Response to The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience

1- General impression of the article

2- How the article impacts you as a learner

3- How the article impacts you as a teacher and/or how this article impacts our work.

In the article, “The Educational Value of Creative Disobedience” by Andrea Kuszewski is about traditional methods of teaching vs. getting children to independently find, think, and notice the answers to a question or problem by themselves. I thought this article was amazing because it made me think about our educational system in a different way. Growing up I would always ask my dad questions about mother nature, construction, cooking, animals, people, and our native religion. Most of the time he would have answers and other times he would say ask your mom or grandma. As I started to ask questions I would find myself becoming more and  more curious and this only lead me to ask other questions. My family soon began to get tired of me asking so many questions and they started to call me question box. Today I look back on my childhood and I am proud of myself for asking questions because I never got full answers, so I would fill in whatever piece of information that I thought should be a part of the answer. I believe I have always been a creative thinker because I like to explore and find new things that interest me. My dad always has to remind me of all the creations I made as a child. My favorite creation to think about is when my dad said I grabbed a stapler, notebook paper, sat in the middle of the living room, and started making my own paper umbrella. He said he watched me with amazement because I was so little creating my own umbrella and it had a handle with a latch that opened up and closed exactly like an umbrella. I barely remember this day because I was only 4 years old at the time.

Alright, well enough reminiscing about my childhood and back to the importance of this article. I believe Kuszewski makes a good point about how traditional teaching methods only allow children to imitate, memorize, and have only one solution to a question or problem. Kuszewski explains that we should move from this traditional way of learning and encourage our children to ask questions and think about a problem or question before we give them a solution. We should also allow the children to be wrong and have mistakes because they learn from mistakes and this helps them understand why some answers are wrong and some fit a solution better. Also encouraging children to think and discuss helps their minds find more than one solution to a problem instead of everyone going by one solution and never being able to think outside the box. I like this way of getting children to think creatively and I will most likely follow this once I start teaching young children.

This article has a huge impact on me as a learner. In college I find myself following professors instructions and the best ways to get assignments done. I have no time to think for myself but follow these rubrics that are placed in front of me in order to receive a good grade. I only do the work that is asked of me and no extra work. This makes me wonder if I am learning anything at all because I take classes every semester and walk away with nothing useful but a good grade and credit. The only classes that have taught me valuable information is MATH 111, 112, Educational Psychology, and Sign Language. I believe the only reason why I remember and cherish these classes is because I was able to express my opinions and think deeper about topics and how to solve problems in many different ways. This article has opened up my mind and now I wish that teachers weren’t so stuck in their ways of giving rubrics, precise instructions, and their advice on how to earn an “easy A” in this course. I hear that same phrase every semester and it just shows that some students don’t even need to put in any extra effort because the teachers tell you exactly what you need to do to pass a certain course. They are basically holding our hands, telling us what and how to turn in assignments, and they wonder why they feel like they are reading the same papers over and over.

Next, this article impacts me as a teacher in the future because I want to help my students think and come up with creative answers and not make them follow the same specific guidelines for every assignment. For example I would give the class a lesson on multiplication and together we would come up with a definition for multiplication and what it means to multiply. I would then tell the class we can multiply by drawing, counting, memorizing, using base ten blocks or by using the lattice method. Then I would tell each child to show me or demonstrate how to multiply using all 5 ways to solve a multiplication problem. This allows the students to see how an answer can be developed using any of these techniques and that there is more than one way to get an answer. From this lesson each student should be able to walk away and feel comfortable multiplying.

I think this article impacts our class work in a positive way because you give us rubrics but they are tricky to where each student will have to come out with interesting answers. As a teacher you give us instructions but we know it’s not linear because science isn’t linear. As we get into groups we use what notes you have given us and make them meaningful to understand what we are trying to figure out as a group. As we talk in our groups we are learning more and understanding the material very well because we are able to explain it to one another and people outside of class. You also give us the ability to express ourselves through a blog and that is the best part of this class because you are able to read each students blog and learn how each student thinks. All in all this class is great and even though this is a new way for you to run your class it is working out pretty well. I do feel like I am learning and I am having fun learning so it helps get me excited to come to class every day.