Jan 9, 2011
How does education relate to real life????????
I have recently been in a position where it is necessary for me to research and find medical care that has taken me on a long rode of networking, medications, jargon jargon jargon and knowing people…. I have been down this journey before with my husband when he had open heart surgery.
At that time I was very concerned about how our medical system works for those in real need, might be of “average” education and resources – not to mention those living in poverty and those that are alone.
Most the doctors that happened to be the higher end specialists do not take medical insurance. It is up to you to negotiate with them to make sure you can be within a window of affordability. I was told by one of the nurses that “they don’t have to.” Those are the “top notch” specialists. Most of them are fair and reasonable but how would you know that when you enter into these agreements. Ahh but it doesn’t end there – the insurance mumbo jumbo – if you are an inpatient then this if you are outpatient and then are all of sudden needing to be admitted you have 48 hours to let the insurance co. know. So if you are really in pain or maybe unconscious you need to let your insurance company know or you pay a penalty. Alas how do you do it if you are alone. I haven’t mentioned the reason why I have the privilege of seeing a great doctor – who I know…… But then the aftercare and meds. I had to build a spreadsheet to decipher what my husbands medical needs were. Take this pill three times a day only in the morning, take this one every other day in the afternoon, take the next one only at night for 2 weeks, etc. It was so confusing. On top of it all the pharmacy gives you the generic without telling you so you can’t match up the name of the Rx the doctor gives you with what it is.
Need I go on and on. So as educators. How do we even begin to prepare our young people to work through this system. We feel it is important to fill out a job application or even taxes. My concern is those that have more get more. We perpetuate the system as we take advantage of the services we can afford and leave others out. It isn’t because they aren’t eligible it is because they can’t figure it out.
Problem solving and project based learning in the context of the core subjects does not teach us this. It is another argument to think more deeply about a social curriculum based on actual life experiences where students integrate the core subjects into advocacy, negotiation, knowing your rights, inquiry and finding the resources you need to have what is going to keep you healthy. We can’t do it by teaching about the Korean war but we can if we connect with those outside of our own society, become more global and perhaps take on an actual case of someone that was victimized by the war and weaving in reading, writing and social studies into learning about the time period and having a cause.
I think even though in today’s society and education system everything is so scores based that we as educators need to so how integrate character and real world application into our curriculum. If a teacher says he/she cannot do it “I just don’t have enough time” I call BS. I am not saying that every topic in every lesson has to incorporate these things, but somewhere along the course of school year it is possible to interact in such a way that helps a student learn what it means to take part in his/her society, to have an opinion and to stick up for it. Your example of doctors and nurses in a hospital is a great example, because the majority of the time we think of these people as knowing what is right and wrong and we take their word for it, but it is okay to question and speak up because when it comes down to it, they are treating us and we have as much of a say as they do, even if we sometimes are talking out of our @$$. Educating students to the real world along side the content is as important as a students grade. Just comes back to creativity and ingenuity from the teacher.
I want students to learn to question the systems we have but to also be a part of a solution not to just “complain.” If our teaching revolves around how we can best prepare them to question, research and advocate for themselves that is a plus. But schools often steer away from social curriculum, don’t always encourage solutions and provide the content not the students discovering. Does that mean the student will not be “ready” for the state assessment? Well the strategies we have employed so far have not worked so what is there to lose.
Being a tech teacher(computer science), these types of tasks are second nature in my programming class. Students make programs that often spark higher order thinking such as slot machines, Mad Libs games, etc. Had I developed medication requirements, my students could easily make a program that alerts the user every time a certain event happens(once every other night, three times a day, etc). This could easily be converted to an app and marketed out to people who are not able to make a spreadsheet. In my class, I use situations like the medication need to spark motivation. My favorite program that we make is a compound interest calculator, that shows students how much money a savings account could produce over the years.
