Learning that Feeds the Soul

Each month Fierce will be publishing an exclusive blog post for the Learning Forward blog hosted by Education Week. Fierce  blogger, Jaime Navarro, wrote our second  piece which was  published today, and we wanted to share a portion of the blog with you.

I'm a very competitive person, and have been from a young age. In school I would stress out before tests and presentations, wanting to make sure that I was the best.

The way the education system was designed only helped fuel my desire to be this model student. Good test scores and grades were rewarded, and I wanted those rewards.

My father recognized this trait in me early on. One night, when I was in the fourth grade stressing over the details of a project about the Oregon Trail, he asked me a profound question.

"Why do you want to learn this?"

I remember looking up at him, with my miniature covered wagon almost complete and the neatly written report ready to go, and being totally dumbfounded.

What kind of question was that?

I was learning this because my teacher told me I had to. It was a graded assignment, and not only that, the best miniature scene got the coveted role of being displayed at the parent/teacher conference at the end of the month.

When I told my father this he simply nodded his head.

He then asked me if I had ever thought about how learning could feed my soul.

To read Jaime's full blog post on Education Week click here.

To read all of Learning Forward's blog posts, go to http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/learning_forwards_pd_watch/