Christopher S. Wittler's How We Learn

“Essentials of a Good Education” is an article by Diane Ravitch regarding the No Child Left Behind legislation and its effect on public schools in America. According to her, since that legislation was put into place, schools have cut funding to subjects that don’t get tested. This has taken some of the most ambitious students in the schools in poorer communities and put them at the same level as the students that don’t care about school and don’t try. That keeps the ambitious and advanced students from reaching their full potential in school. Although Ravitch makes good points about her opinion, she doesn’t consider any opposing opinion and she cites little to no sources for her information.

While reading “Becoming a Learner” by Matthew L. Sanders, I found many interesting points on college education that I have never really focused on. One of my favorite statements that Sanders makes is that “who you are still matters more than what you can do because it speaks to your long term potential for success.” I thought this was very interesting and inspiring because it is encouraging the reader to focus on developing themselves rather than some impractical skills. I also thought it was really cool when Sanders made the point that “it’s not only what you do that counts; it’s also how you do it.” I thought that this quote is relatable on so many different levels, especially in the aspect of college. Sometimes you can take the easy way

It is still not fully understood whether or not the action of certain tasks is actually dependant on both of the brain hemispheres, because they both appear to have control over some tasks. An example of this, is the left hemisphere which is said to be responsible for the analytic part of the tasks, such as reading and making calculations. Within many individuals, it is also the dominant centre of language

The right side of the brain is responsible for putting information together eg. information recived from eyes-if you see a flower information goes from eyes to the right side of your brain , firing neurons, putting information together so you are able to say "I can see a flower".The left side of the brain analyses information which is collected by the right side of the brain. It

In most affluent schools, parents have the expectation that their kids are being offered a full liberal arts curriculum that will allow them to further their creativity and curiosity. However, many schools have been only focusing on the subjects that are being tested on standardized tests set by the state, because they receive more school funding if they achieve higher test scores. In her article titled “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch, utilizing direct examples of schools, and policies that limit student’s knowledge of the arts in order to have more time preparing for tests, points out that this shift in focus is causing students to suffer academically and is killing their curiosity and creativity.

The reading I chose to critically analyze was written by Diane Ravitch and is named, “Essentials of a Good Education.” In the article, education activist Diane Ravitch, expresses her opinion about how the public education and schools in the United States are failing society. She indicates that schools are wasting their money and time on preparing students to pass state test instead of teaching them valuable life skills needed to succeed. She provides interesting support for this argument and explains why schools need to stop teaching the importance of test scores and focus on a full liberal arts curriculum, where students have a better chance to obtain an education they can take into the real world. Ms. Ravitch’s argument that the

In the year 2001, the United States government passed and established a law called the No Child Left Behind Act. This law created a set of standards for public schools to follow to prepare their students for college. For that to occur, schools must have their students to meet the minimum testing score in Math and Reading. If students do not reach the minimum requirement, that school would not receive federal funding. Diane Ravitch was an original supporter of this law but later changed her mind after realizing that schools became more focused in basic skills like Math and Reading and started to ignore other subjects that were deemed irrelevant since these subjects would not help a school recieve federal funding. In her essay, The Essentials of a Good Education, Diane Ravitch uses effective reasoning and pathos to persuade her audience that there is more to education than just the quality of test scores and that incorporating other subjects can be crucial to a student’s participation in society.

According to the theory of lateralisation developed by Robert Sperry and Robert Ornstein, the cerebral cortex in the two hemispheres perform the same motor and sensory functions but each of the hemisphere is specialized for different tasks. As the brain develops, the left hemisphere is superior in doing tasks that involve speech, language, reading, and writing. The right hemisphere shows superiority in tasks that involves creativity, intuition, facial recognition, non-verbal imagery, musical recognition, sense of direction, play and sports, learning experience and risk-taking. Lateralisation is developed for the task that is done, that is the right hemisphere is used for a particular function. This decision is influenced by genetics, childhood learning experiences and

This paper on Salvation is defining both objectively and subjectively from the two required reading text. The first text is written by Alistair McGrath’s “Theology: The Basics and the second is written by Dr. Yung Chul Han’s “Transforming Power: Dimension of the Gospel. I will describe how the both texts are in association as well as seeking observations, and other conclusions to gain a better understanding of salvation from both perspectives. According to (Mc.Grath, p.78), the word salvation is referred to as something that has already happened in the past, to something that will happen in the future. Spiritual transformation requires of us what is called dependent responsibility. All the moral commands and exhortations of scripture assume our responsibility. Salvation is deliverance from danger or suffering. The word salvation carries the idea of victory, health, or preservation (www.biblia.com). Salvation can be viewed as a spiritual transformation which the dependency of the Holy Spirit assist in the change of a believers past, self to a vessel of God in the present lives which exemplifies life, deliverance, peace, and a victory won through personal conviction. The victory is one that only Jesus Christ has authority save us which gives believers complete approval to have possession to enter the kingdom of heaven.

The results of this study show us the brain is not in fact symmetrical and the two hemispheres in the brain work in different ways. The left hemisphere is known to play the dominant role, which is in control of all complex behavioural and cognitive processes as for the right hemisphere it only plays a minor role. This report will further analyse how different the two hemisphers is the dominant side of the brain.

Left-right brain dominance is about the fact that the distinct hemispheres influence thinking. The left hemisphere is associated with logical, analytical thinking and a linear approach to problem solving. The right hemisphere is associated with creative, intuitive and value-based thought process. It is important to note that everyone uses its both hemispheres, but to varying degrees. Four quadrants of the brain, related to different thinking style, have been identified:

In the Conceptual Age, it will not longer suffice to rely heavily on the logic of the left brain. Computers, cheaper sources and labor will continue to lead to outsourcing of this work; instead, creativity and innovation will give rise to future development. To prosper in the Conceptual Age, people will need to weave together the logic of the left brain (L-directed thinking) and the creativity of the right brain (R-directed thinking).

Recently I read the book How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough. This book had five main sections. These sections included How To Fail (And How Not To Fail), How To Build Character, How To Think, How To Succeed, and A Better Path. In each of the five sections the book talked about many different points. Each point had a number. These numbers would go through about one to seventeen per each section of the book. Along with giving a summary of the book I will analyze it. We will start with section one, How To Fail (And How Not To).

People who are left brain tend to approach each problem with an analytical point of view. Right

For many decades people have been considered to be either right or left side dominant in regards to brain function which came with defined roles such as “creative” or “analytical”. This thinking tends to be over-simplified as most people use their entire brains daily (Jensen, 2010). On the other hand people do use different parts of their brain for different tasks according to how they perceive those tasks.