What really inspires me to follow this path is that I know that by teaching the next generation I can help shape the future. I want the world to be a great place, and I’ve found that education is the best way to do that. A wise man once said, “Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.” I want to become an educator and share the good and bad about our past. I want these students to make an impact in the present by helping them to construct the future through studies from the past. In my eyes, the goal of social studies education is that we must acknowledge that this world has scars from the past, and that it is important to tell the tales of the past.
My favorite teachers were some one the best educators who utilized some unorthodox styles in their work. My English teacher for my senior year was an elderly woman who thought outside the traditions of literary works. She utilized a blend of traditional literature such as Wuthering Heights, Beowulf, TheIlliad and other works. She created a hybrid in education from combining those traditional works with those of Ayn Rand and other non-traditional authors. She would present the information and allow us to form our own conclusions and discuss them. By allowing us to analyze the texts and looking back at the time periods that they were set in, we could get an idea of why this book was written.
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It got to the point where, after looking at the history of the Vikings and readingBeowulf, we could get an idea of the symbolism involved. What I took from her style of teaching, is that if you present the students with something like a law, such as Sherman-Anti Trust Laws and then allow them to research it, they’ll find more information. By gaining this information, this background as to why this became a law and the effects that it had, students can attempt to apply this to other items.
Though the nature of learners today isn’t what it was years ago. It’s changed like the times we live in. Once there would be students raising their hand to ask a question over something trivial. However, now it is replaced with individuals who hold no real interest in learning. I understand that this is not all of the students who don’t participate. However, it is in high school that students build the foundation of who they are, and it is in college that they either continue building or redo their lives. The majority of students’ only concern about getting by, however there are students who differ from the majority and they are the ones who will question. It’s this passion to learn that I desire to instill in my students.
The world we live is getting smaller and smaller, and in order for the students to properly be prepared for the vastness of the globe, they must be open to new things. What I mean is that with the advancements in modern technology, a person in Dyersburg, TN could know what’s happening in Aleppo, Syria. Information is being collected, and transmitted across the nation at an exponential rate. We, the Social Studies Educators, could use that to our advantage and provide events that occur in the students’ lifetime. Things such as the conclusion of the Cuban Embargo, the Ferguson Riots, the Colombian Civil War, and the events in the Middle East. All of these events are being transmitted through the various media outlets. By introducing the topics in class, the social, economic, political, historic, and geographical changes that are occurring could all be intertwined. After the topics are introduced, encourage the students to be more engaged in the news so that way they can understand that the Social Sciences’ don’t just apply to the texts, but the world they currently live in.
The school’s role should be to set guidelines for the educator’s curriculum and establish that the sole role of its institution is to allow its students to learn the given subjects with a decent scale of mastery through the work of its teachers. Social Studies, as a serious of smaller subjects combined, should be treated as imperative to learn, as a citizen of the U.S. one must attempt to understand certain pieces to a larger puzzle. This includes understanding why a law was made, the economic times we live in, the mistakes of the past, and the changing geography of the nation and world. Everything is changing, be it every hour, minute, or second. By observing the Social Sciences, students would be able to become more developed in their character. This is due to the idea that if they understand the role that they play in their own nation. They can do it through studying any of the Social Sciences. Through personal growth, they can make an impact on in their lives and not sit ideally by and wait for someone else to do it.
Another item that should be explored is that students in high school take a leap forward and examine time periods in America, such as the late 19th century, late 20th centuries and various decades. By examining these time periods, students should be able to understand the roles of these time periods and their impacts in the future. This is all opposed to the traditional idea of American history, which is a repetition of everything that is learned in late grade school/ middle school. This idea of studying the past and taking a “leap forward” is intertwined with personal growth. The students’ can look at their own times that they live in and observe the problems that plague them.
Students’ would observe what the citizens of a time period did to aid in a dilemma they could attempt to improve. By looking at the past, they can gather that common men built up one of the greatest nations in human history. This isn’t just limited to history, but the Social Sciences as a whole. They did it not because they had to, or because someone forced them to, but because the people of the past wanted to build a society where everyone can make a difference. In this society, everyone has the ability to influence the society, spread the word of ideals, and attempt to improve their home. That is what I mean by taking a leap forward and examining the various time periods. Getting the people, the youth of our nation to understand the society that they live in. Their potential role, impact, and dreams can influence the nation and the next generation of students. All I can do is point them in the right direction, give them the information, answer their questions, and help them grow into people who can make our nation better than it is.
