Please post your presentation topic which are doing for our class.
You will post the material you create for the class session and then you will more fully develop your entry here to be a fuller representation of the topic.
Further details: This entry will include links, your text descriptions, attached documents which you have permission to attach or are written by you, photos you can link to or have permission to post, and lists of resources. Of course any of the above- and more that you desire- but not everything would be expected. Use your judgment as to what excellent work would be for a full representation of your topic.
Deadline for the final online entry is 4/23/08 11pm
I hope you realize that this is going to be a great resource for all of you to use in the future!
Enjoy the experience in blogging and development- I am ready to assist. However the very best advice is to work ahead on this project and not leave it until the last week before it is due.
Sincerely and virtually yours,
Dr King
This published teacher resource is available for educators, teacher educators, and students around the globe to benefit from our collaborative work. We post some of our assignments in order to facilitate research, dialogue and understanding! © King, Barnabo Cachola, Beauford, Berman, Bowman, Buerkle, Carew, Cocchiaro, Connell, Cook, Cortez, Costantino, Daniels, Dononfrio, Hollwitz, Jeraci, Kanarek, Kaufman, Ljutic, Marrero, Montgomery, Morgenstern, Moritz, Mundy, Peluso, Pitt, & Warga, 2008.
Student Created New Media for Foundations in Education
Student Presentations Spring 2008
- B Barber-by-Benedetta Barnabo Cachola
- Baldwin-by-Morgenstern.pdf
- BF-Skinner-Pres-by Julie Moritz
- Blogging and Educational Applicationsby-Dr-King
- Booker-T-Washington-by-L-Kanarak
- Brown v Board of Ed-by-Melissa-Merrero
- Bruer-Education and the Brain -by -Jackie-Peluso
- Childhood and Parenting in Children’s Popular Culture-Jen Pitt
- Cornel West-by-Lauren-Mundy
- D.Ravitch-by-caryn-berman.pdf
- Dubois-by S-Connell
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton by Ashley Donofrio
- Freire and Macedo by Eric Jeraci
- Giroux on Paulo Freire presented by John Cortez
- Hilda Taba- Function of the School
- Horace Mann-The Common Schools-Aly Cocchiaro
- Illich_presentation-Katie-Carew
- John Dewey-Educationand Social change-Jen Dainels presentation
- Jonathan Kozol: Amazing Grace by M. Costantino
- Jonathan Kozol: Savage Inequalities by D. Beauford
- Maxine Greene on Pluralism by Kim Warga
- The Paideia Proposal presented by-Kathy Hollwitz
- William Heard Kilpatrick Presentation-by L Buerkle
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16 comments:
Presenter: Marijana Ljutic
Presentation Reading: Hirsch, 1.2
Schultz, F. (2000). SOURCES: Notable selections in education. New York:
McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Questionnaire On The Hirsch, 1.2 Reading
Literacy and Cultural Literacy
Please select one of the choices under listed under each of the following statements.
1.) In your opinion, has the United States in recent years achieved a high level of
literacy according to world standards.
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
2.) Is the United States declining in its standards of literacy?
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
3.) Is the educational system in the United States in a crisis, meaning students not having the necessary knowledge to actively participate in the world as contributing citizens? Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
4.) Can only literate societies prosper economically?
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
5.) According to Hirsch, “Illiterate and semiliterate Americans are condemned not only to poverty, but also to the powerlessness of incomprehension,” (Schultz, 2000, p.18) Is this statement accurate?
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
6.) Is literacy more than a skill?
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
7.) Have U.S. companies such as CBS and Exxon expressed concerns and have provided funding for educational programs because according to Hirsch, “their younger middle-level executives could no longer communicate their ideas effectively in speech or writing” (Schultz, 2000, p.15).
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
8.) Is it true that only two thirds of United States citizens literate?
Yes________ Unsure________ No_________
Presenter: Marijana Ljutic
Presentation Reading: Hirsch, 1.2
Schultz, F. (2000). SOURCES: Notable selections in education. New York:
McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
The Best Quotes From The Hirsch 1.2 Reading
Literacy and Cultural Literacy
E.D. (Eric Donald) Hirsch Jr.
-Conservative scholar
-Traditionalist
-Cultural Literacy –“…lies above the everyday levels of
knowledge that everyone possesses and
below the expert level known only to
specialists” (Schultz, 2000, p.19).
Hirsch argument is:
“….that the standard of literacy required of citizens of advanced modern states has risen in recent years and will continue to rise. He further argues that standards of literacy in American schools have not risen to meet world standards” (Schultz, 2000, p.13).
