Running head: ONE MAIN THING 1

My One Main Thing

John Thornton Davis

EDAD 620 (901) 33371

California State University, San Marcos

Summer 2017
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My One Main Thing

The most important element of education to me is providing a meaningful education that

will assist my students in becoming healthy, socially conscious, successful, and above all else

proactive and productive members of their community/society/country. I am aware that this

sounds generally broad, and somewhat clich, but it is sincere for many reasons and has been at

the heart of career in education since I left my first career and went back to school to become an

educator. To put it simply, I am an educator because I am aware of the ills of our society, and I

believe that education has the power to minimize, if not stem many of the problems we have in

our society and country.

I am very much aware that I may not able to transform the lives of all the students I

encounter, but I am aware that as my driving motivation is to make my community better,

healthier, and more productive, I will continue to try. In my first teaching assignment, I worked

in an Intensive Learning Community (ILC). Students attending this program were all

Emotionally Disturbed, most diagnosed with Oppositional Defiance Disorder, many were

involved with drugs (sale and consumption) and gangs and almost all came from the extreme

poverty of Honolulus housing projects. My immediate supervisor in the program, a district

psychologist, on several occasions noted my emotional response when a student was arrested,

their parents abused them, they showed up high, regressed academically, etc. I distinctly

remember him telling me You cant save them all, just keep pushing though and maybe you can

show them their lives can be better than this. This offhand comment, made years ago, has kept

me focused on why I am an educator. I know I will not always be successful, and the

circumstances are different from educational setting to setting, and student to student, but I try to
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keep focused on this concept, because it is important to me that students have the chance to make

their lives and the community around them better.

The meaningful education needed to prepare students to be successful and productive has

many facets and requires that more than just state standards and content is taught. Education in

schools, should be focused on forming the whole student to be productive and analytic, not just

relating knowledge to them. In my opinion, a student must be healthy in mind and body to make

good decisions. For some students, this is not a big issue, but for many, like my kids at the ILC,

they need to be instructed and supported in concepts such as healthy behaviors, skills, and habits

that will allow them to navigate their world and contribute to it positively. Part of this requires

that they are exposed to new tools, knowledge, ideas, ways of thought, and philosophies that may

be different than theirs. Educators should introduce students to these new concepts and

encourage them to be open minded, but think critically and analytically to form their own

opinions based on what they have been taught. To make this meaningful, this must be done in

contexts that students can both relate to and be able to apply to real life situations.

Ignorance about the world around us, be it other cultures, rules/laws, politics, the

preferences and ideals of others, basic economics, or social cues etc. is often at the root of many

counterproductive issues such as hate and poverty that plague many communities. Ive always

considered meaningful, engaging education to be the best way to combat this. Oliver Wendel

Holmes said A man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its

former dimensions. (The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858) As such, students should be

encouraged to examine new ideas and concepts as a way of learning. Administrators should

encourage this type of learning, and teachers should make it a focal point of their lessons.

Instructors can lead and provide content as a tool, but students should be the ones searching out
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ideas and forming their own opinions. Classrooms should be full of dialog and content should be

presented in the form of questions, problems to fix, or concepts to be analyzed. In my social

science classes, I encourage and base lessons on debate and discussion and find that the lessons

are more meaningful. Students are encouraged to form an opinion then explore with an open

mind the counter argument or oppositions point of view, then revisit their own ideas. In doing

so, it is hoped that they might learn new ideas, and are learning problem solving skills at the

same time. As well, it provides students with practice communicating and working with others,

another skill required for success in higher education and beyond. Learning to apply these

concepts to content and situations will help students be successful, informed, and productive

decision makers. The hope is that these skills will not just get students to their own individual

goals, but will also help them then better, directly or indirectly, their communities.

To achieve this type of learning style, administrators must work with both school and

community shareholders to provide equitable opportunities for students to grow. A strong,

meaningful, and attainable mission and vision must be agreed upon and instituted, and

administrators must support teachers, staff in communicating and carrying it out. Teachers,

should lesson plan and carry out lessons with the focus being on how the content taught can be

utilized in meaningful or contextual ways. As well, lessons should be presented with the

problem solving and skill building principals described above. Teachers and administrators

should be engaging and encouraging students and be enthusiastic about how the lessons taught

can benefit the students. Students should feel free to explore their ideas and those of others, and

be encouraged to respectfully share them, find meaning in them, and attempt to utilize them to

solve problems or analyze issues.

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When alive and well in a school this type of education engages all shareholders. It is

looked at as a common goal by students, faculty and staff, administration, parents, and

community partners. This is not an abstract mission or vision, but one that requires almost

constant enthusiastic effort to maintain. Students require education to be engaging and useful.

Any teacher who has watched a classroom of kids struggle to stay awake as they lecture knows

the need for this type of education. If it has worth, meaning the primary benefactors (students),

recognize it as a useful tool, they will engage in the lessons easier. As such it is important to me

as an educator that this type of education is be provided. My goal as an educator is to provide

for a better future through educating the next generation to be successful and productive. The

type of education described above to me is the most important thing to me in this process.