Week 9 - Anthology Ch. 9 & 11

“The teacher presents himself to his students as their necessary opposite; by considering their ignorance absolute, he justifies his own existence” (Anthology P.92)

This quote is referring to the banking method of teaching; in this ideology knowledge is considered to be a gift to the student. This is a very top down approach and bothers me quite a bit because I know from experience no one like to be talked down to, immediately just based on the style a large portion of the class will not be paying attention. This method of teaching undermines the student’s ability to be an active participant in their education instead of a “bucket” for knowledge, effectively making them non thinkers.

“Translated into practice, this concept is well suited for the purpose of the oppressors, whose tranquility rests on how people fit the world the oppressors have created and how little they question it.” (Anthology P.95)

The banking method in schools helps the oppressors set up the student to be an active part of the oppressor’s world instead of their own. The method promotes non-questioning, which to me is one of the essential parts of being human. Isn’t it our natural ability to wonder that allowed us to develop to where we are today? And shouldn’t we be afraid that a group of people are effectively taking that away from our future, I feel that our generation is barley involved with politics as it is to think that generations to come won’t even have the ability to question is scary.

“The revolutionary society which practices banking education is either misguided or mistrusted of the people. In either event, it is threatened by the specter of reaction” (Anthology P.97)

This statement helps to supports what I said above, it may have taken a few generations but finally America is dumb. No one ever wanted the public to be informed, who could be now a days? The monster is so big and the young Americans can’t read and don’t care.  Even when you think of it like this, there is a part of me that thinks that it injustice like this can’t possibly run this deep…but it’s equally as possible.

“They must abandon the educational goal of deposit-making and replace it with the posing problems of human beings in their relationship with the world. “Problem-Posing” education”(Anthology P.97)

It was interesting to see it put this way, “Problem-Posing” education the kids grow up learning based on what is relevant in their lives. There is nothing more relevant then the problems we face and will face as a society. In that there is schooling built in, math, science, English, technology, history, the arts, it’s all relevant and useful. I believe that a method like this would create excitement about education among the students because it would be an active education, they feel invested and they understand why they are learning what they are learning.

“So while I have heard a lot over thirty years about teaching competency and merit pay. I have yet to hear a sincere effort to acknowledge what is the essence of great teaching” (Anthology P.113)

I’m not even a teacher yet and I know exactly what he is talking about, teaching is a combination of an art and a science. With that combination it becomes difficult to quantify a way to “assess” the teacher merit based pay sounds nice, but this is a sport where you can follow stats or be able to watch every performance and determine ones “worth”. With so many teachers and the rapid pass of the year there is no way to be able to sit in enough to determine something like if the test scores actually reflects the teachers doing, not to mention all the other factors that should be considered about test scores. 

“No standardized test for students can ever inform us of the teacher’s enthusiasm, caring, or belief that students can be successful-three factors that have an enormous effect on student achievement and self-esteem” (Anthology P114)

Jackpot! Exactly how I feel it’s like in coaching your team can be 1 – 15 but that doesn’t mean the season is a lose, no no no a lot was learned, if the kids had fun, learned, and got better then the season was a success. A test score doesn’t say much about how far a group has come, everyone moves at their own pace. Education shouldn’t be using these big tests to measure anything. We all have special talents and it should be a teacher or coach’s job to bring that out, to bring out the best that any individual student has to offer!

Week 8 Folder: Diamond & Miner

“Our ideas of how to teach come mostly from a five-week summer training institute that promises to give new recruits the tools they will need to be successful teachers.”

(Diamond P.1)

This to me is laughable and I’m not a teacher yet, I can only imagine what a certified veteran teacher thinks of this statement. It takes four years of college to get state certified plus a masters and at least five years of teaching before becoming a master teacher. TFA is not a solution for failing schools in poor areas, to me it seems like they are using the misfortune to profit in terms of their career and wallets.  

