Chapter 5: Building an Educational Philosophy in a Changing World.

This chapter was about the many teacher or student center education philosophies, classroom management options, and teachers’ role of change for society. The three philosophies that are teacher-centered are: essentialism, behaviorism, perennialism and positivism. Essentialism believes that there is a set of knowledge and skills that a person must acquire in order to be a functional member of a society. Behaviorism states that an individual’s actions are determined by the environment, so a teacher who subscribes to this theory would have their classroom set up in a specific way, with not a poster or chair in the wrong place. Perennialism says that there are specific knowledge and guiding principles that are equally relevant throughout time. Humans are rational beings therefore they must learn how to think and achieve cultural literacy. Positivism believes that every thing in the world can be explained by rules and laws of matter; any sort of spirituality has no place. Student-centered teaching philosophies are: progressivism, humanism, reconstructionism, and constructivism. Progressivism is propelled by students’ questions and these ideas should be tested by experiments. Humanism believes that humans are essentially good and focus should be on developing that in an individual and not on the group. Reconstructionism is about understanding social problems, learning in and about diversity and multicultural issues, and taking responsibility for the choice the students’ have in the future to improve injustices in the world. Constructivism is based on creating personal meaning and connection to material or information through activities and hands on situations. This uses real life applications as a main component of learning because there can be multiple solutions to contemporary problems. Also students choose to solve the problem that makes the most sense to their way of thinking, it is individualized. The chapter also presented different ways to set up a classroom, assess, motivate, and how much voice students are given. The last part was about a teacher’s role in society, whether a teacher should help students adapt to change, a teacher should be a catalyst in social change, or rationally mediate the tension between the individual and society.

I connected to reconstructionism and constructivism the most of all the philosophies. A main reason was that they were student centered. I liked the aspect of reconstructionism that deals with talking about social issues and multiculturalism in the class. I also want my students to understand that humans have a ability to destroy each other but they don’t and to be able to answer some of the big questions in life. I liked constructivism because I believe if a student has a personal connection to the material it will be remembered later. Students learn material through hands on experiences and simulations. I understand that the facts are important in history but I also know that it is a ‘social science.’ I want to balance the need to show that history is about people as a whole in society and with the need to recognize my students as individuals whose voice can be heard.

Classroom Discipline

The group with Jason, Cara, and Kirsten presented the issue of classroom discipline. Cara talked about the history. Originally classrooms were set up with students getting one on one attention with the teacher and the rest of the class was unsupervised. In order to keep the class on task fear tactics were used such as physical beatings for punishment if a student misbehaved. Corporal punishment was banned in most places in the United States by the 19th century. The next style of discipline was Bureaucratic. This style was very impersonal and teachers appointed students that were the best to be a ‘monitor’ and make sure the rest of the class behaved. Students were seated according to achievement so students could learn at an early age that achievers would make it in the world and those in the back would not. Humiliation tactics were used to keep students in line. Another style developed around the same time was soft-pedagogy. This style was very personal with the classroom functioning almost like a family. Students obey the teacher because of the guilt of disappointing the teacher. The teacher was seen as a parental figure capable of bestowing or withholding affection depending on the students’ behavior. The post-progressive movement saw the role of the teacher as an expert instead of a parental figure. Student teacher relationships turned into professional/client relationships. In this system students were either punished or rewarded immediately after the action. In this consumer society students and adults are used to instant gratification so schools decided to mirror that connection with discipline. How the students behave has a lot to do with what is expected of them by the teacher. Teachers’ styles fall along a continuum that starts with laissez-faire to authoritarian. A laissez-faire teacher is one that is very relaxed and simply gives off the vibe that he or she doesn’t care what the students do. An authoritarian teacher has everything the students do down to the minute and if students stray from the plan they are punished. I think the best way is to have structure but also allow students freedom with in reason. Students tend to invest more in the class if they feel they are a part of the process and are included in the decision making whenever possible. They then feel ownership of the class. This is called judicious discipline. Of course the best possible classroom management style is withitness. Withitness is when a teacher knows exactly what is going on in his or her classroom at all times. This is commonly referred to as having eyes in the back of one’s head. In this system a teacher can intervene before a situation because an issue.

I think that the group presented a lot of useful information. The history of discipline in classrooms was very interesting because I had always been under the impression that corporal punishment had been used as the standard method until modern day methods were introduced. In some places it still occurs but most places had banned it by the 19th century. I hope someday I might acquire withitness but obviously that takes time and practice.

