Timeline

Timeline of Events that Influenced My Educational Perspective



Bibliography

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Bryant, Nick. “The Black Man Who Was Crazy Enough to Apply to Ole Miss.” The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (2006): 60-71.


Carilla, Juan F., Victoria-Maria MaDonald and Reynaldo F. Marcias. Bilingual Education. 6 July 2011. .


“Constitutional Law: Schools and School Districts: Power to Classify Chinese as Colored Persons.” California Law Review (1928):346-347.


Darling, John. “A. S. Neil on Democratic Authority: A Lesson from Summerhill?” Oxford Review of Education 18.1 (1992): 45-57.


McCarthy, Teresa L. and K. Tsianina Lomawaima. “When Tribal Sovereignty Challenges Democracy: American Indian Education and the Democratic Ideal.” American Educational Research Journal (2002): 279-305.


Ryor, John. “94-142 – The Perspective of Regular Education.” Learning Disability Quarterly (1978): 6-14.


Sadker, Myra and David Sadker. “Sexism in the Classroom: From grade School to Graduate School.” The Phi Delta Kappan (1986): 512-515.


Spring, Joel. The American School: A Global Context from The Puritans to The Obama Era, Eighth Edition. New York City: McGraw-Hill, 2011.


Stritikus, Tom and Eugene E. Garcia. “Education of Limited English Proficient Students in California Schools: An Assessment of the Influence of Proposition 227 on Selected Teachers and Classrooms.” Bilingual Research Journal (2000): 1-10.


Thernstrom, Abigail and Stephan Thernstrom. America in Black and White: One Nation Indivisible. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 1999.


Wright, Wayne E. “English Language Learners Left Behind in Arizona: The Nullification of Accommodations in the Intersection of Federal and State Policies.” Bilingual Research Journal (2005): 1-29.

Vocational Schools and Incentives

I tend to get the idea that vocational schools have a reputation of being out-dated and aimed toward underachieving students.  While that may be true (or may not be), I think there is a lot of value in the concept of vocational education.  Toya made a very good point when she said that it is something that should be optional.

We discussed in another class that a criticism of vocational education is that we cannot expect students to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives.  I definitely see how this is relevant, but I think there is still a lot to be said for teaching our students in a way that interests them.  If I am a student who does not succeed in the "normal" classroom setting, but I am activey engaged in a vocational setting, I am going to learn more.  Even if I do not stick with that particular vocation for the rest of my life, I still gained experience and learned more than I would have in a classroom.

I also wanted to address the idea of incentives.  I feel like I may have been a little misunderstood in class today.  Incentives can be anything.  For a child with a mom and dad who both work all the time, the incentive could simply be a promise to spend a Saturday with the whole family.  It could be a lollipop.  It could be anything. 

The point is most children are not motivated by "learning for the sake of learning."  We may wish that were the case, but we have to be realistic.  If you tell a 7-year old to learn his times tables because he will need them when he is an adult, that is too far out of sight.  If you tell him you're going to put a gold star with his name on it in the hallway when he learns his times tables, he has a more present incentive.  I do not think there is anything wrong with offering incentives, as long as they lead to a desirable end result. 

I also think it is very important for incentives to remain appropriate.  If a parent gives their child $100 every day to study every night, the child will always expect some sort of bribery, in all areas of their life.  However, if a parent says "we'll go to Cedar Point this summer if you only get A's and B's on your report card," the student may gain a better understanding of how working hard in many areas of life can lead to a positive aggregate outcome.

College-Bound

I can't stop thinking about the idea that our public schools are pushing for students to go to college.  I can think of numerous people who have led successful, healthy lives without going to college... I would also consider them to be very intelligent people.  So why do we push students to go to college?  How did this become the be-all-end-all of education?

I am in no way against getting a college education (clearly).  I simply cannot understand why we adopted this idea that it is absolutely crucial.  There are a million ways to learn and be mindful outside the classroom.  I think it's almost sad that we tend to associate a lack of college education with failure.  Some people just do not thrive in the classroom setting.  I do not necessarily think this means they are less intelligent, mindful, or capable of success.

I also believe it is possible we are moving away from this idea of college as a requirement.  As education becomes more expensive, I think college educations will become less common.  Employers who require a bachelor's today may have to "settle" for employees without a college education.  And they may learn that it's not the end of the world. 

Moving at the Speed of Molasses

Our discussion today really made me wonder what is taking so long for Americans to change our way of thinking.  I cannot understand why everything has to happen in such small doses.

For example, Puerto Ricans were granted the possibility of citizenship in 1917.  Native Americans did not have the same opportunity until 1924.  Same with African Americans.  And we are STILL fighting Mexican imigration.  Why is this such a slow process? Either we are a country that chooses to accept multiple cultures or we are not.

I've been thinking about this in other terms too.  The legalization of gay marriage seems crazy to me because I can't believe it is still even an issue.  We are a country that claims we do not discriminate yet we are telling people they can't get married because of their sexual orientation.  Is that not discrimination?  We are a country that allows for religious freedom.  So why are there policymakers citing the bible as evidence that gay marriage is "wrong"?

