A String of Quotes

Well, they say it is bad academic form to string a bunch of quotes together. Perhaps so, but I intend to do so anyway and leave you to make of them what you will!

I believe that experience plays a key role in learning, so this quote from Eduscapes grabbed my attention today: "To really experience many topics, you need a wide range of materials."

It brought to mind Elliot Eisner's comment that, ". . . the selection of a material or activity is also the selection of an array of forces that will influence how students will be challenged to think . . . . The curriculum is a mind-altering device" (Elliot Eisner, pp. 13, 72).

And the combination of those 2 quotes led me to wonder about underfunded schools . . . which recalled this little chant that is often attributed to Mother Teresa:

We, the unwilling, led by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.

And so now I'm musing about the irony of teachers who believe in the value of immersing students in rich experiences with the topics they are teaching, but are working in extremely underfunded schools and the contrasting irony of teachers who believe that lectures and worksheets are the best ways to promote learning, but are working in schools that are so well-funded that they have difficulty spending their budgets each year.

All of THAT makes me wonder if anyone is learning anything at all!

References

Eisner, Elliot W. (2002).The arts and the creation of mind. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-09523-6.