Are You an Educator or a Teacher?

I believe as an educator, it is my responsibility to educate students not just teach them. Many people of my profession would argue that teaching and educating are the same idea. Although, the distinction between teaching and educating may seem small; it is very important. It is possible to teach someone how to perform a task. If you teach them correctly, they will be able to perform that specific task over and over again. However, if you educate the person about the task and the meaning behind the task and its importance, not only will they be able to perform the task, they will be able to apply it to other situations. Teaching transferable skills and concepts is educating. In my classroom, students are taught nothing and educated in everything.
The modern educational system was founded in the early late 1800s. It was designed to prepare students for the workforce; much like the system is today. Unlike today most of the workforce was working in factories and had manual labor based jobs. As a result the educational system was designed to teach students how to complete tasks and follow orders. Students were given drills in root memorization. The jobs they would have later in life required a person that played by the book and followed a process step by step. Today’s job market requires much more than that. Workers need to be able to think independently and collaborate with other colleagues in a service driven society. However, in many cases the educational system does not reflect these changes. Students need to be taught concepts and ideas, and transferable skills.
In order to effectively engage students in this method, I must step away from the trappings of content driven lessons. The content often distracts educators from their objectives. Instruction should be student-centered. Educators need to create real world scenarios in which the students can discover on their own the concepts that they are learning. I feel that the best way to teach concepts is to give students a problem to solve as a group and they must use the materials they are given to effectively solve the problem. The content of the lesson is woven into the scenario, yet the focus of the lesson is the concept or the skill not the content itself.
I believe that it is extremely important for our educational system to revamp its entire thought process about technology. Technology should be used to immerse students into a real situation and have the student come up with the outcomes and the consequences. There needs to be more simulations in the classroom. Students will learn the content through the successful completion of the simulation. Many people fear that these types of activities will not prepare students for state assessment exams. As long as simulations align with State and National Standards, students will still be able to perform on well on tests.
It is with this framework that I propose that K12 schools begin to adopt some modern practices and focus on the important things: Skills and Concepts. The transferability of skills and concepts is more important they promoting memorization of facts, dates, and formulas. In the future, it is the transferable skills that educators provide to students that will lead them to excel rather than the information taught by teachers. So here's an important question for you to ask yourself: Are you an educator or a teacher?