Empowerment

Pgs. 309-347

This is the last section in this book. I think before reading this last chapter I thought since most of the book was about empowering teachers this section would be too. I did not get that impression though. It was kind of an overview of different situations of students and what ends up happening to them. The first story I chose was about Ramiro. Ramiro had been in 8th grade for the past three years and could not move on to high school until he had passed the standardized test. The teacher in the story worked really hard with him and when the results came in for the test he had not passed. There was a make up test date and so Ramiro was assigned to a class to study for the make up test date. Again he took the test and this time he passed. Ramiro thanked the teacher. I chose this story because it wasn’t as simple as Ramiro tried a little bit and then passed the test. Ramiro also learned that lesson that sometimes your best isn’t enough unless you actually learn the material. But three weeks later he passed. He didn’t give up even when faced with adversity. I think that is why the story stood out to me. The second story I chose was about Dejuan. The teacher in the story basically Dejuan held his hand and helped in graduate. He was close to completing but his parents had kicked him out so he was couch hopping and had lost motivation. Through this teacher’s help Dejuan graduated. None of Dejuan’s family was there even though he was the first in his family to graduate high school. The teacher in the narrative continued to wonder to herself if she had done everything she could. The biggest lesson I learned from this section was that once the teacher had done everything and the students left the class there was nothing more to be done. The teacher had to let the students go, to fly on their own. I think I might struggle with this my first few years of teaching, letting my students go once they are finished in my class.

Philosophy: Reaction: idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism.

I realized from the discussion we had in class that I am not really a pragmatist at all in my teaching philosophy. I definitely believe that there is no universal knowledge or information set that every student everywhere should know. I also believe that information is changing constantly and students need to know how to problem solve. However I realized I leaned more toward existentialist teachings because I think its important for students to understand the world for themselves. I also am a pessimistic person and I think that the world I generally chaotic. Good people some times have bad things happen to them and bad people get away with crimes all the time. The only justice is man made justice which is inherently flawed. So I believe I should empower my students with the skills and tools they need to survive in an unfair, chaotic, and at times cruel world.

Chapter 4: Philosophy: Idealism, Realism, Pragmatism, Existentialism

By reading chapter 4 in “Foundations of American Education,” I learned a significant amount about 4 major philosophies: idealism, realism, pragmatism, and existentialism. Idealism holds that there is an absolute truth or higher authority on what is knowledge or worth knowing. Idealists believe that the focus of life is in the mind and that reality is spiritual. Realists also believe there is an absolute truth but that the focus of life is the body and reality is the physical universe around us. Both theories believe that true ideas that were relevant thousands of years ago are relevant to today, time is of no object, and truth is truth. Pragmatism believes that the world is continually changing and evolving. There is no absolute spiritual truth or universal natural laws governing or directing the world. Idealism and realism focus on a set of facts or information people should know; pragmatism focuses on using information and problem solving with it. Since there is no knowledge that is constant, the way a pragmatist understands the world is that knowing occurs by the transaction of information between the questioner and the environment. It is in the process of applying knowledge that is gained by experience. Existentialists basically believe in nothing. There is no absolute truth, spiritual or natural, nor is change a fact either. The only reality is the one that is the lived experience of the individual. What is worth knowing is what an individual thinks of the world and his or herself. Everything a person does is based on a choice, including the choice of refusing to choose. The ability to make a choice that is personally satisfying is the ultimate goal of the existentialist.

I think I’m a pragmatist. Idealists and realists seem quite closed minded and I don’t like that approach to life at all. I understand that there are skills every person should acquire in order to be able to exist in society. I do not think that everyone should have to know the same things because people need to specialize in order for our economy to work. Also ideas and knowledge that were relevant a long time ago for the most part have nothing to do with the realities of life today. Especially in the fields such as science, math, and health, there are new discoveries every year that changes what is known about the world. In some of these discoveries what was held as truth a long time ago is proven to be false. I like the idea that knowledge is only useful if we can solve day to day problems with it. Discovery and experience is an important part of pragmatist thought. I know that I believe facts about a situation much more intensely than if the information is simply relayed to me. I like the reflective piece of existentialism but as a whole the philosophy is quite hopeless sounding. So I don’t think it quite applies to me.

