TREATISE: A Critical Treatment of Standard Educational Standards
by Peggy Urton
Teachers are
a common lot;
Taught
to instill knowledge
where it isn't.
Some can tell you
all the names, dates, places --
important stuff like that.
Though if you ask them "WHY?"
they say it doesn't matter.
(I wonder if it mattered to the dead men --
if they knew why . . . )
Such blasphemy
has yet to earn
a decent grade-point.
As for me, memorization
only means regurgitating
results consequential to being
fed too much of nothing.
It lasts mostly
until the test is over.
What I'd really like to see enforced
is this:
you've learned a thing
when you in turn are able
to explain it to another.
I think that teaching
should imply not purveyance
of all the answers,
but the birth and rebirth
of all questions.
Let teachers teach how to
observe, accept, reject
ideas and ideals,
and that will insure
knowledge equals wisdom,
not performance.
After all,
any of the Great Apes
can perform!
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These materials are © copyrighted by Peggy L. Urton.
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Updated June 20, 2000