What Is Worth Learning?

 This question can be answered in a multitude of ways depending on the perspective of the individual teacher or school system. I believe that the real question is what ISN'T worth learning? Knowledge is one of the most powerful tools in modern society. While teachers may be repressed by the school system or required teaching, I believe that it is important for teachers to fight for these children and the knowledge that they receive. For example, in null curriculum there could be a variety of bans on social history or books that do not promote the knowledge that the school system wants to feed to the children. I believe that people live in fear of individuality. The idea that someone can be bold and true to themselves and their identity can tend to scare people into wanting to erase that knowledge permanently. A prime example of this is from my favorite book of all time, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. They had a fear of the knowledge that came along with books and therefore the government in that scenario hired firefighters to set aflame to all books. This ties in to the real life scenario of Nazi Germany burning books that they did not believe were "German enough". 

Children need to fed as much knowledge as possible. There is nothing that isn't worth learning about. It's as the famous saying goes, if we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it. There needs to be a stronger curriculum on social justices issues, as well as making sure children realize that it is okay to be wrong as long as they are able to grow from that point forward. Today's school system reminds me of a quote by John Naisbitt that states, "We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge." We need to do better and realize that there is no knowledge that is not worth learning

Comments

  1. Reanna GarciaOctober 29, 2021 at 5:53 PM

    Payton, I love this post! Thank you for sharing all of your examples of books and quotes, they all go with this question perfectly. I always agreed with the saying that we will repeat history if we are not educated on it. If we aren't aware of consequences of events that happen, we could definitely keep making the same mistakes, therefore we will repeat those events until we learn how to change our actions. Social justice issues require a lot of hard stories to hear and learn about and I think it is important that children are aware of them instead of deeming those stories inappropriate. They are a part of our history and the tough stories are ones that people sadly had to go through. They happen in real life and could still happen to this day. Hiding those stories would be inconsiderate of the people that experienced hard times fighting for our rights today as well as inconsiderate for people that can relate to those experiences. Do you have any suggested limitations for teaching social justice issues or do you think it should all just be taught first hand in primary school years?

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    1. Payton JonesOctober 31, 2021 at 2:02 PM

      Hi Reanna! I completely agree that hiding certain aspects of history are inconsiderate to those that have experienced them. There are some amazing books out there that help ease younger children into social justice issues without overwhelming them. It almost feels like learning a language to me- the earlier we can start educating them the better!!

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  2. Ms. ReddingOctober 29, 2021 at 9:30 PM

    Hi Payton, I first want to say that I really like your post and enjoyed reading it. That being said, I could not agree with you more that there are some materials that are more risky for some classrooms, but by teaching and reading about topics that may make students uncomfortable at times allow them to step outside of their comfort zone, exposing them to more opportunities not not only grow educationally but as an individual as well. Being able to teach students about the past, allows them to learn about and analyze mistakes that our country and societies have made in the past, and allows them to learn form these so that the possibility of positive change in our society.

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    1. Payton JonesOctober 31, 2021 at 2:04 PM

      Hi Brooke! I believe that certain scenarios may make us feel uncomfortable but those are the ones worth learning about the most! We have to face those aspects of history and modern day society in order to learn how to take it on. I can not wait to see the changes that our future generations are going to have on the world!

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