“These sessions seemed designed to prepare a mostly privileged and 70 percent white group of teachers for communities that are starkly different from their own experience. (According to the TFA website, 90 percent of the students of TFA teachers are low income African Americans and Latinos.)” (Diamond P.5)

This to me is so bad, how is ANYONE supposed to make a difference in two years when they don’t know anything about the community and student body. After two years I would imagine that a teacher would only begin to understand these things and then be able to alter their teaching style accordingly. Two years is just enough time to do nothing, accept make some money in a bad market and a great résumé builder.

“As TFA founder Kopp writes in her memoir, from the very beginning she was “baffled” at the idea that “teachers, just like doctors and lawyers, needed to be trained in campus-based graduate programs before entering the classroom. . . . How could Teach for America do anything but raise teaching standards? We were talking about recruiting the most talented graduates in the country to teach. Where was the conflict?” (Miner P.4)

This just makes me made as I said earlier in this blog “It takes four years of college to get state certified plus a masters and at least five years of teaching before becoming a master teacher.” And I really believe that, teachers need ever expanding education just like doctors and lawyers its silly to think otherwise. There is an art / science to teaching, just because someone is good at something or even masters it, does NOT mean they can teach it. In my experience it’s the exact opposite.

“At the same time, some union members worry that administrators are using TFA to hand-pick staff and get rid of teachers they may not like, especially higher paid teachers with seniority.” (Miner P.5)

This is what I fear most, TFA isn’t really governed and there is no talk of a union so how do educated certified teachers avoid the sexy appeal of cheap, young, energetic new teachers. Teachers that do not ask questions and just do what they are told is exactly what is needed so that people in power can force their values and opinions.

“Nor does it ask hard questions about the relationship between the achievement gap and problems of segregation, poverty, and an unemployment rate among African American men that hovers around 50 percent in some urban communities.” (Miner P.12)

This is a huge issue in education, arguably the footing for all the major issues in education. To not address these issues is to not be a contributing part of the growth of education. TFA is simply a stepping stone in a career path and it simply uses the misfortune of others. To put people with now knowledge or background of the way their students grow up is not fair to the students. I know that there are many times that teachers don’t grow up in the same setting where these poor schools are, a real teacher doesn’t have to leave after two years he/she can grow with the community and really understand the student body.

The 990 also broke down the $523,475 that TFA spent on political lobbying in

2008, within the allowable limit for a 501(c)3. (Miner P.15)

Lobbying in my opinion should have no spot in government; there is now one with deep pockets lobbying for the average person. For the same reason there should not be lobbying that effect education because it simply makes it an unfair fight. There are many well educated educators with plenty to say about the topics and issues in education today but politicians what to fix everything and assign people with no connection to education to decision making education boards. 

Week 7 - Anthology Ch. 10 19&20

“The mass media like to scoff that current certification requirements would keep Albert Einstein from teaching in the public school...A Nobel Prize does not guarantee excellence in the classroom” (Anthology P.104)

This concept seems to also exist in the politicians minds as well, forcing teaching to the test methods effectively striping away the teacher’s ability to use their education. Time has proven that the politicians and media alike don’t know which way is the right way and keep appointing friends to high education positions. How is it that the people in the profession have close to no say in how education should be done? Dr. Love uses the example of medical and how they follow what is the best in order to do the best job, they go to school for this. Educators also go to many years of school yet teachers don’t seem to have the ability to make decisions or have any say in how it should be done.

“There is no instant, stir-and-serve recipe for running a classroom” (Anthology P.105)

Teachers need to be able to adapt to the students, if it isn’t interesting to them, then it isn’t interesting. This concept means that each year a teacher will need to slightly or dramatically change their approach; you can’t have a template on how to teach there are too many factors to consider. A teacher in a suburb and a teacher an inner city school cannot approach lessons in the same manor you need to consider how the students grew up, values and many others.

“Some schools succeed brilliantly while others stumble and fall. Clearly something more is at work here. (Anthology P.184)

It’s odd how we want to “Race to the top” and be number one but not take into consideration the reality of the situations of the schools that “stumble and fall”. It’s not the teachers, it’s not the parents, it’s not the students but it’s when students are put at such a disadvantage due to circumstances that are not their fault that they slip and fall. Walk a mile in their schools don’t make decisions behind a desk in a suit.

