Transcend
The reason I love the word transcend so much is because it gives the impression of moving to a higher, better mental state where we are progressing in a phenomenal way. Transcending is expanding our mental views to greater heights. This struck me as the most important thing to take away from the article because it expresses the need for it in our teaching. The article teaches the significance of pushing past our cultural views that might be limiting us in our teaching (as well as our lives in general).
America got the smack down from other countries, calling us out and relating us to the soviet union. If that's not being below the bar, I don't know what is, but the sad part is I wasn't as surprised to hear that as I should be. It's easier to see it in our society and educational systems than we think! How often to we hear about those who do this and that for the 'grade.' All of it is about how competitive we are, particularly the concept of curved grades, where you can't just be well-learned, you have to be better than others. I see this as an issue because instead of focusing on transcending and widening our mental eyesight, it's a battle for memorization, and spitting out facts. If there's anything that was clear in this article- all about how vital delivery is to teaching- it's that facts mean nothing without a little 'pizaz'. I use the bit of a made up word 'pizaz' to mean the kind of teaching that dazzles students, transforming the way they think, helping them to become less of a slave to 'cultural addiction.'
It was interesting to find how ingrained our deep our minds can be nestled into our own cultural pockets when feeling things that we don't need to feel like 'false needs' as the article stated. This was something that stuck out to me because it can help us focus more on the human universals that all students can benefit from. If we focus on those, it seems we'll be better off knowing how to truly guide our students to transcendence.
The good news in hearing that we have a lot to improve on is how we have the opportunity to revamp the system! Or at least do our best to revamp our own systems. We can create our own classroom environment one that is less about cranking like a machine through our assignments, and more about pondering them, letting them enrich our lives. That's what transcending seems all about.
What do you think transcending means in the classroom? How do we help our students in the future to 'transcend' and develop an appetite for learning?
One thing I think helps me to hunger for more learning, is feeling that one little spark in the beginning that come when a question is answered. Maybe I could find a way to incorporate that into my classroom. Let me know your thoughts!
