Something to think about!

I am reading a book by Carol Ann Tomlinson, The Differentiated Classroom, 2nd edition.  Here is an interesting quote:

​(she profiles four teachers) These four teachers understand the essential purpose of learning.  It is not an endeavor that is marked primarily by accumulation of random data, rehearsal of disembodied skills, or checking standards off a list.  It is something far more powerful.  We are born trying to gain dominion over our environments (maybe not a good thing).  We live and die trying to figure out who we are; what life means; how to understand joy, pain, victory, and death; how we must relate to others; and why we are here.  The disciplines we study, give us lenses that help us answer life’s ultimate questions.  The skills of those disciplines give us power to use knowledge in meaningful ways.  Thinking and puzzling about the unknown gives us far more power than rote regurgitation of isolated names, dates, facts, formulas and definitions or practicing disconnected skills.

​What do you think?  Probably a worthy quote to digest over time  and use as a way to think about our own teaching.