Philosophy of Education

I enjoyed the conversation about our philosophies of ed.-I think the most important idea that came out was our ability to facilitate and let the students pull meaning. I also thought that being able to show them how to navigate the networked world was important. I think the greatest thing we can also give our kids is the purposeful relevance to everything we teach. Again, (coming from Jeff Wilhelm) kids must see that what they are learning has immediate function and application in their lives, that they are socially invested in it. Otherwise, we lose them. We must teach our students to think for themselves, to think critically to take on that accountability for their education. We must also teach kids the skills that they will need for the future. There are still life skills, despite the constant change and outsourcing, that they are still going to need (literacy and their ability to relate and communicate to people being most valuable). I find it exciting that we, as a group, are thinking and doing these things to change education-but it does scare me that there is so much out there that we do not know, things that we aren't doing, and ideas that we haven't yet touched on. I can only hope that our kids start to open their eyes with a fresh new look, start thinking about their futures and the world that surrounds them, and see that the future happens whether they want it to or not and they are going to have to live in that world (even though as Karl stated on his powerpoint, that world is changing and becoming outdated every minute). I know it's a stretch from the world of gaming, MTV, movies, music, and play (so all the fun)-but isn't it time that we make our kids aware of these issues beyond their everyday existence?