The Great Lesson In Teaching From Non-Teacher American Cultural Anthropologist Margaret Mead – “Teach How To Think, Now What To Think.”
The source of
the document is The World Bank (worldbank.org). I now investigate it as a bonafide
teacher – an alumnus of UP Los Baños with a BS
Agriculture course major in Ag Edu
(Civil Service Professional 1964. 80.6%). So?
After
examining “The State Of Global Learning Poverty: 2022 Update” – this Filipino
teacher says: “All in all, the document is inconsistent and insufficiently
debated upon! The World Bank has much to learn!”
The document as quoted says:
Prioritize teaching
the fundamentals. Given the staggering loss in institutional time, learning
recovery efforts should focus on essential content and prioritize the most
fundamental skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that
students need for learning within and across subjects and for more advanced
learning in the future.
“Staggering loss in institutional time” refers to the 2
years of pandemic controls. It recommends to “prioritize the most fundamental
skills and knowledge, particularly literacy and numeracy, that students need
for learning.”
“Literacy” – and the comment that somebody quotes is to teach
in Pilipino/Tagalog and not in English. But in fact, as a teacher I know that
literacy is not “the most fundamental skills” to learn – I now point
back to you what the above image shares:
“Children must be taught how
to think, not what to think” – Margaret Mead, American
anthropologist.
(“Children must be taught”
image from deviantart.com)
Who is Margaret Mead? From History.com
(history.com/topics/womens-history/margaret-mead):
Mead discovered her
calling as an undergraduate at Barnard College in the early 1920s in classes
with Franz Boas, the patriarch of American anthropology, and in discussions
with his assistant, Ruth Benedict. The study of primitive cultures, she
learned, offered a unique laboratory for exploring a central question in
American life: How much of human behavior is universal, therefore presumably
natural and unalterable, and how much is socially induced?
“Universal
human behavior”? It must be the thinking.
“Socially induced human behavior”? It must be what one learns.
So, teach the universal: Teach thinking!
For instance, instead of teaching “2 + 2 equals 4” only, teach:
2 + 2 = 4
3 + 1 = 4
4 – 0 = 4
5 – 1 = 4
6 – 2 = 4
What
is the lesson there? There are many ways to skin a cat!
There are 2 ways I know of thinking: creative and critical.
What I have just shown you is critical thinking – not yet creative thinking.
Now then, if you want examples and examples of creative
thinking, note that in this latest blog of mine – Towards A New Eden
– I already have almost 1,000 essays.
I always
write creatively. And yes, if you teach creative thinking, your students will
enjoy every minute of it – and so will you!@517
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