Multicultural Issues

The first group to present their lesson talked about race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation. Kayla focused on including and incorporating learning about different cultures everyday not just on a specific day or unit. Multicultural day or black history month or a unit on Native Americans does not give an accurate picture of how an individual’s culture affects their everyday life. Having different cultures represented in the décor of the classroom, mentioned in the lesson, or by using texts written by people of other cultures are all suggestions. Kim talked about sexual orientation or sexual attraction. The most important point she stressed was having a classroom that accepts everyone. Sexualities other than heterosexual are not a new phenomenon. The forwardness and openness of the issue is very recent however. Students are coming from homes with varying views of the issue, with some not as tolerant as others. Walking a thin line between offending a student’s personal beliefs on the issue by calling the student out on their rude or intolerant behavior and informing them of the necessity that everyone has the same right to their beliefs as that student will be a difficult task but a critical one. Lizzie talked about gender stereotypes and issues. She showed us a book “I’m glad I’m a girl. I’m glad I’m a boy.” Apparently it was written as a satire of society but it was not taken that way and subsequently banned from many places and is now out of print. However, some of the stereotypes are not too far from the mark. Gender is still important to recognize if only to be aware and actively combat imposing personal and societal stereotypes on your students.

I thought the group did very well. The visuals/movies/technology was relevant, interesting, and further supported the points made in the presentation. Each group member seemed well prepared and presented the material in a manner easily understood by the audience. Most of what they said I knew but on a level where I could vaguely attempt to re-explain it to someone else. Their presentation made the ideas a lot clearer and gave me concrete goals on which to focus.

1980-2004

From 1980-2004 many people realized that public education needed to be reformed in some way. How to best do that is still up for debate today. The document that brought national attention to the situation or ‘crisis’ as the article says was A Nation at Risk. Basically what the article said was that America was experiencing unilateral educational disarmament and that if a foreign power had done to us what we have done to ourselves it would be an act of war. Economy is not a global one and America now needs citizens who can compete with the foreign market. The reason why America has fallen is because of the schools. Ronald Reagan championed strengthening local control of schools and decreasing federal funding for them. He wanted to increase competition in school. Public schools should compete at the same level with private enterprise and that the reason public education was not meeting standards was because the government held a monopoly. Public education was selling something that no one wanted. In the end school should be about one thing: the bottom line. In education the solution is high stakes testing and the bottom line are test scores. Without competition schools feel no pressure to raise student test scores and achievement.
In east Harlem there was an educational experiment. In one school district students was divided into 52 different schools within existing buildings. Each school emphasized different things like music, math, or discipline. Students chose which school they wanted to attend. Based on the performance of the students in academic achievement schools added students or were closed altogether.
In 1992 ‘choice’ was introduced as a new solution. Students could choose which schools they wanted to attend and their tuition would be paid by the public. But there were so few alternative schools and even fewer that could get there so little changed.
Other solutions were magnet schools which basically was save the best of everyone from diverse backgrounds and bring them together because a particular common interest. In 1990 President George Bush enacted vouchers that allowed low income students to go to private nonreligious paid for by tax payers. A problem arose because many private schools are religiously affiliated but the government has always been very clear about the separation of church and state. No public funds are allowed to support a religious affiliated school. Another movement was led by the Christian right to home school children. They succeed. It is legal to home school children in all 52 states. The EAI tried to run a school based as a business but the students did not do well. So it was a failed experiment. The lesson learned from this situation is that competition is important. The free market is not a perfect mechanism in public schools. The vast majority of students still depend on public education. Unfortunately the bar is being raised while schools are overcrowded, underfunded, and teachers undertrained. However, on the whole public education is a success. In 2000-2001 47.8 million students are in the public school system which makes up 90% of America’s children. The real test is to have excellent with equity. Not only to have them both but to have the sense that they are connected, you can’t have one without the other.

I know I wrote a lot in the summary section but that is because this is all so recent and relevant to where the educational situation is today and where it is headed. It is clear that our students do not match the test scores of other students in other countries. Something obviously needs to be done about this if America is to remain at the top of the totem pole in the world economy. What is to be done no one is sure. I suppose different solutions will be tried until one is found that works.

