Back to the Boundaries

Recently our German class had a culture event that consisted of us going to our professor’s house and cooking some uniquely German foods. Although this does not seem to be of any real significance or a truly thought-provoking experience, I believe that it was just as important as any other event I have gone to this year.
In the early part of the semester, we talked about the theme of borders and boundaries. I believe that this event helped break many typical boundaries that are associated with classes and relationships between students and teachers outside of the classroom. In the usual classroom the relationship between most students and the teacher ends once the class time is up; it is the same way with most student-student relationships as well. Having a fun experience outside of the classroom breaks the educational norm and helps boost interest and motivation.
Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” is a poem telling a story about a wall that exists between two neighbor’s properties. One neighbor is contemplating the reasoning behind rebuilding the wall every year when it is just bound to fall down. The other neighbor has no doubt about the necessity of rebuilding the wall and does not go into any sort of deep thought about it.
This poem relates to my event in that the wall that exists between the two neighbors could be related to the boundaries of the typical classroom. For nearly all of the classes I have ever had, it was the case that all of the learning was done inside the classroom and very rarely consisted of anything outside of the textbook. I only experienced a few classes in which the teacher strayed from textbook teaching to apply what we were learning about to the students they were teaching and in all of these cases I found that technique much more affective.
The breaking down of many typical barriers, especially barriers that exist solely because the idea that since there has always existed a barrier that it should be taken how it is and not tampered with. If this was an effective mindset, nothing new and great would ever be or ever have been accomplished.
Another related piece of literature we have covered in class to this idea of escaping the boundaries is the short story we read entitled . In this story a woman is trapped inside of her room by her husband as a result of her being mentally unstable. The husband feels that the best thing for her is to trap her inside of her own room and allow her to recover without the stresses of the outside world. However, he does not take into account the effect of being caged up for so long has on a mind and body, and she slowly becomes more and more insane and unstable, so much so that she begins the think that there is someone trapped behind the wallpaper in her room. The whole idea of this short story was that being bound by barriers, whether mental or physical, is counterintuitive to improving their state of mind. The same could be said about trapping students inside of classroom’s all the time.
I am by no means suggesting that the textbooks should be thrown out and the professors should wing every class. However, every now and then it is always seen as a pleasantry to escape the classroom and apply what you have been learning about. Making us go to events that have to do with topics we have discussed in class is effective and so was going to my German professor’s house to learn how to make some delicious German specialties.