Saturday, February 21, 2009

Brown vs. Board of Education + Savage Inequalities

Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas is what reversed Plessy vs. Ferguson. The law was that the white and black people could be separate, as long as they had something of their own that would be equal to what the other had. For example, bathrooms, schools, restaurants, etc. In Brown vs. Board of Education, the separate but equal law was found to be inherently unequal. Brown sued the Board of Education because they wouldn't let his daughter go to the white schools, even though they were a lot closer to home than the black schools were. The education for the white people was very private and taught by private groups, where as the education for black people was almost nonexistent, and in some states, even forbidden. Separating young kids because of their race gives them a feeling of inferiority in society and will most likely affect their hearts and minds. Today, education is a right that is made available to everyone on equal terms (or should be anyways)

In the text Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools, the author argues that American schools are even more segregated now than they were back in 1954. The author describes his experiences as a teacher, when he visited countless different schools in different cities/places in America. There were never specific ones, he just went wherever he knew people. Most of his experiences in these schools were bad ones. The kids were not getting proper education, if you could call what they were getting education at all. There were not enough teachers for the amount of kids, barely any learning materials, and not even enough room in a classroom for all the students. I couldn't believe what I was reading throughout this whole text. It amazes me that these poor children have to go through all that pain and uncomfortableness in order to learn what it is they learn. So many kids drop out because they have no motivation and it doesn't matter to them at all whether they are getting an education or not. I found this article to be very sad and I really wish there was something that could be done to improve these school systems and help these poor kids get the education they deserve.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Chapter 5 - American Education: European Heritage and Colonial Experience

After reading Chapter 5, I was completely...speechless. There was so much information that it was hard to retain the most important parts. Personally, I find history really boring and hard to remember all the different aspects. The biggest thing I learned in this chapter was that our education today has evolved a lot and has come a long way since the "Ancient Societies". There are a lot of different, yet important, people who influenced education in many ways and at many different times in history. For example, Socrates (Education in Ancient Societies), Thomas Aquinas (Education in the Middle Ages), John Calvin (Education During the Reformation), Friedrich Frobel (Later European Educational Thought), and many, many more. I found out what a bunch of new terms meant, such as: humanism, naturalism, hornbook, dame schools, and many others as well. Another interesting point is that Christianity (or religion in general) had a huge impact on education and society. The five steps that Johann Herbart followed to plan his classes (preparation, presentation, association, generalization, application) are still very similar to the way we plan our classes now a days. The first education laws were that selectmen from each town had to go around in houses and check up on the children, make sure their parents are teaching them what they are supposed to be taught. Girls could attend dame schools, but most of them received very minimal education. There is a lot more information given in this chapter, it is hard to narrow it down. Overall, after having read this chapter, I feel a lot more educated on the history of our education today.

~Dano~

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Chapter 4 - The Impact of Educational Theories on Educational Practice

This chapter talks about the different theories of education. There are six main ones: Perennialism, Progressivism, Behaviourism, Essentialism, Social Reconstructionism and Postmodernism. For each of these six theories we learn about general information, their purpose of schooling, the nature of their learner, their curriculum, their instructional methods, their classroom management, their assessments, the way their teachers are and their leading educational proponents. There is a lot of information about every single one of these theories in the chapters. At the end of the chapter, the authors ask the reader which theory they can most relate too. Just like the philosophies, I still haven't quite decided which theory I can most relate too. I'm hoping the more I learn in this class, the clearer it will be for me. It is not necessary to fit clearly into one theory/philosophy, because most of them somehow overlap each other. Even taking bits and pieces of a few of them and putting them together could possibly create a great teaching method. I also learnt that the theories are constantly changing due to economic, social and political climates. With all this new knowledge, I can't wait to start figuring things out for my own teaching career!

~Dano~