What Is the Point of This?

When I am planning my lessons I always ask myself, "What is the point of this?" "Why am I teaching this?"
It helps to ask this. I want it to be meaningful for my students.

Today, one of my middle school students was working on a science project that involved her making a poster about grass plains. She did not seem interested in it and groaned as she copied a few graphs showing the amount of precipitation certain grass plains in different parts of the world get.

When she was at a stopping point, I asked her, "What is the point of this? Why are you doing a project on grass plains?"

She looked at me blankly and shrugged.

"Well why does your teacher want you to learn this? There must be a reason," I asked.

"Because I picked this to do a project on and we are supposed to do it."

Of course I am not surprised by this. She's a kid and she is being asked about her boring school work. But, it really bothered me that she could not come up with one good reason why it is useful to learn about grass plains. Perhaps her teacher has a really good reason and she may have explained why they must learn this. Whatever the reason, the entire project became meaningless. It was a waste of poster board, paper, markers, glue, and time.

I told her maybe it was so she can learn more about the world, how there are different types of lands. Now she knows that much of the mid-west in America has a lot of grassy plain areas. And if she wanted to move to a grassy plain area in America, she would know where to move. And she will have an idea of how often it rains there and what kinds of animals live in the area.

It is important as a teacher and a parent to ask your students/children the question "Why?"
Ask them about their school work and see how much they really understand it.
It is important for students to ask, "What is the point of this? Why am I learning this? How is this relevant?" Teachers need to be asking, "How is this relevant to my students? Why are they learning this? What is the point?"

I ask them the same question when they are learning about how we hear sounds, how their deafness impacts them, or how their hearing aid or cochlear implant works.

If they start asking, "Why is it important to know this?" maybe it will help us learn how to make it more meaningful for them. 

I don't want my students to go through life just taking what is given to them without questioning it.

So, what was the point of her doing a project on grass plains?

I may never find out.

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