Free me from this prison!!!

This paper about my beliefs on the philosophy of learning is going to focus on such things as the importance of the setting and setup of the classroom, how the material can help me in the real world, and how the teacher of a class can often dictate their students’ feelings towards the subject as a whole. I will include examples of alternative teaching practices that have helped me learn, such as having class outside and discussing material as a class in a sporadic way, as to stimulate deeper thought. Discussed will also be the text that I have read in the English 100 class, incorporated in such ways as explaining that just as in Las Casas, teaching can be a serious form of propaganda that is often overlooked by society. The main theme of this paper, however, will be that the old standard for teaching, the banking concept, simply is not the most effective way to be taught. This concept brings about the ability to talk about subjects, without being able to actually speak. In other words, I will try to illustrate how the main purpose of education is to develop critical thought about the world, in which every person’s end result will be different, and how this is best reached through engaged discussion, as opposed to recitation or listening to a full class of lecture.

Ideas for this paper
Alternative classroom styles:
Outside class on warm days to lessen feeling of entrapment
Class sitting around a round table or one long business style table so everybody is visible all the time
Couches or beanbags (I’ve been in a class like this, it works surprisingly well)

Alternative forms of class:
Homework assignments due every two days
One day of traditional class, one day of discussion
Incorporating real world problems into the classroom for real discussion
More classes devoted to interdisciplinary studies
Homework submitted through a blog or a website
Use of secure class chat room, students can discuss assignments together
Assigning odd assignments, such as poems of Silverstien or Dr.Suess and drawing out the more mature themes in such works
Creating mandatory public service assignments that can be done as a class
Internships
Once a week classes with large assignments
Asking students to read banned books, but not assigning it
Learning is best done under no stress
Making learning important to the student, not just recitation
Study abroad programs
Studying plotlines of popular new movies or video games, in relation to The hero’s quest, plot triangle ect…

Incorporation of the texts:
Stein – how odd assignments can foster tolerance, love of the odd
Las Casas – learning can be used as propaganda
Helen Vendler – students can read some of their own books for assignments as opposed to cannon
Terry Eagleton – literature as religion, each reader seeks a different message, making certain books more enjoyable to read
Guari Viswanathan – how state can achieve propaganda means, unless class is allowed to beat it down with reason
Paulo Freire – mostly used for arguing against banking concept
Vladimir Nabokov – people obsess over literature, pull things out that aren’t there such as Catcher in The Rye.

How to get students SPEAKING:
Having a class where students can give a presentation about what they are passionate about
Teaching critical thinking about basic assumptions
Asking students to relate material to their lives
Allowing students to do assignments through art or music, as long as the proper amount of work and thought are shownMake tests that test concepts, not definitions