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World Trade Center Crumbles
Use It to Strengthen Learning Environments
Dateline: 9/19/01
by Richard W. Schmertzing, Ed.D and Lorraine C. Schmertzing,
Ed.D
The dramatic and
tragic events of the last few days are so horrible that we might
like to shield our children from them. But with an event of such
magnitude, it is impossible to do so. Though we may not be able
to shield our children from tragedy, we can support them as they
struggle with their emotions and as they try to make sense of
what they see and hear. As children are watching television,
or discovering about Tuesday's tragedies in other contexts, we
need to be with them - watching, listening, and questioning alongside
them. By joining together we can address their issues of concern
and insecurity, we can guide their thinking, and influence their
overall development helping them to become caring, compassionate
citizens of a country that is arguably the most diverse in the
world, yet stands united on the value of human life.
A Note of Contextualization
My family has always
emphasized education as one of the all-important requirements
of life. We were strongly encouraged to make superior grades,
do more homework than the teacher required, and memorize as much
as we possibly could. My brother, sister, and myself were educated
in very strict private schools for most of our lives and knew
only one model of education - a rigid curriculum, clearly defined
reading assignments, routine objective tests, schedules written
in stone, and very little place for individual critical
thinking or creativity. Returning to graduate school in midlife,
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to break out of this
prescribed approach to education and be a part of some wonderfully
innovative ideas related to educating children. Such ideas, however,
were not ones that we discussed in my family. My reluctance to
do so was a result of a combination of factors: the respect I
had for the traditions that had long been supported in the family,
the fact that family gatherings weren't about hashing out significant
issues in the world, and, frankly, it just didn't seem to matter
to most of my relatives.
That all changed
this summer when my little sister, who is only 4 years younger
than I, announced that she would be home schooling Claire, my
incredibly bright 6th grade niece, this fall. My husband and
I, both graduate professors in a College of Education, were more
than somewhat shocked by the news. We knew the model of education
she had experienced was not one that would help her employ all
the learning benefits that can befall a child who is afforded
an exploratory learning environment like the one that is possible
for homeschoolers. We struggled with what to do, when to do it,
what to say, and how to react. We, unlike my sister or her daughter,
knew the complexity of what she was about to do and we knew that
the only way she had seen education done was not the way we thought
would best benefit our niece. My sister is 6 hours away by car
and it has been difficult to find ways to help her. We looked
at the various curriculum choices she made, helped her plan her
days, and call to check on her and Claire regularly. This eventful
week, however, makes possible a way of educating that, until
now, we had spoken of philosophically but that my sister had
trouble putting into practice.
What Happened? Tuesday, September 11,
2001
On Wednesday morning I talked to my sister
on the phone and asked how school was going. With guilt in her
voice she said, "Well, yesterday we just watched television
all day." My response was immediate and enthusiastic, "Great!
It was a terrible thing. But, it is something that you and Claire
need to be a part of. Now you can use those terrible events as
the focus of some of your home schooling."
As we talked on, I realized she wasn't exactly
sure how to connect the week's horrifying events to the things
her 6th grader was supposed to learn. She told me that they were
supposed to be learning Canadian history, but that Claire had
protested that she didn't see why she had to learn all those
facts and figures and my sister couldn't provide her with a good
answer. It was the next chapter in the book however, and
they knew they ought to plow through it.
I suggested that she put that on hold and
that she and Claire reflect instead on the week's events. Furthermore,
that they find out about the history and background of the people
involved, and that they study things related to the Tuesday incidents.
She said, "OK," sounded a bit relieved that she wasn't
chastised for spending the day watching television, and we hung
up. I went about my business.
I found though that the more I thought about
it, the more important it seemed. My husband and I talked about
some specific ways to develop learning exercises related to the
weeks events and the next morning I emailed my sister with some
simple ideas that speak to a broader issue. We are sharing these
thoughts and ideas with you because they were helpful to her,
and as many in the world have done lately, we too are trying
to find a way to contribute to making the best of a horrible
situation.
Ideas for Creating Positive
Learning Experiences in the Wake of Tuesday's Terrorism
The Email to My Sister
In the email to my sister, I provided
her with a series of questions to guide some reading and research
that she and Claire could do on the weeks events. But first I
wanted to address some of the legitimate questions they raised
about the value and relevance of some of the materials in their
textbooks. I suggested that they go beyond such questioning and
reflect together on the purposes of education. That they perhaps
consider that math and English develop skills a person needs
to function in this world. Also that history and science
are necessary to help one understand more about the world and
that some people learn such information better and retain more
if they learn it in a context that matters. I suggested
that rather than memorizing what now appears to be useless information
about Canada, why not study the Middle East? Right now
that does matter. I pointed out that there will be constant contextualization
of what she and Claire are learning in current events on television
and they will likely never forget what they learn. Moreover,
it will enhance their understanding of the horrifying things
we all saw this past week. Then we gave her some specific suggestions
for carrying out such an agenda.
Write an essay or start a journal
on what happened Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Include anything
that helps you answer the following questions.
- What happened?
- How did you feel
when you were watching the events unfold on television?
- What questions
did you want to know the answers to as you saw things happen?
- Why did this happen?
- Who was involved?
