Tyler McCubbin > Recent Status Updates

As Eleanor Roosevelt said in 1962, “the course of history is directed by the choices we make and our choices grow out of the ideas, the beliefs, the values, the dreams of the people. It is not so much the powerful leaders that determine our destiny as the much more powerful influence of the combined voice of the people themselves”. (14)

Following the election of 1876 and the corrupt bargain, mistakenly labeled a compromise, of 1877, “there were two Americas: Democratic and Republican. The third America, often unheard and unseen, was the one that included the vast majority of the population who neither voted nor benefited from the government programs that served the few wealthy and well connected” (217-218)

“Rote knowledge might lead to giving the right response, but it doesn’t mean the student is thinking.”

Really interesting insight of transferability issues by explaining surface versus deep structures to demonstrate learning. “Our cognitive system is always struggling to make sense of what we’re reading or hearing…background knowledge always concerns surface structure…deep structure is not obvious”.

“Memory is the residue of thought”.

“Unless the cognitive conditions are right, we will avoid thinking” (1)

“Mental work appeals to us because it offers the opportunity for that pleasant feeling when it succeeds” (8). If that mental work is either too easy or too difficult, our brain gets a) no reward or b) no satisfaction, so we get no pleasure for learning in that type of environment.