Not Teaching Skills--A Paragraph a Day

One of the things that constantly amazes me in school these days when I'm teaching is the extremely low number of students who take notes.  It's like it's a skill that's completely died, and that obviously isn't being taught to young people any more.  Unfortunately, it's one of the most effective strategies that one can use to actually learn the material that's being covered.  Sitting there and passively hearing what's being taught is not a good way to actually learn it--when one doesn't write things down, it's much more difficult for the concepts to make their ways into our long-term memory rather than our short-term.  But teachers don't seem to be putting any effort into teaching the study skills that help the kids to learn to learn; instead, they focus on the information that's possibly going to be on a standardized test, information that is simply learned by rote almost, rather than skills that can help them to be successful in many ways.  I keep insisting that my students at least take notes because I know that they need strategies for internalizing those things that they learn, and that they're not getting much of that in their other classes.  Some of us teach because we want students to learn how to learn so that they're more likely to succeed in the future when we're not around any more, and I'm willing to let them get a little annoyed at me now for insisting that they take notes.  Because after all, if I don't insist now, there's a very good chance that they'll actually learn this skill too late for it to make any positive mark on their educations or their lives.