Don’t Confuse me with the Facts

“Sure knowledge is based on belief and tentative belief is based on knowledge.”  Joseph W. Hager

I have known a lot of people who were certain of something because they believed it be so. There are others whose uncertainty grows the more they know. Some don’t want to be bothered with the facts-the facts may compromise their ideas. Others feed off the facts. Facts do enlighten a situation. The question really is: Do we want to be enlightened? Once a fact is known, it may alter our previous opinion…therefore it may alter us.

“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.” Albert Einstein

https://dailypost.wordpress.com/prompts/enlighten

 

Book Basics

“A university is not a political party, and an education is not an indoctrination.” David Horowitz

Twitter exchange on #Creationism in the Textbook:

Steadfast @Oldself

@Newself  I cannot believe that anyone would put evolution into a textbook. It is just a theory. #Creationism must be taught and preserved.

Freedom @Newself

@Oldself  How can a personal belief in a God who created everything go into an educational textbook? #Creationism is a belief; evolution has factual findings.

Steadfast @Oldself

@Newself  Baloney. There are no facts to support evolution. You have been deceived. You must stop reading anything that has such a sentiment. It will ruin you and give the Devil a place in your heart. #Creationism is real. It needs to be in every student’s textbook.

Freedom @Newself

@Oldself  Are you bull-shitting me? Information can never hurt me. Data is good. Exposure to new ideas is good. How can that be bad? #Creationism stifles growth. Don’t try to indoctrinate me. Let me learn.

Steadfast @Oldself

@Newself  Burning in Hell is pretty bad. Repent, and believe in #Creationism.

Indoctrination is so deeply rooted that one has to use a great deal of energy to overcome its influence. Once indoctrinated, the old discarded teachings continue to come to mind; no matter how far I travel. It is an old internal battle of the mind. I am grateful that I can counter those old teachings and freedom of discovery prevails.

“The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark.” Thomas Paine

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/a-house-divided/

 

Inspired Learning

“My mother said I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and more intelligent than college professors.” Maya Angelou

What makes a great teacher?

Is it that they love, care, and build your self-esteem?  No, I don’t think so. I think that would make them a great person, but not necessarily a great teacher.

I think a great teacher is not necessarily someone who has a clear teaching plan and fabulous objectives. They may make the school look good and the principal feel confident, but I don’t think those attributes necessarily make a significant teaching impact on lives.

I think a great teacher is someone-anyone, not necessarily someone who is a teacher by profession-who inspires me to learn.   Someone who teaches me to think. A person who models asking questions. Learning is a dynamic process. It is not a one classroom event. I think it has become a terrible disappointment, and injustice to our next generation, to teach for the test. That is a one time memory project. It doesn’t teach a mind to soar and seek.

“Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of the mind to think.” Albert Einstein

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/we-can-be-taught-2/

 

 

Challenge of Change

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”  is the opening line in Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities”.

Odd as that may seem, it can be true.

Enrolling in college classes seems innocuous. People register for the class, they attend lectures, they make new friends and they learn. Thousands do it everyday. The level of involvement may vary. The interest level may fluctuate.

When I enrolled in my first college class, I was 26. I was a minister’s wife, and had two children. My daughter had undergone 11 surgeries. I had married right out of high school. My husband’s work took us to many states. Each move meant a whole new establishment of medical support. My life was wrapped around my husband, my children and my church. My scope of existence was lived in a glass bowl under the scrutiny of a thousand eyes that watched my every move.

When my children went to school, so did I. I enrolled in one class at the local community college. I fell in love with learning. I learned new things, and my world cracked open. It took me nine years to obtain my college degree. Beyond that degree, college taught me to seek; to question and research and to be open to the discovery.

Funny thing about a world that cracks open. The previous foundation for what I believed began to shake. The truths that were infallible became flawed. Going though a personal transformation was painful. There were many who did not want me to change. Ultimately, it resulted in the death of many friendships and of my long marriage. But it birthed me.

The decade of my 40’s was the best of times-as I became more at peace and in harmony with myself and my worldview, and it was the worse of times-as I had to say goodbye to the previous familiar way of life.

“Suffering has been stronger than all other teaching, and has taught me to understand what your heart used to be. I have been bent and broken, but-I hope-into a better shape.” Charles Dickens in “Great Expectations”

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/an-extreme-tale/