“ We should all work to raise expectations for our children, to reform and restructure schools to prepare all students for a hopeful and powerful future, to drive resources to the neediest communities, to demand successful and wondrous learning environments for everyone, to involve teachers, parents, and communities – the public in public schools – in the discussion of what’s important for kids to know and experience. “ (Anthology P.186)

I think that the a big part of the transformation is first admitting there is a problem, then I believe the next step is to directly involved the community with the school. If we try to put the school at the center of the communities’ activates then the school can start to better understand who their community really is. This information and connection with the community will allow for a deep long term relationship. With this new relationship you can start to reform and restructure and over time a new path will be found. I believe that this must be allowed to happen per community, and is the opposite of national standards.

“Over time, I became aware of students who did poorly on tests but who showed other evidence of learning.” (Anthology P.188)

Yet another reason why standardized testing is a joke. If we have acknowledged different learning styles then why aren’t there different assessment styles? After reading this part I found it very interesting that we don’t do this. I think that this is naturally present in technology education due to the amount of hands on work that is done. It really isn’t about the final product but about the path taken to get there, a lot is learned through the process. It’s also like giving partial credit on math tests; you shouldn’t get the whole problem wrong if the whole process is right with a fudged number.

“That, in turn, helped me develop a conviction that each student In my classes brought strengths to our work and that it was my job to bring those strengths to our work and that it was my job to bring those to the surface so that all of us could benefit.” (Anthology P.193)

I also believe in this, I can speak from coaching experience that you can always use strengths of players to help teach a concept. It also gives students who may feel like they can’t contribute much the ability to just that. When you start to make learning a collaborative effort amongst the class it can create a total class investment in learning, a situation where each student is actively involved in learning. 

Kozol: Chapter 7

“You have to sit down in the little chairs in first and second grade, or on the reading rug with kindergarten kids, and listen to the things they actually say to one another and the dialogue between them and their teachers.” (Kozol P.163)

This paragraph talks about the students overall happiness in school, and how something like that can’t be gauged by achievement levels and scientific methods. I couldn’t agree more, we can’t look at statistics and determine if a student enjoys coming to school. Like Kozol says you need to inject yourself in their day to day and observe these things and I feel that it is more than necessary.  A second pair of eyes could make all the difference in some cases.

“The school received a private grant of $27,000 yearly from a petrochemical corporation know as Kerr-McGee, which amounted to approximately $36 yearly for each pupil. An official of the corporation served as chairman of the governing council of the school, a not uncommon arrangement in low-income schools” (Kozol P.164)

I think that if corporations want to help with school by giving grants and such then great, but I do not think that a member of the corporation should serve as a chairman on the governing school council. Just because someone gave money makes then a professional in education, I don’t think so. Also there is too much influence especially from a petrochemical company; it would be too easy to put nasty chemical factories in these areas, much like the medical waste burner. The problem with corporations is that they are only worried about the bottom dollar, but with that said we have people like Bill Gates out there.

“A psychologist at Harvard University emphasized the interrelationship of art and science with arithmetic and reading and other elements of school instruction” (Kozol P.168)

I’ve said this a few times now but with no real back up, we can’t strip away stuff from the school day and only teach to a test. The students need to experience an array of different things to find out where they stand in this world. I did chorus, played drums and the violin in elementary school, none of which I do today but the point is I had the chance to experience them all. What if I didn’t get to experience a wide array of activities and events in elementary school? I would have had false dreams and perceptions about who I am and what I like.

“I was very scared” wrote a child in the class named Ashley whose friends reported seeing one of the live rats climbing on her chair. “It was hard for me to breath, I asked the teachers to send me to the nurse. “Ashley got sick because” of dead rats wrote another child. (Kozol P.172)

Pretty much this tells me that our restaurants have higher requirements of operation then our schools. This is ridicules, rats really? If I had to deal with all the trials that these kids deal with in and out of school I think rats would be the last straw for me. Why would I want to come to a place dirtier then Chuckey Cheeses? Once again I feel that environment dictates the end result of the student. Put yourself in their shoes, if you had to sit on a book shelf while take being drilled for a standardized test and watching rats crawl into your friends backpacks would you continue to go?