As educators in today’s society I think it is our responsibilty to ensure that our students are given the proper strategies to be successful in the real world. As a special education teacher it is imperative for me to teach my students “survival skills” as well as content and curriculum. I am famous for saying “any person can learn to read and write but without daily living skills, emotional and social skills how far will you get?” I liked the example you used with insurance companies and being an inpatient in the hospital. As educated people we are aware of those stipulations but what about those people who trust the system and don’t read the fine print given to them by their insurance company. What about those people who don’t have a spouse, parent or child to take care of their medical needs? An important part of learning is to be able to use what we have learned. There is no better way to do this then by teaching students crutial information so they can apply it to real life situations.
Your comments bring light on something I strongly believe in. As a teacher it is one thing I feel is lacking within education. Educators are suppose to provide a curriculum that promotes success in the future of society, but how can we do this if we continue the chalk and talk approach? I feel like education’s evalution is dragging at too slow of a pace to keep up wirth the demands of the world. Speaking in general sense, I believe this is because of teacher’s unwillingness to change.
Students need to be able to think for themselves and discover things on their own. I say toss the textbooks and review questions. Lets provide a theme with guiding questions and watch the students eyes light up through discovery. Every subject can be applied to the real-world so their should be no excuse not to show the correlation in the classroom. as a teacher of AutoCad, I find myself teaching the backbone of any CAD system through the cartesian coodinates. It never fails that my student’sfind themselves in disbelief that the coordinate system actual has an application in life.
Just a side note- you are not alone with your confusion within the medical field. 10 years ago my father recieved a heart transplant. Through it all my mom stayed by his side, but I often thought what it would be like for someone who was alone.
You bring up quite a few points that I have experienced as well. I went into the hospital last February with some severe medical complications. I faced many of these same issues such as needing to call my insurance company over the weekend when they were closed. The hospital case manager actually took care of this, but since it was a weekend noone at the insurance company was in the office. Therefore, the insurance company tried to charge me for the majority of my hospital stay becasue the hospital tried to call and did not get through. This led to several times where I had to call the insurance company in order to rectify these charges.
I honestly worry about our young people working with this system. Many of my middle school students do not have the motivation to complete short, simple homework assignments, which makes me nervous about how they will be motivated to deal with insurance companies, doctors, etc. I had to jump through a multitude of hoops to get my insurance company to take away the ridiculous charges that they wanted me to pay which took time and effort. Somehow I feel that some of my current students would not put in this same effort and as a result they will suffer for this.
I do teach this these sort of economic/social issues to my class (watered down of course). But I think it’s important, especially in my district where the socioeconomic level is so low,to make the kids aware of what they’re up against. So I talk about Occupy Wall Street and get their opinions of topics they were never aware of. I think the best way to prepare them is to expose them so they are thinking about this in order to necessary steps to ensure their future when they get older.
I could not agree with you more about students needing to know how to be “successful”citizens of this country. Often times, students are not taught the necessary things they will need once they get out of school. And with parents so busy working and trying to support their families and running to extra curricular activities and things, they do not have time to explain certain things to their children. By making the material we teach relevant to the futures of our students we would be much more successful. I teach a non regents course-applied geometry- and try to do as much with the real world as possible. Students will need to know how to find the surface area of a room and figure out the cost of a carpet and furnishings and make sure that they stay within their budget. We do that in my class. Having students find the surface area and volume of 20 shapes on a worksheetis not making the material you are teaching relevant, therefore not helping out the students.
This is a great example of ‘real world’ problems that are not taught on any Regents exam. It’s unfortunate that our main assessment strategy as a state is based on memorizing content for a three hour test rather than developing critical thinking and problem solving skills over the course of a number of years. Although it is not tested on the Regents, it is still our job as teachers to prepare students with the skills that they will need to be successful in the real world. I am actually going to do a webquest all about healthcare reform in my Economics class next week. We can’t possible teach students everything that they will ever need to know about the real world, but we can give them the skills they need to find answers and solutions to problems that they will experience throughout the course of their lives. I believe that this should be our primary goal as educators, and the use of technology can help us to achieve this goal by acting as a tool for research and collaboration.
