Date of Award

7-1972

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Edward F. DeRoche

Abstract

An educator has always had as his prime responsibility that of awakening in a child the desire to learn, a desire which must be carefully cultivated if it is to be of lifelong duration. Educators have disagreed as to how children learn best, but there is increasing evidence to indicate that the more responsibility the child assumes for his own learning, the greater is the chance of his knowing its joys and continuing his search throughout life. (1) The complexity of the modern world, where change seems to be t he normal state (24:29) makes it imperative that the child be his own teacher. Else how can he acquire the flexibility, the adaptability, the perception of his own talents and shortcomings needed by him to function capably in an increas ingly mobile society? The sterility of the teacherdominated classroom where conformity is the order of the day, serves only to deaden, or worse still, never brings to life, the creativity on which our lives now depend. (27:15) Today's educator must change that sterile climate to one that stimulates the desire to learn and to continue learning after the school door is closed. The teacher and the child must recognize that the "capacity to face the new is much more important than the ability to know and repeat the old." (22 :304) Far-sighted educators are constantly exploring ways designed to help the child become his own teacher, "to make a personal commitment to learning and to become deeply involved in his own learning." (5:84)

Comments

A Research Paper Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Education Department, Marquette University, in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Education. Milwaukee, Wisconsin

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