Blog Post #10

An Open Letter to Educators- Morgan Bayda


Morgan Bayda discovered this video post by Dan Brown (not the author of DaVinci Code) where he describes why the institutionalized educational system is outdated and his reasons for dropping out of school.  Judging from the looks of him, he couldn't be more than a freshman or sophomore in college.  I think he does a superb job defending his lack of interest in structured education.  Maybe he gave up too soon. I too think it is really boring to sit through 3 hour lectures being bombarded with facts to memorize, but there is a lot more to college than just that.  Most of us choose a school not because we have heard about how enjoyable their physiology classes are, but because when we want to be employed, the name on our diploma represents a respected institution that increases our chances of getting a job.

There is no arguing the fact the education has a long way to go to get up to speed with the technological era. Although the schools themselves may be behind, I think that students are taking their own initiatives outside of schools and using the endless supply of knowledge and resources through the Internet to enhance and subsidize their education. As Morgan related, her use of a PLN enabled her to contact resources to allow her more volunteer opportunities at a lower cost.  As people are using these tools in daily life, they will undoubtedly be carried over into more and more classrooms.  As long as we find educators that aren't afraid of change, I think we will see our universities sticking around for a few more years.

Wow, this is a tough one. I loved the quote, "A great man is a sentence." I think that is something many of our politicians toady need to be reminded of. Maybe then something might get done. But, back to the assignment, how do the questions "What's my sentence?" and "Was I better today than yesterday?" affect me. Today, my answer would have to be that my sentence is "I am a mother, a wife, and a Christian trying to learn how to be better at all three."  For me, I think I can carry that sentence with me for most of my life and there will still be room for improvement.   As for the second question, it can be applied to many aspects of a persons life.  I would say I try to focus on being a better person than I was the day before, but I'm not sure I always succeed.  Maybe I need to write my sentence on an index card and tape it in my car.  It is easy to forget what the big picture is when life's small details get in the way.