As a technology teacher my project-based courses consist of a holistic approach to education. Each course is a web of multiple disciplines. The students learn the course content and utilize their comprehension of the material to devise viable solutions for presented problems. I find that my engineering academy students, that have taken several of my courses in the past, can easily comprehend how to approach the design process. They know that I have worked in the field and that only their best work will be acceptable to me; they also know that my approach to education has prepared them for their future. However I discovered that many of my non-academy students, despite their grade level, had difficulty grasping the concept of project-based courses as they had not been exposed to the concept nor did they possess the 21st century skills sets are required to be marketable in the “real world.” As a society we must rear all American children to appreciate the value of an education, innovativeness and hard work. Other than high school academy courses, I do not believe that enough is being done to prepare youth for 21st century careers.
Just reading this blog made me think of how often in class I bring up pharmaceutical companies and their commercials. Students are to busy laughing at all the side effects of the drugs and they are missing the big picture of having to understand basic biology to make informed decisions about one’s self.
I think there is two real parts to the topic at hand. The first issue is that as a business all health care companies are trying to make money. Especially in this field we are talking about a significant amount of money. There should be clearer and easier to understand policies and procedures when dealing with an illness or injury. You are already paying for it you shouldn’t be forces to work hard to understand it when you are at your weakest. ( Or is that what insurance companies are “Banking” on?)
The second issue is the fact that students have become numb to solving real-world problems. They have been brought up learning to study and take standardized exams that prepare them little for in “real world.” Just like how some math teacher teach students how to balance a check book it would be nice to see if science teachers could get some time in their curriculum to teach students how to get and pay for prescription drugs. Also, how to do research on what are the differences between generics and not, and what are their options when they are told no.
I believe project-based, real-life education is the way to go. We need to make education pertinent to what students will face when they get into the “real” world and are on their own. I completely agree with you, Shelley, about questioning whether they will have the wherewithal to do these tasks. Matt P. mentioned above how they don’t even have the attention span to do a 10-minute homework assignment. I agree that they will need some sort of education that relates directly with how to do some of the daunting tasks they will need to do just to be able to take care of themselves out there. So many students are so sheltered from reality, and those that aren’t (I believe) live a different state of reality than what they will face when on their own and in charge of their own everything. I don’t think what is being taught in schools for the most part has anything to do with any of this. For the most part, we are serving up a plate of false reality with a side of denial. I don’t deny that there are some teachers that stray from the Regents curriculum and give the kids a real dose of real life, but they are few and far between. I’m guilty too. OK, I put in some stuff here and there, but it’s not enough to give the students a real vision of what to expect. The educational system needs to be completely revamped from the inside out or vice versa, however it will work best. I can’t foresee that happening any time soon, but who knows? We can always have hope.
Rachel you are our hope!!!! The changes occur with you.
This is the best idea I have heard and I have already taken curriculum haha. I think these skills are so essential and are not addressed. We need to develop a place for these types of skills because LIFE HAPPENS. You may not have any of the issues listed but you never know when you may need these skills. Being able to find and access good resources is one of the most important skills of the 21st century in my opinion. If you can manipulate technology to gain a thorough understanding of any topic, you are pretty safe in terms of problem solving. The internet has become such an amazing resource that it has really facilitated problem solving. We need to find room away from the core subjects. For now, if I was involved in the curriculum mapping in a school, I believe that these types of situations or scenarios such be brought into the health classroom. Health class should focus on some (not all) of these issues if they do not already (not familiar with health curriculum).
When the content is the focus then the student gets the short end of the stick. Life happens is true but life happens outside of the health classroom too. All subject areas need to incorporate real life scenarios into their curriculum. Yes, health class could be used to present some of these ideas but so could social studies and ELA. Imagine looking at the social history of health coverage in different countries and under different political systems and then having students defend orally and in writing a patients rights to healthcare both preventative and otherwise. All core subjects could be used to relate this to real life. How about math in figuring premiums for insurance companies as well as cost effectiveness for hospitals etc…