First I would just like to thank everyone for the positive support and feedback I have been getting about my blogs. It is pretty cool to have people read something you write, especially because some of this blog is personal.
Here's an adorable picture of me and my brothers, because why not? Thought I'd spice this blog up a bit.
Anyways, I have some awesome news to share. I discussed my blog with one of my instructors (and this is someone that I have a lot of respect for and really appreciate the fact that I have him). He and I talked about me creating blogs that relate to the class. How cool? If you know me, even if it's only a little bit, you would know how passionate I am about education, and when I have a few "apple ciders" in me, I will just not shut up about everything I have been learning in my class. I'm going to leave out the dirty details but just know that some of the information I will share with you is so important to me, and some of if will also be really specific towards something you may not agree with at all. But as I always say in every blog I write.. it's mine, so if you don't like it or don't agree that is completely fine with me. I would really appreciate comments made on this as well because I would love to hear what you think after reading any of my blogs.
Real quick I want to share with you some things about my instructor. Not only did he help me arrive at this idea of a blog series for my final project, but he encouraged me to do so. Of course I am going to jump at the opportunity, and now I can share some (I think to be) important and necessary information about education. I won't say my instructors name, because quite frankly I don't feel that I am in a position to call him out in such a public way. Just wanted to say that he is great teacher. He challenges us as students to think in ways that we probably would not have originally, and he pushes us into finding answers that may or may not be concrete but are able to critically think about. I told him he is like the annoying 4 year old that asks "Why?" to everything you say. It's sometimes frustrating but I know that he does it for a reason.
Warning: Don't ever say "I don't know" in front of him, he will say "yes you do"and make you regret even uttering those words. He does it from a good place, however, and only has our best interest.
Now, to get down to why I'm really writing this. As I pondered a title for this thing, I was thinking really hard about how to make it general and geared toward everyone, rather than a specific type of audience. How does one make the study of education sound appealing for every kind of person? Do you think you have to be a parent to care about the education system?
I want to share with you guys what I have been reading, and discussing in this class for the past nearly 8 weeks. What I would really like to stress in this blog, is the argument over democratic schools. No, I am not referring to politics when I say democratic, I am however talking about school settings and whether or not they are democratic. By this, I am talking about a range of things schools do to be democratic in their own way, but essentially part of this blanket theory of a democratic school is that we come together as students, educators, parents, and a community in order to make our schools the best place to teach our young learners how to critically think about things, and apply those to their real world situations (preparing us for the real, cruel world we live in).
James A. Beane and Michael W. Apple are the two authors of this book I will mostly be referring to, Democratic Schools, Lessons in Powerful Education. Now, I will tell you guys that I have already written a 7 page paper on this book and the implications of what it means to have a democratic school, but I will try and water it down as much as possible so that you aren't stuck reading all that (it is only a blog after all, and I don't want to lose your attention).
If we were to just talk about the word democracy itself, you would make the assumption that it has no place in a school setting, but really it has everything to do with how school systems function. As far as Apple and Beane are concerned, a democratic school is one that is a process, and quite frankly it doesn't just have one definition. "...But beyond them lies the possibility for young people, professional educators, and citizens to work together in creating more democratic schools that serve the common good of at the whole community" (Apple and Beane 2007). As far as the curriculum is concerned, it is to be considered "hidden" in which the students learn lessons about justice, power, dignity and self-worth.
Here's a snap chat my friend sent me once, just trying to make sure you're still paying attention!!!!!!!
HERE'S THE BIG PICTURE GUYS
I know some of this seems like a lot, especially for someone that has no experience or knowledge in this specific topic, but what it's all about is preparing our children for the current state of our world, and to raise them so that they can be productive and influential citizens. Do you want to just be stuck in a cycle where the poor stay poor and the rich get richer? I mean, I can't be the only one that feels this way right? The way our system is set up is so that the bottom stay at the bottom and the top stay at the top. Is that what we want in our society? Should we just teach our kids that if they don't have the access to a good education, a safe building, books that are in one piece, school supplies that are actually usable- that that's all they will ever amount to and there is nothing they can do to change that?
Let me ask you this- do you feel you were given the best education you could have received? Maybe you weren't able to go to a private school that cost thousands of dollars each semester, so does that mean your education is less valued? Why would anyone deserve anything but the best, just based on their social class? For example, in one of the chapters of this book, there is in example of a school where in one particular classroom the teacher was able to co-create curriculum with the students in order to bring about change to their school. How you ask? Well I shall tell you..