The Decline of Literate Knowledge
“Professor Chall is one of several reading specialists who have observed that “world knowledge” is essential to the development of reading and writing skills” (Schultz, 2000, p.14).
“…[One] day my son asked his Latin class if they knew the name of an epic poem by Homer. One pupil shot up his hand and eagerly said, “The Alamo!” Was it just a slip for The Iliad? No, he didn’t know what the Alamo was, either” (Schultz, 2000, p.15).
“The trouble is that, from the standpoint of their literacy and their ability to communicate with others in our culture, what they know is ephemeral and narrowly confined to their own generation” (Schultz, 2000, p.16).
The Nature and Use of Cultural Literacy
“In modern life we need general knowledge that enables us to deal with new ideas, events, and challenges” (Schultz, 2000, p.18).
“…educators often stress the virtues of multicultural education” (Schultz, 2000, p.18).
“But however laudable it is, it should not be the primary focus of national education. It should not be allowed to supplant or interfere with our schools’ responsibility to ensure our children’s mastery of American literate culture” (Schultz, 2000, p.18).
The Decline of Teaching Cultural Literacy
“Only when we run into cultural illiteracy are we shocked into recognizing the importance that we had unconsciously assumed” (Schultz, 2000, p.19).
The Shopping Mall High School
“The authors report that our high schools offer courses of so many kinds that “the word ‘curriculum’ does not do justice to this astonishing variety” (Schultz, 2000, p.20).
“Cafeteria-style education, combined with the unwillingness of our schools to place demands on students, has resulted in a steady diminishment of commonly shared information between generations and between young people themselves” (Schultz, 2000, p.20).
“The inevitable consequence of the shopping mall high school is a lack of shared knowledge across and within schools. It would be hard to invent a more effective recipe for cultural fragmentation” (Schultz, 2000, p.20).
“In the United States, the world’s most technologically advanced country, one million youths from 11 to 17 years of age are illiterate---unable to read as well as the average fourth graders, says a new government report” (Schultz, 2000, p.21).
“But the complex problem of how to teach values in American schools mustn’t distract from our fundamental duty to teach shared content” (Schultz, 2000, p.23).
“The failure of our schools to create a literate society is sometimes excused on the grounds that the schools have been asked to do too much” (Schultz, 2000, p.23).
Presenter: Lauren Buerkle
Presentation Topic: Kilpatrick, 2.2
Biography
Kilpatrick was born in 1871 in Georgia.
He went to college at Mercer College and then continued to teach in Georgia.
Then he enrolled himself at Teachers College where he continued to teach after graduation.
Soon he began to question the educational idea that “students were to receive information, adjust to it and memorize it well enough to pass the necessary examination” (Van Ausdal, 165).
Progressivism
…an educational theory that emphasizes that ideas should be tested by experimentation and that learning is rooted in questions developed by learners (Dupuis, 327).
The goal of progressivism is to expose the learner to the subject matter of social experiences, social studies, projects, problems, and experiments that, when studied by the scientific method will result in knowledge that children will be able to use in the future (Dupois, 328).
The “Project Method” of Teaching
…emphasized the use of purposeful activity as the basis of education (Schultz, 45).
Kilpatrick believes that the best way to prepare children for later life is through practice in living now. He thought that the best way to practice was by doing projects.
The 4 vital steps when doing projects. They are: purposing, planning, executing, and judging (Van Ausdal, 165).
There are 4 different types of projects (Schultz, 51):
Embodying an idea or plan
Enjoying an experience
Straightening out some intellectual difficulty or solving a problem
Obtaining some item or degree of skill or knowledge
The Teacher’s Role
Students and teachers should work together to solve problems.
By working together the teacher’s role in the success of the educational process should be gradually eliminated (Van Ausdal, 166).
The teacher should be able to identify the student’s interests and then guide them through projects that will allow them to apply their interest to the demands of society.
Because the “project method” of teaching is student-centered, there should be more of a focus on the students and less of a focus on formal instruction and lecture.
Some Important Facts…
Progressivism
• While at Teachers College he began to adopt the ideas of John Dewey who was a supporter of the progressive way of teaching.
• Progressivism is a theory that “emphasizes that ideas should be tested by experimentation and that learning is rooted in questions developed by learners” (Dupuis, 327).
• It believes that the scientific method should be an important part of both teaching and learning.
• It is student-centered, so it emphasizes student involvement.
• The goal of progressivism is to “expose the learner to the subject matter of social experiences, social studies, projects, problems, and experiments that, when studied by the scientific method, will result in functional knowledge from all subjects” (Dupuis, 328).
