Educational Theory

A friend asked my opinion of her child’s teaching practice. What could I say?

The foundation of teaching children lies first in the basics - the three “r’s”:

reading, ‘riting, and ‘rithmetic.

The purpose of education is to teach our children to think. In order to do that, they need to know who to read, write, and do math. All else will flow from that.

A good teacher will challenge the child to consider everything - not just one point of view or one side to a multifaceted issue. I was lucky to have had some good teachers. One of my favorite classes in school was debate. In debate, we were assigned pro or con for an issue. It didn’t really matter what you thought about the issue, because you might be called upon to defend the other side. In any discussion, we should first argue the contrary side of our preconceived notion. That’s how we get to a full understanding.

And . . . isn’t that what teaching is about, after all?