Wk2 reply2

 

 The statement which Benjamin Zander states at the beginning of The Art of Possibility he talks about two salesmen going off to sell shoes in Africa, this is a fantastic example of how teachers should think of their teaching opportunities. You see, in his story he states that one of the salesmen sent word back home that the idea of shoes is hopeless because no one there wears shoes, but the other salesman sent a more optimistic letter back full of hope stating that he has the opportunity to get people to start wearing shoes. In the classroom we have to think the same way about our students. We should not focus on the fact that we have a large group of students who do not want to learn; rather we should focus on the possibility of finding new ways to get the students more excited about learning. This is what the EMDT program has taught me over the past 11 months. We have been given the tools to sell shoes to the shoeless, an amazing opportunity to teach those who have not yet discovered the joy of learning. 

In the book a statement is made that eluding to the idea that it’s (everything is) all invented. This idea details how humans perceive thoughts and ideas and relate them to the world in which they know around them. Some people take the world for what it is and say that everything is invented so let just make what we know better. Others see the world differently and use new facts and ideas to build new and exciting constructs in the world around us. We should be reminded that humanity is continuously working to become greater than the previous generation, and that no human in this history of the world has though that everything that can be invented has already been invented. It has evidently come to our attention that the quote most commonly used to test our willingness to invent comes from (but actually never did come from) the 1899 patent office clerk Charles H. Duell stating that "Everything that can be invented has been invented." It has been proven that this is one of those myths that’s gets passed around as fact from generation to generation, eventually being passed off as truth along the way.  It can be clearly seen that all aspect of the world can be improved upon by thinking outside the normal realm of logic and incorporating the new and exciting truths learned in your generation. By exploring the new and exciting ideas brought about by the EMDT program I know I create a classroom environment full of new and exciting ideas and learning styles.

Mechanix Illustrated, December 1958, Pg82

Joe, I did not have a chance to complete this weeks reading due to a bad link that was sent to me by the publishing company. After reading your post I feel like I have a good understanding of what I have missed. The story about the two shoe salesmen and how you related it back to education was great. I know several teachers that never see the positive opportunities right in front of them. Thanks for giviing me an idea of what the reading this week was about.