Americans are very hypocritical.  There is always a huge divide between what we say we believe and what we do.  We pick and choose too much.  If we say all men are created equal, let's treat all men equally.

I believe the end goal is that we are a country that chooses to be multicultural.  Now, let's get there!

Collaboration

I keep thinking about a girl I went to high school with who had Down's Syndrome.  We'll call her Kelly for the sake of anonymity.  Kelly was in a lot of my classes, and she had an aid that came to every class with her.  However, she was never actually part of any class.  Teachers never called on her.  She didn't take the tests or quizzes.  When we split into groups, Kelly and her aid always qualified as a whole group.

What was the point of having Kelly in the class?  If the teachers and her aid felt that the material was too hard for her, they should have had her somewhere else learning skills that should would actually be able to use.  If they felt that the material was within her comprehension, they should have worked to engage her more.

I can think of numerous other experiences where I encountered behaviors that, frankly, had students wasting their time in classrooms.  There are so many cases where teachers give up on students who do not work hard.  The students would sit in class with their heads on the desk, and sleep until the bell rang.  However, they would go to auto-shop class, and they could practically teach the class.  What was the point of forcing these students to sit through a Calculus class when they were clearly so enamored with and passionate about auto?

I have this very deep belief that the most important aspect of education is collaboration.  I'm sure you have all heard me say this before.  I have been thinking a lot about where this conviction came from.  I'm starting to think I created this idea based on what I have NOT seen in my educational experience. 

Our educational system is aimed at students who intend to go to college.  However, not everybody wants to go to college.  And that's okay.  There are a million ways to contribute, to make money, to be happy, to be intelligent, without going to college.  We need to find a way to accommodate students with a diverse set of goals.

For me, collaboration is the answer to a problem.  Throughout this class, I have formed a very strong opinion that the reason the educational system fails in so many places is that it was not created to accommodate everyone.  When I talk about collaboration in education, it is not limited to a classroom.  I mean there should be collaboration across districts, states, etc...  If we worked together to implement a variety of programs, we may be able to create an educational system everyone benefits from. 

"You don't want to go to college? Okay, what do you want to do?  You want to be a mechanic?  Mayfield had a great vocational program for you! Let's get you signed up!"  All of the sudden, a student who was once wasting his time sleeping in classes is now learning life skills he or she will be able to use passionately.  This, however, will not happen until we work together to discover what students want to learn and how we can make that happen.

As long as we have students in classrooms who are not engaging or collaborating, we have students who are in the wrong place.  We have students who are wasting their time.  We have students who would benefit from learning something else that they believe to be pertinent to their lives.

The Browns and My Education

Yesterday, I started thinking about the teachers that I would want to include on my timeline.  A few came to mind, but one stands out in particular; Kerry Rutigliano. 

I took her English class sophomore year, and I spent every waking moment fearing what my grade would be.  Everybody talked about this class as though it were a "walking on hot coals" class.  Every time she gave us a new assignment, I would get butterflies in my stomach, and I was absolutely sure I was going to fail.  By the end of the assignment, I would think to myself oh, that wasn't so bad.  And on this cycle went throughout the whole year.

By the end of sophomore year, I realized she taught me something much more valuable than the themes present in Orwell's Animal Farm or the character evaluation of Atticus Finch.  She taught me that I am capable of so much more than what I give myself credit for.  If I settle for doing only things that I already know I am good at, I will never get better at anything.

So then, I started thinking about what could have influenced her to want to push her students the way she did.  Kerry Rutigliano is the daughter of Sam Rutigliano, 1978-1984 Cleveland Browns coach.  He is known for instituting the "Inner Circle," which helped about a dozen of his players overcome drug addiction.  He wrote a book called "Presure," in which he explains how everyone is able to handle the pressures in their lives.

Clearly, Kerry Rutigliano came from a family that has a deep understanding of facing pressures, overcoming them, and growing from the experience.  This is very clear in her classroom, and I believe this idea has had an immense impact on my educational career.

Libertarian Me

I have been thinking a lot lately about how my political views affect my educational perspective.  I consider myself to be something of a Libertarian.  My social views tend to be liberal, while my fiscal views tend to be very conservative. 

It's hard for me to find a happy medium as it pertains to education.  The socially liberal side of me thinks everyone should have equal opportunity when it comes to education.  The idea that many students receive sub-par education because of where they were born just does not seem right.

The fiscal conservative in me says, "who's going to pay for it?"  We want to improve the educational system while simultaneously trying to find some sense of equality.  We have discussed that improved education involves more mindfulness than absolute knowing.  It involves a more noble goal than economic prosperity in the community.  This is going to get expensive.  And who is going to pay for it?  If we try to grow schools, while possibly decreasing the economic goal, who is going to be willing to pay?  I personally would not feel comfortable with my tax dollars going into a school system that employs any goal other than economic growth.

This class has allowed me to explore many ideas I did not spend much time thinking about.  I find myself more confused than ever, but excited to see how I will work this out within myself.