"Country of the Blind"

There are many examples culture difference and the boundaries that can be created in H.G wells’ “Country of the Blind” that can be applied to teaching, learning, and the classroom. Throughout the reading I kept coming back to the idea that both parties are essentially blind. As Nunez and the locals in the story continue to fight and not see the other sides’ perspective, they are closing their world and both are blind. This lesson can continue into life, especially in the classroom and in the school community.

            In a classroom everyone does things differently. People answer problems differently, learn at different rates, and move through their day differently. As teachers we need to encourage our students to do things the ways that work for them, and teach all of our students to recognize when other peers are find a different path and allow them to do so.

            I think the story also showed how we do not want to learn, or encourage our students to learn. I felt to me that after Nunez realized he was going to be there, he learned what needed to be done, but not because he wanted to. He lived there only because he had fallen in love and still felt resistance toward the locals. I think that learning should be something someone wants to do. Now, I know our role as teachers is to teach our students, and they may not like the topic, or they feel down and not want to learn at a certain point, and we must continue to teach, but I think there are different ways. The story shows me that when learning, students may learn better and more efficiently when they really want to. This goes back to getting good sleep and eating well throughout the day to be able to focus. But I think it goes deeper, to the fact that as teachers, we need to put things teach in a way that gets the students excited to learn about the topic. For example, when teaching math we can create the problem in ways that allow the students to explore and as question, get excited when they find the right answer, be excited to learn, instead of passing out a handout and asking them to apply an equation to get just one answer.

            “Coutnry of the Blind” has so many different relationships and lessons that can be applied to teaching, learning, and the culture of the classroom, and I think one moral is to open to someone that is different from you in one way or another. When there is acceptance, people can move on and be better people in the culture as well as learn, and work together in a positive way.