“You can imagine what it does to students when they have no food to eat for an entire day. The school day here at Fremount is eight hours long” (Kozol P.176)

Overcrowded schools mean that classes are taught in storage areas, auditoriums, and trailers. Schools that are under the knife with testing take away recess and other “extras”. Yes these things are obstacles and big ones at that but to not be able to feed a student over the course of a day is absolutely not fair and unacceptable. What if the student wasn’t provided breakfast in the morning at home? Do we expect the kid to perform in the classroom, or to even care about what is being taught when they have no fuel. We didn’t forget that children need to eat right? We didn’t forget that food is a person’s source of fuel did we? Maybe next we should take away sleep, school 24 hours a day.

“I don’t want to take hairdressing. I did not need sewing either. I knew to sew. My mother is a seamstress in a factory. I’m trying to go to college. I don’t need to sew to go to college. My mother sews. I hoped for something else.”

This should sum up exactly why schools need reform, earlier in this chapter Kozol talked about how a principle asked to be demoted because she was physical getting sick from all the stress. Now the environment and track that students get on is clear, and the students see it as a dead end. This student had aspirations of college and the school squashed them. Overcrowded – in my opinion she was looked over and no one tool personal care in her life and her goals, nope just take sewing it’s a requirement. 

Educational Foundations Ch. 5&6, Kozol Ch. 6

“This bureaucratic culture foresters the pervasive assumption that when students misbehave or achieve poorly, they must be “fixed” because the problem inheres in the students of families, not in the social ecology of the school, grade, or classroom.” (Anthology P.64)

No student needs to be fixed. What is the definition of fixed and through whose eyes? It’s a silly concept when you can look at another person and talk about what needs to be “fixed”. Each student is their own and comes from their own life with their own background, culture, family life, social surroundings, etc.  The job of a teacher is not to go around “fixing” students it should be about educating and brooding horizons.

“For example, could the definition of “hyperactivity” that their schools take for granted have something to do with today’s decreased opportunities for physical activity and rest during the school day?” (Anthology P.66)

Forcing students to strict schedules plus the taking away of activity and rest in the school day, makes it feel more like prison. This is just another wall between the school and the student as well this does not help the child obesity rates in the nation, have we thrown health out the window? Is the theory we will educate them about education but do nothing to implement it in their day? This to me is over the top

“Changing the class ecology brought out the creativity and leadership of Veronica’s most troublesome student, Tyrone…using a remarkably effective tool, which he called the Helping Hand” (Anthology P.69)

This quote shows that the student isn’t what needs fixing; it’s the system we use. We need to change our ways to engage and excite the students. What worked for one set of students may not work for the next; you need to do your best to understand your students and not just force feed them your content assuming that it works. Teachers need to morph to help student learning.

“When we acknowledge that there is nothing “wrong” with the urban students or their families or their communities, we must ask if the problem has been in the type of school we have been providing for them.” (Anthology P.162)

Exactly, the system needs to look in on itself and ask if it needs fixing. I think we need to allow districts to make decisions on how education should be run based on the community and populace of the school with no finical or test score pressure. This may take time to develop and I’m sure there are other answers, maybe mine is invalid in all. The point is I think there needs to be a major shift in how schools do school.

“These complex, layered contests influence each other in bi-directional ways. Urban schools are embedded in a much larger context, one that requires multiple sectors of the community acting in concert.” (Anthology P. 162)

This is the hardest obstacle to get around as far as changing the style of schools. There is so much going on in urban communities I couldn’t think of a way to coordinate something like that. I’m sure people want change but where do you start, shuttling kids out off to other districts isn’t the point; It feels like the dismantling of a community. Maybe a good start is to make the school the focus of the town.

“Built to hold 1,800 kids, the school held 3,400. More than 95 percent of the students were black or Hispanic; 1.5 percent was white.” (Kozol P.145)

I could only imagine what a day in a school like this is, it must affect the mid of the learners. An environment like this promotes students to do what they want when they want. Schools should be promoting just the opposite; do you bring a child to a crowded NYC subway for play time? No, because that’s an environment that isn’t fun and engaging. Schools can expect a positive response from the students until they are in a positive setting.