- What should we,
can we, do about it?
Research Activities
- Find out who the
Middle Eastern militants are and why they would do something
like this.
- Find out what
is going on in the Middle East and the influences that might
have on the militants.
- Find out how the
events in the Middle East affect the United States.
- Find out some
of the history of the Middle East.
- Find out what
the World Trade Center was and think about what they should put
in its place and why.
These are simply
a few of the ideas that we started with. As we think and talk
more about it, connections to every area of the curriculum become
clearer. Writing, reading, history, math, physics, social science
can all link to the events.
The Philosophy Behind It
Too often schools
are limited by time and a lack of appropriate vehicles for developing
children's thought. One of the advantages of homeschooling is
that the parent/teacher is a full time guide to develop their
children's thinking skills, knowledge base, performance skills,
and to fundamentally shape their view of the world. Children
need to understand that to be able to get a perspective on what's
going on in a given situation they need to learn about the people
who are involved in that situation, what their purposes are for
behaving the way they do, where they come from, and what about
that place contributes to the way the participants see the world
and act on it.
Too often education
is defined in the narrow terms of learning the 3R's when in fact,
this country was built on the idea that an educated citizenry
is one knowledgeable of history, geography, culture, customs,
and traditions of others. It was, and is, believed that such
knowledge was, and is, required for a democratic society to be
effective. When curriculum is structured around a particular
predetermined body of knowledge and formulated activities, it
can actually divert part of what needs to be done in educational
environments - that is to incorporate dramatic and important
events that occur in the world into our (home) school learning
experiences.
A crisis of the
magnitude of this week's focuses our attention and gives us innumerable
resources for learning. It invites us to learn about many things
that are not always easy for children to relate to New
York, its geography, its people, its political institutions,
its cultural diversity; the relationship between federal government
and local areas when there is a crisis or a catastrophe; physics,
structural engineering, and what makes buildings stand or fall.
It invites us to learn about the impact that a crisis in one
area of the country has on another area. In this case for example
one could learn about transportation, economic impact, and trade.
It lifts our spirits when we see individuals in distant places
rallying to support people who are suffering or in pain and challenges
us to do the same by donating blood, money, or material things.
The crisis presents us with a need to study the history, geography,
and cultures of the people involved in an effort to get a clearer
understanding of what is going on. A situation like this, a great
tragedy like this that captures the attention of all the world,
provides educators with the opportunity to create learning experiences
that can function, for a time, as a center point of our curriculum
and build some positive associations within the learner for what
will always be a negative life-long memory.
Authors:
- Richard W. Schmertzing, Ed.D.
|
- Lorraine C. Schmertzing, Ed.D.
|
| Department of Curriculum, Leadership, and Technology |
Department of Curriculum, Leadership, and Technology |
- Valdosta State University
- 1500 N. Patterson
- Valdosta, GA 31698
|
- Valdosta State University
- 1500 N. Patterson
- Valdosta, GA 31698
|
|
Dr. R.W. Schmertzing, after spending most of his life in Boston,
New York and Washington DC, earned his doctorate at Harvard University
in 1997. He is currently a qualitative researcher on the graduate
research faculty in the College of Education at Valdosta State
University in South Georgia. He combines a longstanding interest
in classroom culture with more recent interests in homeschooling
and its effects on the family. |
L.C. Schmertzing, Ed.D., has focused her publishing and research
interests on graduate students in distance learning environments.
However, has recently developed an interest in ways homeschoolers
can use the Internet to create more meaningful learning experiences. |
Kids'
Space Foundation at NYC
Please use this site for sending your children's warm letters
to NYC children. We hope this attempt will be an opportunity
to use the Internet for sending your warm encouragements and
in helping each other.
This
Isn't the Speech I Expected to Give Today
Bill Moyers' keynote address concerning the actions and reactions
of Americans to the attacks.
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Resources from Amazon.com
- The
Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland
by Jim DeFede
- In the immediate aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, 38 commercial airliners carrying over
6,000 passengers were forced, as a precautionary measure, to
land in Gander, Newfoundland, Canada. Due to the ongoing closure
of U.S. airspace, the passengers spent four days in this isolated
town of 10,000 before being allowed to continue on their way.
-
-
- Encyclopedia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite 2011
- Windows Vista / 7 / 2000 / XP, Mac OS X DVD-ROM
- by Encyclopedia Britannica
- With three encyclopedias, two dictionaries and thesauruses, the New Spanish English Translation Dictionary, rich multimedia, interactive article and media tours, homework tools, a complete atlas, timelines, online magazines, and more, the Ultimate Reference Suite is the knowledge you need from the world's most trusted source.
-
The New Jackals : Ramzi Yousef, Osama Bin Laden and the Future
of Terrorism
by Simon Reeve (Hardcover - October 1999)
Highly detailed and yet immensely readable, The New Jackals sheds
new light on two of the world's most notorious terrorists. Reeve
warns that Yousef and bin Laden are just the first of a new breed
of terrorist, men with no restrictions on mass killing.
U.
S. Army Survival Manual
by Department of Defense
The U.S. Army Survival Manual covers a broad area of roven survival
techniques. Topics include survival at sea, in jungles, desert
and arctic regions.
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