Connect the Thoughts: Seemingly Disjointed Ponderings on Education Merge in My Mind with Reflections on Harper's Ferry and Noam Chomsky

(How's that for a post title? It doesn't make any sense to me either)

However, before I start waxing on and on (You're warned!), I urge you to take a moment to figure out this math problem:

There are twenty-six sheep and ten goats on a ship.

How old is the captain?

Think on it, and we'll come back to it later.

Now, onto my thoughts on education. I think about education a lot. I could say that teaching is my passion, but really, LEARNING is my passion. Encouraging others to learn and grow is also my passion. What that tends to lead to in a profession is teaching. I get paid to teach people things. I teach my children things. On my best days though, I simply help to facilitate thinking.

Last night, I picked up the book I am currently reading and accidentally jumped ahead a few chapters due to a misplaced bookmark.

I started reading in the middle of the chapter named John Brown and Abraham Lincoln: The Invisibility of Racism in American History Textbooks.

It took me a few pages to realize I was in the wrong chapter, but more so I realized that while the words "Harper's Ferry" were familiar to me, figuring only that the incident had something to do with slavery, in actuality I knew very little about this man or his work for the abolition of slavery in the United States.

Brown is considered by most accounts a radical, that I remembered, not someone to be to proud of or identify with, and called by Abraham Lincoln himself a "misguided fanatic" (according to Wikipedia's entry on John Brown). I learned very little about John Brown and his methods of ending slavery at school, and I certainly never learned to think of him as a hero.

(Incidentally, my new thoughts and learning on the subject of John Brown come to me on this day, October 16th, the anniversary of Harper's Ferry. The short story is that at Harper's Ferry in 1794 John Brown attempt to lead a revolt against the establishment of slavery by seizing weapons at a U.S. Arsenal in Maryland.)

But I digress, I am talking about Education here.

As I said, I don't know much about John Brown or Harper's Ferry. I wasn't taught much about it.

The bitter cynical me would like to point out though that year after year children are inundated with the stories of America's greatest hero and discoverer, Christopher Columbus, a man who is well documented to have enslaved hundreds (or up to thousands according to some accounts but at the very least paved the way for the massive transatlantic slave trade), was a rapist, a plunderer, and an all around mean guy. 1492 is forever ingrained in my brain and I didn't question his righteousness for a very long time.

So, yeah- education.

The perspective we gain or lose when we are "taught" about American heros and history is a little tough to figure out sometimes. When confronted with half story after half story and mis-story after mis-story, what are we to think about? What have we really learned? And why should we even bother?

So, I go to bed pondering John Brown and Christopher Columbus, then I go to work as a substitute preschool teacher at my son's school where I do my best to figure out how to best do my job.

What one teaches in the course of a three hour school day in a preschool classroom ought to blow anyone's mind away. It is the basis for everything when it comes down to it, right?

As a preschool teacher, you have the the big job of being the first "real" teacher a child has and what the heck is it you are supposed to teach anyway? The ramifications can be pretty profound, even if not recognized or valued by the greater society (a rant for another time I am sure).

But yeah, I digress again.

I come home and check into my little facebook world (which is where I learned about today being the Harper's Ferry anniversary by the way) and see this little gem by Noam Chomsky. (speaking of American heroes, he is one of mine). If you have a little over 7 minutes, it's worth your time, in my (not so) humble opinion.

So, I come home. I watch this and am left thinking hmmm. First, I think that I love Noam Chomsky. And second, how do we "teach" people to think? And how do we change our own thinking to better do this? And what is the point of it all anyway.

Oh- and that math question from above? How old is the captain?

See my friend and teacher at Camp Creek Press for the answer and her wonderful thoughts on learning. Follow that link, and then check out the rest of her blog for real, honest and practical thoughts on education. She is kind of a hero to me too.

So, thanks for indulging my random purging and have a wonderful, thought filled day. Blessed be.