in the U.S. have given their students’ information to. The information is so personal that its scary to think about. We as teachers have so many limits on how to teach and how to act around students. We must get permission for almost anything personal. Many parents have contacted the school districts expressing their concern as well.

Ken Robinson Says Schools Kill Creativity

Ken Robinson made some very good points about why he thinks schools kill creativity in his speech. He believes that creativity is as important in education as literacy. He also believes that if you ar enot prepared to be wrong then you will never come up with anything original and by the time they are adults most kids have lost that capacity because they have become frightened of being wrong. We are now running national education systems where mistakes are the worst things you can make.

Picasso once said "All children are born artists." Ken believes we do not grow into creativity but we grow out of it. Growing up, children are constantly discouraged of creative dreams so naturally they begin to block it out in order to be accepted by teachers, parents, and their peers.

I agree with Ken because children are extremely creative and they automatically think outside the box. Most of the people that changed history were obviously leaders and took risks. They all obviously came up with original ideas with the possibility of being wrong. We are a better place because those people took the risk. I believe creativity builds character as well as helps a child discover who they are, which they can't do when learning math or science.