photo: Amin Tabrizi/ creative commons- attribution- non-commercial- no derivative works
by: Nathaniel Lashley
commentary
Last week, in my California history class we had to take notes on a novel we read. The next day our teacher had us write the same notes from the day before. And every day after we had to write the same page of notes, over and over again. A few days ago we had to read a chapter from a text book. The chapter was just fact after fact. The pages were full of information strung together in the most boring, uninteresting way possible. Throwing facts at me does not help me learn. Reading facts without anything interesting to pull it all together makes the reading boring and not useful. Taking the same notes over and over is discouraging and makes you block out the useful information. Taking notes shouldn’t be just copying what is on the white board like machines. Text books are to factual and are only good for drumming information in your head without real understanding. They should be written for students of our age not for the people who majored in the subject. If they changed these things students would do better because they would actually know what they were saying not just repeating it like parrots. I believe that children can’t learn through the tedious and repetitive way that has been used and they should be taught more interactively. There should be more group activities, guest speakers, and more trips outside the school. Learning should be more interesting so you can grasp and understand everything.
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