The Hodgkinson Report

I am very hesitant to post a blog about this report or whatever it is. It looks like an article that was written in an educational magazine. The whole idea about this article is about demographics. I am not an expert in this field nor do I intend to be, but I will do my best to express my ideas without offending anyone. Keep in mind my intention is to express my ideas about the topic.

Mr. Hodgkinson starts off by saying "nothing is distributed evenly across the US. Not race, not religion, not age, not fertility, not wealth, and certainly not access to higher education." I am a big fan of the statement that people are a direct result of their environment. It takes a combination of education, culture, family, one's environment, and a number of other factors to create a student’s well rounded view about life. Nothing in life is evenly distributed. Life is what you make of it. We are fortunate here in the US to have opportunities. We can be anything we want to be. Did you ever that saying "Seize the day?" It means just what it says, make everyday day in your life count. The decisions you make dictate where you are going to be in life. Some of the ideas like race, age, and sometimes religion are already predetermined for students and people. Fertility, wealth, and the option to participate in higher education is definitely a result of the student’s decisions throughout life.

Another topic the author writes about is diversity. He goes on to say that "the nature of race is changing." Let’s face it, everything in life changes. It either changes for the better or it changes for the worse. Again, it’s a result of the decisions a student makes throughout life. We as future teachers have to understand that we cannot change the world. We can change the way a student feels about a particular subject through the information that we provide them, but ultimately that student will make their own decision about how they feel. It’s like the old saying, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make the horse drink it.” I as a future teacher can provide the tools to the student, but it is up to the student to follow through and use what we provide to achieve their individual goals. It is a natural reaction of all teachers, at least I would hope, that the teacher is there to provide any instruction or information that the student needs.

He talks about Tiger Woods and how he checks 4 different races or ethnicities on the census forms. Listen, not even the census is perfect. One thing is for sure, there are always going to be choices in life, whether it is on the census form, when you walk into a restaurant and choose what you want to eat, or even to elect the next president of this country. It’s up to the individual. Again, it’s the choices a student makes in life that will dictate where he/she is later on. All we can do as teachers is provide the tools and the student has to look at the big picture and facilitate the action.

The author goes on to talk about differences in world views. All of these views about the sense of time, the sense of family, the sense of hierarchy, are a direct result of how the student feels about what he/she is taught in life. The students, if taught correctly, will come to understand and hopefully see the big picture. It’s from that big picture where that student will hopefully put it all together and make the correct decision about what they want to do in life, where they want to be, and what they want to achieve.

Don't forget to click the advertising links on this page, some of the pages that follow are helpful and informative. Thanks