Finding Out About Things in Everyday Life

While reading this week's article about learning things in everyday life, the article first differentiates between learning because you're supposed to and learning because you want to. I think personally I started this class with the mind to learn because it was what I was supposed to do. I think because of the freedom in the classroom, it has shifted to learning because I'm interested. I have noticed that I think about topics we are discussing in class in my daily routine. I think this is an important thing for all students to experience so they learn genuinely.
When the article was discussing the student's ideas on how the moon goes through it's phases, I was at first shocked when I realized the ages were GRADE 11 rather than AGE 11. I thought there was no way kids would think so shallowly about the moon's phases and be so wrong. Then I realized I did the same thing and I'm in "grade 16" and 21 years old! Then when I saw the depiction of the student's thoughts it was exactly what I had originally thought as well. Soon after I really started considering the moon's phases, I realized how wrong I was. The figure shown of the moon directly behind the earth in it's shadow is of a lunar eclipse- not a new moon. When the students were asked to reflect upon their thinking, they still did not come up with the correct answer. I think this is because our knowledge about shadows tells us naturally that the earth blocks light from reaching the moon but we have never considered the grand scale of things in space. Wagenschein has referred to this misconception as "synthetic stupidity" and I have to agree. I am almost mad at myself for not realizing how wrong my thinking was. I was idly believing in something easy but as soon as I gave it an ounce of consideration I knew there was no way I was correct- I just didn't know what else it could be.
I think the article is correct when it sums this up as people being plain naive. The thinking exhibited by myself as well as the students in the article is no where near developed or mature. The diagram provided by the textbooks is clear and simple and correct in the position of the moon relative to the sun and the earth, however it is entirely misleading and inaccurate in regards to scale and perspective. It appears totally static, while in reality the earth and moon are constantly in motion. The article asserts that the reason behind this failure of a diagram is likely because the textbooks are intended to be so neat and petite. Because of this students do not understand how the moon phase phenomena really occurs. I think it is important to first introduce this concept by using an interactive model like Amanda W shared- Holding a tennis ball up (moon) and rotating yourself (earth) in the path of a projector (sun). After students understand this model, then and only then could a diagram like the ones that frequent our textbooks ever be effective.