"New Age" Teaching

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I remember back in grade school, one teacher in particular was a fanatic when it came to new age teaching; by new age instead of being very matter-of-fact, she'll have us do these little activities to "get" what she was teaching.

The problem was, these activities were completely unrelated to the subject--well to me anyway.

I should add, that this was an AP biology class. Back on subject, she had us go outside with these dodgeballs (much to my horror) and we were supposed to bounce them around and throw them to demonstrate how such and such works. You see how awful it was? I cannot even remember what it was. I remember standing on the outskirts in complete disbelief; I had NO IDEA what was going on. It made very little sense. I could not for the life of me figure out what dodgeballs and bouncing them on the concrete have to do with the subject she was teaching us. To me, I felt like writing everything down in full detail was a better way of learning. I didn't GET it. I walked back inside and read the textbook instead, haha!

Anyone else experience this "new age" teaching. BTW, this teacher hated me; when she saw my mother in the school office, she told her I was never going to be anything in life. My mother is like the female version of Leonidas I, so that didn't end well!

It would help a lot if you could actually remember what it was she was trying to teach you. It might have made perfect sense to me. I never learned, and still don't, ANYTHING from text books.

I'm a hands-on learner. If I'm not DOING it, I don't learn it.

I'm hands on as well, but trust me... It was completely unrelated--well to me. I think it would have made sense if she was speaking about how cells travel, etc. but that was not it. I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. It wasn't about cell formation or about cells at all. I remember the subject being very simple though--felt like she complicated it. The whole demonstration actually reminded me of astronomy!

I'm actually beginning to think it was about a theory. I'm actually quite positive it was about a theory; wasn't about energy though--which would make sense as to how energy is never destroyed or created, as to how the ball continues to bounce or be thrown by another student to another. Oh well!

Last edited by paperoceans on 11 Aug 2011, 12:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

New Age is of the antichrist.You know the prophecies,right(ecumenism)?I listen to artists like Jarre and Vangelis though but it is not the same.

Last edited by JohnyJohn on 11 Aug 2011, 12:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.

This reminds me of the time I was standing in the New Age section at Borders...

Demonstrations like that make me think of physics class, not biology class. That seems really strange to teach with dodgeballs. Maybe she was trying to teach you about kinetic motion of molecules or something? Or something to do with cell membranes? No idea.

I had a biology teacher once that was a student's mother. The other teacher had to retire early so this lady had been hired at the last minute. She was the worst teacher ever. She would give us the entire lecture by literally reading from the textbook, word for word. Have a question? She'd tell you to go read the textbook. Nothing we did that year made any sense to me and I had always enjoyed biology before that.

Anyhow, New Age stuff is always a little silly to me. I like my teaching environments to be properly structured and under control. I hated all of those teachers that let the class do whatever they wanted. I had a fair share of nightmares about Spanish classes because the teacher had no control of the students.

When lessons are well thought out and have lots of hands-on experience, I enjoy that. I had an excellent astronomy teacher who did a lot of demonstrations. One of which involved using a fire hydrant and a skateboard to show Newtonian mechanics.

I think the trouble I run into with those "New Age" types of lectures is when the activities would get too far out of my scope of "abstraction". I'd get really confused and not make the connection.

Regardless, I'm just glad that those kinds of teachers got fewer and fewer as I got older. I don't think I had any really bad professors once I got to college.

If you ever run into any professors like that again, maybe you could carefully explain to them that you just have no clue what they are trying to teach and could they please offer an alternative lesson plan, please!

Proof, please. Or is that just an opinion that has no merit when it comes to reality?

I am offended on account of some kindhearted friends who love New Age material. New Age is too wacky for my taste and full of logical inconsistencies but that doesn't make it deserving of such a negative title.



No. I do not. Please educate me and any other curious folk who happen to be reading. Is ecumenism supposed to be a good thing or a bad thing? I did not know that there were any prophecies about ecumenism.



Do you mean "new age" as in the spiritualist movement or "new age" as in an entirely different way of teaching students with abstraction? Oh, and a teacher who basis your whole future based on one year with you is a bad teacher.

Biology needs to be taught with logic, conciseness, and exactness. Biology and any scientific discipline for that matter is very hard to teach metaphorically.

All I can say is if the "demonstration" didn't "speak" to you, it didn't work for you. It's not all that uncommon for teachers to use demonstrations that make sense to themselves and even many of their students, but not make sense for all of them. Most good teachers know not everything they do will make sense to all their students. The best will listen when the few that it doesn't make sense to actually speak up and say so, and try something different, or ALLOW the students who don't get it to do what they know works for them.

This is especially effective when it comes to those of us with Autism, unfortunately too many teachers don't listen when Autistic students (or any student who isn't "getting" the teacher's methods), do speak up for themselves. The problem with Autism is that it can cause a lot of us not to speak up at all, in which case the teachers, no matter how well-meaning and open minded they are, are kind of at a loss.

It feels so nice when your parents stand up for you and fight for our rights. I always remember the time my mother told my Lab teacher if she dared to put me an F she was going to punch her in the face. She meant it. I got an A (which I deserved; the teacher was just bullying me). Thats why I always fight for my dsughter's rights. It breaks my heart when I see those young children being abussed by their teachers and/or fellow students, and nobody fightings for them.

No matter how it's taught, biology is lame. Physics is where the good stuff is at.