Shor Reading

Empowering Education
By:  Ira Shor

"Can education develop as critical thinkers, skilled workers, and active citizens?"
-This is a very important question that needs to be thought about more.  I feel like a lot of kids go to school to just get the right answers and pass the standardized tests.  These tests should be reduced or judged differently than the are today.  There should be more creative thinking and less time spent worrying about the tests. 

"School funding is another political dimension of education, because more money has always been invested in the education of upper-class children and elite collegians than has been spent on students from lower-income homes and in community colleges"
I feel like this is extremely unfair.  The funding should be spread out evenly so that all of the kids have an equal opportunity to succeed.  Giving an advantage to the upper-class does not seem fair to children in low income homes.

"Elite prejudice against the language of everyday life also limits working-class, poor, and minority students in the United States mainland."
I do not think it is fair to be prejudice to someone because of the language they speak.  The person should not be put on the spot because they speak a different language.  They should just be able to go about their day like everyone else. 

I do think that education is political.  The money that schools receives is from the government.  Without this government funded money schools would not be able to operate the same way that they do today.  Standardized test are also a government issued item that comes up in schools.  These test make sure that the students are "staying on track" and learning what they are supposed to.  I do not agree with these because they seem to make the students close minded and lack creativity.  All they care about is the right answer, when these tests should focus more on different ways of solving the questions and relating the information to other information in class. 

Kliewer Reading

Citizenship in School: Reconceptualizing Down Syndrome
By:  Christopher Kliewer

"I wanted to take other classes that interested me."
-This quote is from Mia Peterson, a special education student.  She felt trapped in only being allowed to participate in special needs classes.  She should not be limited to what classes she wants to take just because she has a disability. 

"Mia finished school in segregated placements but then returned after graduation to take content-area courses originally denied to her"
-The fact that she went back to school to take classes that she originally wanted shows that she has a great desire to learn.  She should have been allowed to do this in the first place, but if she needed extra help in special ed. then she should be there.

"After all, his psychological tests had, at the age of 7, suggested that he functioned at the cognitive level of a 2-year old, which translates into a severe mental disability."
-This quote is referring to a student named Lee.  The teacher states that no one can tell the difference between Lee and the rest of his classmates.  This shows how Lee is treated the same as every other kid in the class.

This article does make the point that kids that have special needs need to be in the same class as everyone else.  I do not exactly agree with this because if they need more help then they should be in a classroom where they can get extra help.  Having them in a class with the rest of the kids may not allow them to succeed like the other kids because they may need more help than the rest of the class.  They might not be able to get the help because of the limited amount of teachers in the class.  I feel like they should be in a room where they can get all the help they need with things.

Anyon Reading

"Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work"
By:  Jean Anyon

"The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice."
-Anyon is describing a working class school in New Jersey.  These students have no creativity involved in doing their work and are told to do everything by procedure.  They should be able to explore around a problem and try to figure it out using there own methods if they want.  The teachers also do not give any information as to why they are doing what they are doing.  They just let the kids do it the way they are told and that's that.  This is terrible.

"In the middle-class school, work is getting the right answer."
- Schoolwork in middle class schools is a little different then working class schools because the main goal is to get the right answer.  Middle class schools also have more thinking for the students to do when it comes to what to do next and the meaning of the problem.  There is also more explanation of why a problem is done compared to the working class schools. 

"A primary goal of thought is to conceptualize rules by which elements may fit together in systems and then to apply these rules in solving a problem."
-The work in executive class schools is more different from the other classes.  These kids focus more on reason and getting logical answers.  The teachers care less about the answers and more about how the students came up with the answers. 


I was shocked by the fact of how different these schools operate.  They are all close to each other in New Jersey and they all have very different teaching styles.  It seems like the working class parents wants their kids to also be the working class types so they are put in school to achieve this and nothing more.  I feel like this is terrible because it may not be what the student wants.  The student may want to become a doctor or a lawyer and the school is not giving them a chance at that.  The students in these school should be encouraged to be more creative and not just follow things step by step like the teacher or book says.  They should try and come up with answers their own way. 

Talking Point #7

Teaching Boys and Girls Separately

By ELIZABETH WEIL

 

"Separating schoolboys from schoolgirls has long been a staple of private and parochial education."

-I agree with this in that it should only be in private schools.  Parents should have the option to send their child to this type of school if they want to.  Public schools in my opinion should not be separated by sex and boys and girls should go to school together.

 

"In 1995, there were two single-sex public schools operating in this country. Currently, there are 49, and 65 percent of those have opened in the last three years."

-I was not aware of the rapid growth of this.  I did not know that there were this many same sex schools.

 

"For boys, he said: “You need to get them up and moving. That’s based on the nervous system, that’s based on eyes, that’s based upon volume and the use of volume with the boys.”

-I do agree with this teaching technique of teaching boys.  As a male i feel like i became bored very easily and needed to be up and moving around in order to retain things better. 

 

I do not agree with the idea of converting more schools into same sex school.  I feel like there should be some private schools that offer same sex schools, so the parents have the choice of whether or not they want to send their child there.  I feel like this type of segregation of schools could make one sex feel like they are "better" or smarter than the other just because they go to different schools.  I also think that if a child goes to a same sex school their whole life then they will become used to working with their same sex.  It may be a challenge later on in life to deal with the opposite sex because they are so used to dealing with their own sex.  This obstacle can be avoided if children are placed in regular schools and not same sex schools.