This We Believe Response - Week One

I just finished my readings for This We Believe and I marked a few quotes that stood out to me.

(1) "In fact, [the] aspect of [hidden curriculum] learning is sometimes so profound and ong lasting that it overrides learning that is more traditional." (18)

(2) "A solid academic experience properly designed is exploratory. Explorations is an attitude and approach, not a classification of content." (20)

(3) "Curriculum is relevant when it allows students to pursue answers to questions they have about themselves, the content, and the world." (22)

These three quotes are in a list of many, but these really reminded me of a particular teacher and unit I had in middle school. When I was in eighth grade we did a particular unit about the Holocaust. It was a cross-subject unit with social studies where we were studying World War II. This particular English teacher was everyone's favorite teacher. She treated us like young adults and allowed us to find the answers to the questions we might have. She would take our questions and turn them into an interesting project for us to complete. During the Holocaust unit we followed the lives of many different children that were alive during that time. All of the children were from Jewish families. We all created butterflies about our children and added details as we learned more information. These butterflies were hung from the ceiling for everyone to see. However, if the child you were following met an untimely death your butterfly received a big black X on it and was taken down from the ceiling. At the end of the unit there were only a few butterflies left. The teacher had us all go outside and those students whose butterflies were taken down brought their butterflies with them. We all gathered in a circle and the "dead" butterflies were burned. In this unit we not only learned about the historical and geographical impacts of World War II in Social Studies, but we learned the emotional impacts through English. We personally watched the population of butterflies dwindle just as the world watched the Jewish population dwindle. We learned about so much more than just that in World War II over 6 million Jews were killed.

This unit had such an impact on me I still remember it very vividly now today, nine years later. I think it is teaching like this that grabs the students and allows them to learn within and outside their "comfort zone". It allows the students to study independently but receive some guidance from the teacher. Students in the middle schools need to be able to feel independence in their work but also feel a great connection to what they are accomplishing. I fully believe that students should be held more accountable and given more freedom than they are generally being given. Too much freedom could be a bad thing, but if you treat students with respect and trust, generally they will give it back. This is what I have found through my own experiences in grade school and while I have been in classrooms during and outside of my college years.

We as teachers today need to find ways to engage the students and turn their imaginations on. We should promote healthy classrooms and allow students to question the content they are being taught. Through this students will not only follow the curriculum that is set forth for them but they will understand the hidden curriculum that lies beneath the surface.