Today, our Math 221 class attended Dr. Kevin Cloninger's lecture, "Thinking Outside the Job: Helping Students Learn to Live the Good Life". For daily work we were asked to write on our blog a response/summary of the lecture we attended.
Summary:
Going into this lecture I had no idea what to expect. I thought it was going to be a lecture just on how to be a better teacher. This lecture did inform me on how to be a better teacher, but it also informed me how to live a better life. Cloninger started the lecture off with talking about well-being and what it is. When I think of well-being I immediately think health, but otherwise I do not think very much about it. Cloninger began discussing that children and adults are not necessarily living a good life. Several children and adults are affected by childhood obesity and other diseases caused by poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Cloninger also brought up that depression will soon be the leading illness/disability. What Cloninger was getting at was the fact that in the 21st century we as human beings are not focusing on having a "good life". The things we are teaching our students and children are that the most important things in life are a good job and having a lot of money. Cloninger reminded us that this is definitely not true.
Cloninger expressed that we need to focus on having a good life instead of having a good job. There are several problems occurring in the world right now, such as hunger and climate change. We need to focus on fixing our ways of life to be healthy and live in a healthy world. Something Cloninger kept saying was that "It's too late to be pessimistic". We need to start making changes in our lives now.
Another thing that Cloninger discussed was how reliant the world is on technology. The fact that people are constantly using our phones, going on the internet for things such as Facebook, and watching television. Cloninger had some data of how many hours people waste their lives using technology like this.
Overall, he was saying as educators and parents we need to focus on students and children's well-being, instead of focusing on the global economy. It's necessary to focus on a good life to successfully live in the 21st century.
My Response: I thought it was strange because I had been thinking a lot about the things Cloninger was saying in his lecture before I even attended his lecture. I thought I was the only one thinking these thoughts, but luckily I am not.
I think teaching students how to live a good life is essential. We also need to teach kids and even teach ourselves to live in a 21st century world. We really need to focus on climate change, since ultimately human's are destroying the world. We also need to focus on our health and eating habits, since human's are also destroying themselves with very unhealthy eating habits.
As far as technology goes, I feel we rely on it way too often. Recently I have tried to "boycott" Facebook (except for when I have to post my math weekly works on Facebook) and I have been trying to use unnecessary technology less often. My reason for boycotting Facebook has been due to my recent research on Facebook and depression. Honestly, there is so much I could say about these subjects and I could write pages and pages about the issues of the 21st century, so I will try to stop ranting and get back to my response.
Overall, I feel that as a future teacher we really need to focus on well-being and teaching kids how to be healthy and live in a healthy world. I definitely am trying to start living a healthy lifestyle myself, and I want to promote living a healthy lifestyle to future generations. I believe this lecture was very beneficial for our class to attend and I hope other people benefited as much as I did from it.
Summary:
Going into this lecture I had no idea what to expect. I thought it was going to be a lecture just on how to be a better teacher. This lecture did inform me on how to be a better teacher, but it also informed me how to live a better life. Cloninger started the lecture off with talking about well-being and what it is. When I think of well-being I immediately think health, but otherwise I do not think very much about it. Cloninger began discussing that children and adults are not necessarily living a good life. Several children and adults are affected by childhood obesity and other diseases caused by poor eating habits and lack of exercise. Cloninger also brought up that depression will soon be the leading illness/disability. What Cloninger was getting at was the fact that in the 21st century we as human beings are not focusing on having a "good life". The things we are teaching our students and children are that the most important things in life are a good job and having a lot of money. Cloninger reminded us that this is definitely not true.
Cloninger expressed that we need to focus on having a good life instead of having a good job. There are several problems occurring in the world right now, such as hunger and climate change. We need to focus on fixing our ways of life to be healthy and live in a healthy world. Something Cloninger kept saying was that "It's too late to be pessimistic". We need to start making changes in our lives now.
Another thing that Cloninger discussed was how reliant the world is on technology. The fact that people are constantly using our phones, going on the internet for things such as Facebook, and watching television. Cloninger had some data of how many hours people waste their lives using technology like this.
Overall, he was saying as educators and parents we need to focus on students and children's well-being, instead of focusing on the global economy. It's necessary to focus on a good life to successfully live in the 21st century.
My Response: I thought it was strange because I had been thinking a lot about the things Cloninger was saying in his lecture before I even attended his lecture. I thought I was the only one thinking these thoughts, but luckily I am not.
I think teaching students how to live a good life is essential. We also need to teach kids and even teach ourselves to live in a 21st century world. We really need to focus on climate change, since ultimately human's are destroying the world. We also need to focus on our health and eating habits, since human's are also destroying themselves with very unhealthy eating habits.
As far as technology goes, I feel we rely on it way too often. Recently I have tried to "boycott" Facebook (except for when I have to post my math weekly works on Facebook) and I have been trying to use unnecessary technology less often. My reason for boycotting Facebook has been due to my recent research on Facebook and depression. Honestly, there is so much I could say about these subjects and I could write pages and pages about the issues of the 21st century, so I will try to stop ranting and get back to my response.
Overall, I feel that as a future teacher we really need to focus on well-being and teaching kids how to be healthy and live in a healthy world. I definitely am trying to start living a healthy lifestyle myself, and I want to promote living a healthy lifestyle to future generations. I believe this lecture was very beneficial for our class to attend and I hope other people benefited as much as I did from it.
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