The Big Fish.
2005; Project Innovation Austin; Volume: 125; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0013-1172
Autores Tópico(s)Neuroscience, Education and Cognitive Function
ResumoWhat is the Point? Society has identified a method to force children to learn and to remove their natural curiosity and wonder. Instead we replace it with an artificial system that believes that motivating children with grades serves them and our world the best. Our education system relies heavily on extrinsic motivation and uses positive reinforcement to make children learn. Students are praised and recognized with ceremonies and awards when they have received the biggest and best fish. It does not matter what drove them to receiving it, the important aspect is that the experience is over and they met the minimum criteria with little or no attention to quality. Teachers and parents are not focused on if the child actually enjoyed the process of getting to that point. Instead the focus is placed on how smart, intelligent and brilliant the student is for accomplishing this task and receiving the pay off of the big fish. Even though, a correlation between grades and intelligence remains vague. Who are the Victims? Students have become the victim of our system and are left with little choice but to keep jumping for the big fish. Those who cannot jump or decide their energy is not worth spending time learning to jump are typically classified with lower intelligence or even worse, a 'problem' student. If a student decides to go to school and enjoy learning and not strive for the big fish, then he or she is typically labeled. Parents and teachers label these students lazy for not putting forth the necessary effort or perhaps are even seen as lacking pride in their own work because they are not striving for the big fish. Other classmates label these students as dorks or nerds because they actually like going to school and enjoy learning, opposed to hating it like the majority. Students are supposed to be in it only for the big fish, to make parents and teachers happy, they are not supposed to enjoy it. In order to avoid these labels the student easily gives in to our artificial system and begins to jump through the hoops in order to receive the big fish in the end and make others happy because that is what the system reinforces. My Big Fish I have had my own fish story, which occurred in the third grade and it has bothered me ever since. I can still vividly recall the scene. I sat in my classroom wrought with anxiety and fear. Feeling as though I was the only one in the universe actually feeling this way made it all the worse. Realizing the potential penalty of being ostracized and ridiculed by fellow students paralyzed every muscle in my body. The question from Ms. Salupe, my third grade teacher was, many of you would actually come to school if your parents did not wake you up and force you to go? Could I really be the only one who enjoyed coming to school? Could I really be the only person in the world who actually looked forward to learning? As my peripheral vision enhanced, I saw no other hand raised. Was this possible? Or were there other students, who like me, would be there even it they were not forced to attend? I will never know if I was the only one in that classroom. Perhaps, sadly Ms. Salupe remains wondering if any of her students really enjoyed learning. Does she still think that all of us were there simply because we had to be? Does she still think that all of us were in it for the big fish? This is when I realized that I was not part of the majority and that the love and passion that I had for knowledge was something that everyone did not have. How could everyone not want to learn more and not be thrilled and excited about learning? Am I among a group that consists of only a few individuals that actually enjoy learning and look forward to it? Am I the only one who is not fishing? Why? This was my question--why? It was my question as a child and I found it be my question as an adult. As I stood in the front of my college classroom ready to present my assignment, my professor indicated to the class the he would like to provide a higher level learning challenge to us all before we began. …
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