Blog Post 10 - REVolutionary Teaching

In Sir Ken Robinson's video, Bring on the Learning Revolution, he talks about how we, as educators, need to stop teaching in such a way that generalizes students' futures. He says that students need to be taught in a way that will appeal to their creative side and whatever sparks their interest. We need to determine what their niche is at an early age to avoid training them their entire lives to be someone that they are not. When I graduated from high school, I was going to start massage therapy school because that was the talent I had discovered at an early age, but after way too many arguments with random friends and ex-significant other's moms, I decided I would take the "normal" path and go to nursing school. I had always been a caring person and I loved seeing people recover from tragedy, so I figured it was where I belonged. It didn't take long for me to realize that blood makes me queezy, bodily functions disgust me to no end, and vomit will make me vomit in 10 seconds flat. What could I do? I had already been in college for two years and I was already in nearly $20k worth of student loan debt. I spent the summer searching for answers and taking everything around me as a "sign" as to where my future was going. I began taking education classes and I immediately knew that teaching was my calling in life-my natural ability to care was meant for children, and my want to see people "recover" was really a want to see small people succeed. Sometimes I wonder where I would be had I stuck with massage therapy, because I still really love it as a professional trait and/or hobby...but I know I'm right where I should be. Our students should never feel like they aren't good enough for something or like they can't do what they love simply because the field may not be in the best shape or because others have talked them down so much that they don't have a clue what to do. We're their teachers, the people who teach them how to do life. The people who teach them how to figure out what they love. And the people who show them where to go once they find their niche. We are responsible for not only their grades, but their futures, and we need to get and stay in that mindset as long as we are educators. These kids are a whole new generation, and I don't know about you, but I would love nothing more than to see them doing what they love every single day, rather than spending their days doing a job they hate and just waiting for the weekend. Let's teach them to love life and how to enhance the abilities given to them. Let's be REVolutionary educators!