So What Should Students Learn?

To love to learn!

And everything else will follow.

First, enthusiastically introduce students to an array of knowledge within a topic to allow them to sample what is available. Explore the topic with them or share what you know, investigating how ideas about the topic have changed over time to reveal how knowledge advances. Then they can feel that it would be possible for them, too, to make a real contribution to the field.

Encourage lots of questions; research to find the answers. Make use of the many available resources: books, DVDs, YouTube, the internet, speciality magazines. The library, offering free access to all these, should be your best friend.

Now they have a taste of what the topic is all about, allow students to select areas of interest to pursue further. What knowledge they acquire is less important than the fact that they desire to acquire some.

That which interests us naturally becomes a part of us; learning and remembering are stress-free, automatic functions of our need to know more. Understanding follows as we delve deeper and deeper into the chosen area of study. Once we determine to share what we know with others, we cement the learning and can revel in the satisfaction of knowing we really know something.

In this way, we create life-long learners who will diligently pursue knowledge for the intrinsic rewards alone.