It is called Byrd Community Academy, and these 5th grade students had horrible circumstance as far as their environment was concerned. I'm talking huge problems, problems they couldn't even fit all on one letter. Things like restrooms that we so filthy they weren't usable, broken sinks, bugs, leaks, no hot water, and temperatures so cold the students had to wear their coats in the classroom, and their gym was across the street. ACROSS THE FREAKIN STREET PEOPLE! Hello, let's never take PE for granted again, and that wasn't even a gym that belonged to the school. Man doesn't that just make your blood boil? That we, as American citizens- Land of the free and the home of the brave, but screw our schools! This is unacceptable, and it's not just this one school, this happens all around us.
So you know what those kids did? They wrote a letter, with the help of their teacher, and sent it to the State Senator of Illinois. Not only did they do this, but the students themselves created a plan of action that was actually sponsored by the Constitutional Rights Foundation of Chicago, and the name for their plan- Project Citizen. There is no reason that we should leave these problems up to our government, rather it is a concern of every single person out there- you, me, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, neighbors, cousins, coaches, colleagues etc. "By embracing this meaningful problem, the curriculum became a catalyst for authentic, natural, and integrated learning to occur" (Brian D. Schultz, 2007)
THIS--------->is what I mean by democratic. Students coming together with their teachers, community, and government to create a project that directly impacts them, and think of a plan that will change this for the better. See what I'm saying now?
Here's a picture of my cat, just incase I was starting to lose your attention ;)
Another thing I would like to touch on is the vocational education side of it all, and by this I mean really gearing the curriculum in the field they are going into after they are expected to graduate. Apple and Beane state that most vocational education is preparation for an enhanced model of active citizenship in which all people are empowered to make important decisions. However, it's not just teaching future workers the flexible job skills supposedly needed for the twenty-first century, because unfortunately it is shown that a large portion of our modern jobs are creating low-skilled, part-time, and poorly paid (Apple 1996). This does not happen by chance, it is between the work of the schools, students, educators, and the community to come together for a common good and help teach our youth how to be important members of society when they grow up. Sometimes this work can be exhausting and honestly it is pretty harshly criticized because it isn't what we are used to. I could go on and on about this but my blog is already extremely long.
I recently talked to a friend who told me that he felt he didn't need education, especially for the field he is interested in. UHM WHAT? That's like saying, I'm done learning "I'm good for the rest of my life, check ya later bro" I was stunned and of course had my own little argument but really I don't think we should ever be done learning. We should never be done becoming a better person, which brings me to my next point.. This idea of becoming.
Our instructor asked us to think about the difference between 'becoming' and 'have become' like what a generally question. Think about it though….. take a few minutes and think of what it means to be 'becoming' verses 'having become' and just think as hard as your brain will go without blowing up. I'm sure you need a few minutes to absorb all you have read so far so I'll wait………
Okay, so it's been a few minutes now right? What do you think? (this is a part where you can make comments to me at the bottom on the page if you would like). What I took out of this was that we are always becoming, we are always learning, we are always evolving, we are always changing, but more importantly on a greater scale. Our WORLD is always changing, evolving, and growing, so it is up to the human race to take it and run with it right? Which is why we need educators to teach students how to do this developmental process. Kind of cool to think about in the grand scheme of things right? The saying "the children are our future" although incredibly cheesy, it is incredibly true. I'm sure there are exceptions to my feelings about education (such as Steve Jobs and other successful college dropouts), but we have to prepare the next generation so they are ready and knowledgeable of how to improve on what we left behind for them and so on.
So, by now I'm sure you are probably thinking…..
The last thing I want to touch on is a specific person that is incredibly significant to the education field, and that man is John Dewey, here's a picture of him..
What a little cutie right? He was very important to the education field and part of the reason we are where we are today. He was sort of the father for this idea of a democratic school system (not to mention a genius philosopher and psychologist. Part of what he believes is that rather shoving information into a students brain and expecting them to regurgitate it in a form of a test, is just really not very accurate or helpful in a child's learning. Dewey says that we cannot just feed them this information, rather that we will use all the tools from one student and use those to the full capacity when society if ready. So from "My Pedagogic Creed" there are 5 articles that are: 1. What Edication is 2. What the School is 3. The Subject-matter of education 4.The Nature of Method 5. The School and Social Progress (School Journal vol. 54, January 1897) I really wish that I could go into further depth about this, and because of that I have decided to hold off until my next blog to talk about Dewey because really I can't just chalk everything up into one paragraph.
Next blog, I want to discuss something that might be a little touchy, but necessary, and that is segregation, and privilege. I will also discuss the No Child Left Behind Act, because again guys, I just have way too much to say on that and I feel like I have already exhausted this blog.
Thanks for reading and please comment or give me some kind of feedback!!!!!!!
Stay Beautiful
No comments:
Post a Comment