Pinson, Hali: Beloit List

From the first day of school on, students have viewed teachers older, wiser, and perhaps even a bit intimidating. They have also viewed teachers as something akin to aliens, choosing to believe that they were never young and therefore could never understand what the average student deals with on a daily basis. While there are many differences between how our teachers grew up and the way today’s students have been raised, there are still many similarities between them. One simply needs to stop and look for them.

            

 For starters, both have had to learn the basics needed to graduate from high school: geography, math, and foreign languages. The difference is that many of the teachers today were not required or encouraged to progress past trigonometry. High school students today progress as far as calculus, physics, and receive extensive teaching in every branch of the sciences. In the areas of history and geography the regions about which each generation was taught also varies. Teachers looked primarily at the European continent, especially Greece, far more closely than do present day students. They were instructed more about the Americas, even though they too, learned their fair share about ancient Greece and Rome. Foreign languages taught to present day students are taught more out of an ever growing necessity to be bilingual, especially in Spanish. Teachers learned languages in order to broaden their understanding of other societies. Today learning Latin or Greek would be seen as a waste of time by most students. Previously, it was a requirement for our teachers if they wished to enter almost any prestigious university.

             

However the major differences separating the two generations have to do more with current events rather than simple changes in curriculum. Students today have always sat side by side with classmates from various diverse cultural backgrounds. For the earlier generation that was usually not the case. Some teachers may possibly remember the angst and controversy caused by desegregation. Another major crisis that shaped one generation's school years and not the other was the bombing of the Twin Towers during 9-11. Of course, the entire country was affected by the bombings but for the children in school at the time they came to mold the way they viewed certain aspects of our nation.

             

Even with the different situations and different expectations that faced present day students and the older generation when they were students, both have dealt with crises and changing environments that have contributed to the way both view their lives. The most important point is both have been able to develop the ability and the willingness to adapt to ever-changing methods of teaching, learning, and expectations regardless of their age.