1770-1890

This country was founded on religious freedom. To some that freedom meant freedom from the dominant religion of Europe and free to indoctrinate the people of this country to the ‘right’ or their religion, which was protestant. The public school system was set up by Protestants so naturally this is the religion promoted by the schools. Texts books had catholic and Irish slurs within them. Many other forms of discrimination existed also. Blacks were not allowed to have an education; if they did attain it then they were punished severely. At first women were allowed only a few years of education. A movement changed that fact and the new popular opinion was that women were especially suited to be teachers. Only single women were allowed to be teachers. Once a teacher got married she would have to give up her career to take care of her family. The first person to suggest free public schooling was Thomas Jefferson. He believed that since our country is a democracy the masses needed education in order to effectively choose their leaders. He put forth a bill for each child to receive 3 years of free public school education paid for by tax payers. At this time the countries had just finished fighting a war and were heavily taxed already in order to pay that debt off. They were not interested in paying for anything extra. Another major leader in education was Horace Mann who championed what were called common schools. Common schools were free of charge to the students and their families. He also standardized schools with such items as chairs with backs, blackboards, and a curriculum. Eventually free public education was available to those families that could provide their children transportation to school and who could spare them from the family farm or other means of employment. Out west each town could apply to be recognized only when they had a formal school house, a teacher, and could fund it. Each state included in their constitution guidelines about free public education for their citizens before it the state was granted statehood.

On one hand I’m not surprised that free public education was not available to everyone at the beginning of our country. Many people held deep seated racism, others held on tightly to their money, and still others felt education was for the elite and a privilege not afforded to common people. On the other hand in my mind education is completely bonded to my idea of what is American. To be American is to be able to gain status, wealth, and privilege through hard work, knowledge, and a little luck. Education has always been a critical part of that ascent. It just seems funny that it was not always the case

Rejuvenation

Pgs 247-308

The story of the boy named Manie was very intense I thought. I think that was because I did not expect any of what happened. It went from just one of her students winning a drawing contest to an important change of thought/heart for Manie for the rest of his life. I know that some families still harbor racist feelings and thoughts and pass them down to their children but it’s a back of the mind kind of knowledge. Not the kind anyone wants to be confronted with. Without this experience Manie might have continued to grow up and hold onto the beliefs of his parents. He would perpetuate that misinformed line of thinking to his own children. This was a powerful piece and I’m sure an experience the teacher and Manie will not forget.

The ‘rock star’ teacher excerpt was quite interesting to me. Sometimes when a teacher does well he or she starts to believe it has all been figured out. Perhaps at times the goal is to ‘figure it out.’ Figure out how to discipline the students effectively, keep them engaged, and aid the strugglers. Everyone once in a while these teachers need a wake up call that reminds them they aren’t the best. My dad once told me that there will always be someone better than me but on the other side there will always be someone worse too. I think he meant for me to keep my head up but never get too cocky. At least this teacher realized that she did have something to learn at the conference instead of continuing to sulk the entirety of the trip.

A Nation At Risk

Abstract
The article, “A Nation at Risk, 1983,” states simply that the education of our young people is not what it used to be and that times have changed. The world has now changed to a global economy. The United States can no longer be at the forefront of industry simply because it has the most raw material resources. The new kind of resource is the people. The economy has changed from a goods economy to a service economy. It is no longer enough to have a few elite scientists to keep a country on top. Schools are concerned more about reaching the minimum requirement instead of putting the bar at the maximum requirement and letting students reach for that. The article also suggests that we promote as an important aspect of our culture the idea of lifelong learning. We have the institutions and museums to accomplish this goal we just need a shift in societal thinking. We have the ability to be better but the standardized test scores shows stead decline. The attitude of the public is that education is still one of the most important aspects of our lives as American citizens and what our tax dollars should be spent on. Education should be at the top of the nation’s agenda.
In the follow up article published 25 years later, it interviewed the writer and another influential teacher. The writer firmly believes that the article helped inspire the change needed at just the right time. The book was published as Reagan was attempting to cut federal funding for public education and privatize schools. Nowadays more money is being spent on education and more qualified teachers are in the schools. The other teacher that was interviewed said the book went too far and it was an unnecessary and sensationalized attack on the condition of public education.

Reflection
The first article was quite harsh on the condition of high school graduates. Besides startling numbers of students unable to do simple tasks as complicated math problems and writing a persuasive essay, the overall impression was that graduates were not ready for college or the work force. The main goal of education is to ready its graduates to meet the world and achieve relative success. Obviously that goal was not being met according to the article. I have no doubt some teachers felt threatened and abused by it. It is not a pleasant thing to read that other people have researched and called you out on not doing your job effectively. Change did occur and I suppose things are better now. I do know that more rigorous tests/ requirements for certification are imposed and not just anyone can be a teacher. This is not a bad change in my mind because I would not want a loosely qualified doctor to be making decision about my well being, health, and future. Just as important, a loosely qualified teacher could negatively affect a student’s achievement, goals, and future. Things may look different 25 years from now.