My question is: should teaching and learning be fun? I really feel like it should be, I enjoy learning and I enjoy teaching; my experience training students on how to use library resources and delivering sessions that create information-literate life-long learners is piece by piece successful... while also being kind of a comedy routine... I feel like it's interesting enough to search for things you are curious about, hopefully the fancy tools the university provides for learning are engaging to use... So why not make it a fun party? That is probably really "American" or "millennial" or whatever the heck...
I need to read up on some of the authors who are famous for thinking and writing about education. It's time to update my "teaching philosophy." Jonathan Kozol is on my list.. I have read some Temple Grandin, that is not so much about mainstream education... But why is education still "mainstream" anyway?
Now to address the double entendre in the title of this blog post: class. "Enjoy your class..." It is very elitist to get a 4 year degree in the arts or humanities. I definitely believe in and support vocational education, I worked at a community college and also a culinary college, my husband is a skilled tradesman working in construction. I hope that all educational paths lead to gainful employment and a healthy and happy life. So, what am I getting at? I wish that education or career training was accessible to all people despite financial situations or family support. Many places in the US have experimented with merit-based or sliding scale tuition fees, when can that start again? The world is sliding close to rock bottom, when we rebound and make a unified effort to survival on this planet, perhaps we can make living, eating, and getting on with a decent life an option for every single person. Maybe learning will be enjoyable too? Why schlep?
In conclusion, I hope that people will all consider themselves life-long learners and be open to teaching and learning even "informally" through various types of personal development and community enrichment opportunities. Even if you create it yourself, with a book club or an interest group. My warning is, if you don't try to improve yourself and others around you we are going to be living in the movie Idiocracy and watering our food crops with gatorade.
 |
| Learning outside the classroom at Louvre Abu Dhabi with colleague Nekeyla |
