Finding the Meaning of Life, Something worth learning

"Draft Only"

Juan Diego, an eighth grader, struggles with his Algebra homework. With frustration he asks his parents: “Why do I have to study Math? I have no idea what these equations are for. I‘m going to be a musician and I don’t need equations for that!” His father finds the remark completely absurd. He laughs and then in a serious voice answers “Math is very important! Stop wasting your time with silly ideas and finish your homework. Someday you’ll understand.”


Martin Andrews is a former government employee. He monitored a station in Puerto Rico designed to detect extraterrestrial life. Every-day, his sole task was to wait for a signal from outer space. No signal ever came. To fill in the time he began playing The Sims, a computer game where he could create a virtual world, with virtual people, who had virtual lives.
According to him in the SIMS world “he was a god, and his life had meaning”. In his fantasy world he created three babies. Part of the game was taking care of them. One day the babies died.  This trig-gered a diagnosed depression that he has been fighting for the last three years. Andrews blames his “nonsense job” for his condition and he claims his feelings of emptiness and despair made him want to end his life.

I will dare say that every one of us has questioned the purpose of our actions, and even more, the purpose and meaning of our life. This existential question is a hard one to answer so, it is often more comfortable to avoid it. However, not finding an answer sometimes results in boredom (as in Juan Diego’s case) and sometimes it results in despair and emptiness (as in the case of Martin Andrews). Those who find satisfactory answers find fulfillment. Since the question about purpose is so relevant in human life, and is so intimately related to happiness, in the present analysis I argue that schools should facili-tate the understanding of the purpose of our actions as well as the search and construction of a meaningful life.

USING HUMAN’S DRIVING FORCES TO SHIFT EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES

1st Draft

It has been thoroughly discussed how the dramatic changes society has faced in the last decades, and the rate at which they are constantly occurring, demand a considerable shift in educational practices. Traditional models of edu-cation appear irrelevant to form the competencies needed in this complex and globalized world. (Gardner, 2007; Perkins, not yet published; Postman 1995; Tapscott, 1995) If it is true that the world is changing so quickly, then it is quite possible that what we know in the present becomes irrelevant in the future. A few years ago, being This given, David Perkins argues that education today should prepare students for the unknown.
But how can we effectively prepare ourselves for an uncertain future? In this analysis I will argue that a deep understanding of human nature can pro-vide us with a solid ground to re-think education. If we understand our essence, what is consistent within us, then we can propose a framework for education that will allow us to satisfy our needs as humans both in the present and in the future.
It will be discussed how the perspective of Paul Lawrence and Nitin Nohria, Harvard Business School professors, on the “driving forces” can serve as a relevant model to understand what humans are and to understand what mo-tivates their actions. These two researchers have concluded that human behavior is the result of four driving forces: the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend and the drive to defend.

How to prepare new teachers to work with adolescents in a developmentally aware manner?

Draft only

Sandra Pérez is a Master in Physics. She has taught Physics to college freshmen and sophomores for over 4 years. During this time she consistently received good course evaluations from her students. Four months ago, she was offered a position in a private school in Bogota, Colombia to teach 8th grade Physics.  Sandra is now very unhappy with the relationship she has with her students. She says that they students seem to be in a competition with her: “their challenge is to do as much as possible to avoid being taught, while mine is to do as much as possible to teach them”.
Fanny Minero is a first year teacher of Mexican History for High School students in a private school in Mexico City. She is very knowledgeable of the content of her course, being a historian and a researcher in her field. However, most of Fanny’s classes have serious behavior issues, and she is barely able to teach due the lack of discipline of her students. After six months in the classroom, The Middle School principal has requested Fanny’s resignation letter.
Nakkula and Toshalis (2006), would encourage Sandra and Fanny to engage “with their students to build greater reciprocal understanding” (p.xiii), and to listen and adapt to the meaning making process adolescents are embedded in. Along the same lines, Cushnan and Rogers (2008) would suggest to take the perspective of adolescents in the story to really understand what is happening in Sandra’s and Fanny’s classroom. They would disagree in that, as Sandra argues, students do not want to learn. Much of the behavior these two teachers seem to be witnessing has an explanation in the developmental stage that the students are going through.

On Interdisciplinary work. Photography, the unit of measure of an Economist

Presented to Veronica Boix Mansilla, Interdisciplinary Education,  HGSE 2009