Stop Stealing Dreams Book response 3

What is School For? By Seth Godin Sections 36-46 I have read some more of Seth Godin’s Stop Stealing Dreams: What is School For? for my Learning and Technology class. Although Godin is a bit repetitive I am still enjoying this reading. Section 36 Godin says “Think about the fact that school relentlessly downplays group work. It breaks tasks into the smallest possible measurable units. It does nothing to coordinate teaching across subjects.” I do not think this is true of all schools. I really believe that with the switch to Common Core that schools in general are trying to teach across subjects. As we see more and more charter schools popping up we will see a shift in how school is run. For example, in Montessori every subject is integrated into another. Section 41 Godin is talking about making students care. He says, “ Can we teach kids to care enough about their dreams that they’ll care enough to develop the judgment, skill, and attitude to make them come true?” I struggle with this very question. Teaching in a Montessori charter school we foster following the child and their interest, which essentially are their dreams. However, I am still not sure how to teach kids to care enough about their dreams and have an attitude to make them come true. Section 42 I really like his comparison of school content and tests to the love of food. Godin poses this question, “ If culture is sufficient to establish what we eat and how we speak and ten thousand other societal norms, why isn’t it able to teach us goal setting and passion and curiosity and the ability to persuade? I wonder if it is not just the influence of culture around us, but the direct people in our lives. Like our parents, friends, close mentors, teachers, grandparents etc. that influence how were learn to be goal setters, and passion or lack there of. After I completed my undergraduate degree I got married and a few years later I had my daughter, while working full time as a teacher abroad in Guam. When we moved to San Diego I wanted to fulfill my goal of going back to school to get my masters. I set that goal many years prior, even before I was married. I can’t help but feel that I learned to be passionate about my job and set goals from my relationships with my parents, and close friends and mentors over my lifetime. So if what Godin says is true that society can’t teach us all these things then where do we learn them? Is it genetic? I just can’t believe that is the answer.