Extra Post about class on November 29, 2010
In class today, we were asked the question, is education political and how. Before we discussed anything about it, my first instinct was no, education isn't political at all. It didn't take long into discussing for me to realize that I was wrong. Education is very political and in many ways. My group came up with three different ways. One way that education is political is by the structure of the school. Power and ranking is very political and in a school, you have a superintendent above a principal. The principal is about the teachers and the teachers are above the students. There is clearly a rank system in education and in all schools.
Another extremely important thing in schools is a curriculum. The "higher ranks" get to decide what should or what shouldn't be on the curriculum. They get to choose basically what they think is important for the future generations to know. Teachers have the potential to mold students and create their idea of "model citizens." Since teachers are above the students and have that political power, they can alter the curriculum to best suit his or her own classroom. Teachers are also in charge of how they teach the material given. They can use whatever method they want to and it can either benefit the teacher, students, or both. The problem with that is trying to figure out what works for both the teacher and students.
The last way my group thought that education is political is by the funding. Schools and states are constantly competing to be the best and receive the highest test scores in order to receive the funding. Politics mainly focus and work around money and education does as well. When schools compete for funding, it also affects the way teachers may go about their classwork. Instead of having an interactive classroom, the teachers may feel as though they need to drill the information into the students heads and make them memorize it.
After our class discussion, I realized that I was definitely wrong. Education is very political and with the classes input, we came up with a lot of different ways. I thought this discussion was very important to have as teachers "in the making." It is very important for us to know the ins and outs of teaching and not just the basics. Not only do we have to care about our jobs as teachers, but we have to realize that we are carving the minds of students so they can be successful in the future.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Talking Points #10 Shor
"Empowering Education"
Ira Shor
Quotes:
1. "The deficiency is the curriculum in schools, which he saw as a one-way transmission of rules and knowledge from teacher to students, stifling their curiosity. People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not, as is commonly supposed, politically neutral. It cuts off the students; development as critical thinkers about their world. If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted." I couldn't agree more with this quote. All of this of when I read this is when I was in high school and we were always forced to read books that we were never interested in. The teachers are given a curriculum to follow and it doesn't matter if we want to learn about it or not. One of my teachers at the beginning of the year asked us some books that we would want to read that were popular. That was the smartest thing she could have ever done because we always tried to do all the work without even laying a finger on the books. If you take things that students will be interested in, they will enjoy learning it and want to learn more.
2. "Human beings do not invent themselves in a vacuum, and society cannot be made unless people create it together. The goals of his pedagogy are to relate personal growth to public life, by developing strong skills, academic knowledge, habits of inquiry, and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality and change." The goals of his pedagogy make complete sense. People develop, grow, and learn from the influences around them. If a baby was left alone, it would grow up not knowing how to talk, interact, walk, etc. because there wouldn't be anyone around for him to learn from. Society makes us who we are today and it basically has molded us and will continue to mold us until we are no longer around.
3. "Participation provides students with active experiences in class, through which they develop knowledge that is reflective understanding, not mere memorization. Further, participation sends a hopeful message to students about their present and future; it encourages their achievement by encouraging their aspirations. They are treated as responsible, capable human beings who should expect to do a lot and do it well, an affective feature of the empowering classroom..." There is nothing more important then an interactive classroom. That is why participation should be encouraged and used all of the time in classrooms. Children will learn or be more willing to learn if they are having fun participating and communicating. If they are not allowed to speak their mind and chime in once and awhile, they will have no ambition or drive to pay attention.
This Empowering Education article has basically tied in everything we have learned throughout the course of the semester. There are bits and pieces in this article that I could probably relate to the other nine articles we read in class. Shor focuses on "critical teaching for social change." I agreed with pretty much everything stated in his article about teachers having the capability to make these students into something great. The different teaching methods are important and it is important to be creative and have a high-energy classroom. Children will learn from their society and by participating and questioning. However, in a lot of classrooms, children are not given this freedom to converse freely about questions they may have or observations. It is hard for children to learn to think freely if they are always told to be quiet and not to participate. I remember being so bored in my classes where we weren't allowed to communicate and we were "talked at." It is hard even in college for me to pay attention to professors if they are simply lecturing us and not interacting with us...I can only imagine how children feel in elementary school when their minds are so young.
Ira Shor
Quotes:
1. "The deficiency is the curriculum in schools, which he saw as a one-way transmission of rules and knowledge from teacher to students, stifling their curiosity. People are naturally curious. They are born learners. Education can either develop or stifle their inclination to ask why and to learn. A curriculum that avoids questioning school and society is not, as is commonly supposed, politically neutral. It cuts off the students; development as critical thinkers about their world. If the students' task is to memorize rules and existing knowledge, without questioning the subject matter or the learning process, their potential for critical thought and action will be restricted." I couldn't agree more with this quote. All of this of when I read this is when I was in high school and we were always forced to read books that we were never interested in. The teachers are given a curriculum to follow and it doesn't matter if we want to learn about it or not. One of my teachers at the beginning of the year asked us some books that we would want to read that were popular. That was the smartest thing she could have ever done because we always tried to do all the work without even laying a finger on the books. If you take things that students will be interested in, they will enjoy learning it and want to learn more.
2. "Human beings do not invent themselves in a vacuum, and society cannot be made unless people create it together. The goals of his pedagogy are to relate personal growth to public life, by developing strong skills, academic knowledge, habits of inquiry, and critical curiosity about society, power, inequality and change." The goals of his pedagogy make complete sense. People develop, grow, and learn from the influences around them. If a baby was left alone, it would grow up not knowing how to talk, interact, walk, etc. because there wouldn't be anyone around for him to learn from. Society makes us who we are today and it basically has molded us and will continue to mold us until we are no longer around.
3. "Participation provides students with active experiences in class, through which they develop knowledge that is reflective understanding, not mere memorization. Further, participation sends a hopeful message to students about their present and future; it encourages their achievement by encouraging their aspirations. They are treated as responsible, capable human beings who should expect to do a lot and do it well, an affective feature of the empowering classroom..." There is nothing more important then an interactive classroom. That is why participation should be encouraged and used all of the time in classrooms. Children will learn or be more willing to learn if they are having fun participating and communicating. If they are not allowed to speak their mind and chime in once and awhile, they will have no ambition or drive to pay attention.
This Empowering Education article has basically tied in everything we have learned throughout the course of the semester. There are bits and pieces in this article that I could probably relate to the other nine articles we read in class. Shor focuses on "critical teaching for social change." I agreed with pretty much everything stated in his article about teachers having the capability to make these students into something great. The different teaching methods are important and it is important to be creative and have a high-energy classroom. Children will learn from their society and by participating and questioning. However, in a lot of classrooms, children are not given this freedom to converse freely about questions they may have or observations. It is hard for children to learn to think freely if they are always told to be quiet and not to participate. I remember being so bored in my classes where we weren't allowed to communicate and we were "talked at." It is hard even in college for me to pay attention to professors if they are simply lecturing us and not interacting with us...I can only imagine how children feel in elementary school when their minds are so young.
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