Project Method of Teaching
• Out of progressivism came Kilpatrick’s idea of the “project method” of teaching. It emphasized the use of purposeful activity as the basis of everything in education.
• Purposeful activity “supplies the power, makes available inner resources, guides the process to its preconceived end, and by this satisfying success fixes in the boy’s mind and character the successful steps as part and parcel of one whole. The purposeful act does utilize the laws of learning” (Schultz, 48). Basically, it’s the essential part of the “project method.”
• The project method uses “projects” as a way for students to practice and prepare for the real world.
• There are 4 vital steps when doing projects (Van Ausdal, 165):
1. Purposing
2. Planning
3. Executing
4. Judging
• There are also 4 different types of projects (Schultz, 51):
1. The purpose of the 1st is to embody some idea or plan in external form
• Example: building a boat or writing a letter
2. The purpose of the 2nd is to enjoy some (esthetic) experience
• Example: listening to a story or hearing a symphony
3. The purpose of the 3rd is to straighten out some intellectual difficulty or to solve some problem
• Example: find out whether or not dew falls or ascertain how New York outgrew Philadelphia
4. The purpose of the 4th is to obtain some item or degree of skill or knowledge
• Example: learning to write grade 14 on the Thorndike Scale or learning the irregular verbs in French
The Teacher’s Role
• Students and teachers should work together to solve problems and slowly the teacher should have no part in the success of the instructional process.
• It’s the teacher’s job to identify the student’s interests and guide them in ways to apply these interests to the demands of society.
• Like progressivism, the “project method” of teaching is student-centered, so there should be less of an emphasis on formal instruction and lecture.
Marijana, and Lauren,
You both did a professional job with your presentations. This information is the beginning of the variety of formats your classmates can create and post for people to use now and in the future. Great work on helping people to understand Hirsch and Kilpatrick
Diane Ravitch’s The Troubled Crusade
Change in U.S. schools from 1945-1980
Ravitch states that…
There is a crusade against ignorance
Education will provide the basis for social improvement
American schools reflect the bias of the larger society
The politics of schooling in America have changed
Changes in American culture affect U.S. schooling
1945- Hearings on federal aid to schools
Rural districts in the worst financial states
Institutionalized by racially separate schools
Overall-very few people attended colleges/universities
Schools part of a vicious cycle
Exclusion from education = economic exclusion
1949-Sen Taft proposes federal aid
-majority agrees there should be no federal control of education
1965 – schools are competing for funding like any other public agency
New school politics rotated around a state-federal axis
Good superintendents must have had good political relations
1980- School administrators had to stay alert to Congressional activities
The Teacher
1940s- little union participation, low pay, highly educated compared to most adults, thought of as moral examples
Growth of higher education
Pulled teachers to the university level, no longer more educated than their students’ parents
Rise of 1960s antiauthority
New spread of teachers’ unions
Yes, school success
Battle of segregation
Began and fought in the schools
Goal of equity pursued
Important because schools are the place where children learn to interact with people outside their families
More modern buildings, better enrollment, materials, course selections and departments
President Truman’s Commission of Higher Education – a success by 1980
After 1972…
Rise in college attendance due to massive federal programs
Higher level of college participation reflected rising levels of educational attainment
An ability to meet the new demand for higher edu and protect the pre-eminence of scholarship as well
Religious tensions eased
Though, at the same time…
1980s
Poor being pushed to urban centers
Fall of urban schools
Decline in SAT scores and writing skills
Bigger school districts = impersonality, more exposure to varied setting, more formalization
Schultz, F. (2000). SOURCES: Notable selections in education. New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Culture, Power and Transformation in the Work of Paulo Freire
Henry A. Giroux
A Presentation by John Cortez
Fordham University
Henry A. Giroux
• Holds the view that schools should be proponents of social change.
• Is a leading advocate of critical pedagogy, in which theory and practice unite so that students are able to think critically (theory) in order to bring change (practice) (Johnson, Musial, Hall, Gollnick, & Dupuis, 2008, p. 329).
• Here analyzes the work of Paulo Freire, which he sees as bridging the gap between theory and practice.
Bridging the Gap
• Giroux notes that Freire’s work merges work that has been done in two radical traditions:
The New Sociology of Education
and
Liberation Theology
The New Sociology of Education and “The Language of Critique”
• The new sociology of education emerged as a criticism of traditional schooling and educational theory, such as positivist pedagogies that only teach with regard to the existing society.
• Schools become agents that reproduce and legitimize ideologies, such as capitalism.
• Freire’s ideas are in line with this:
– Domination is not simply the obvious class oppression. Current social conditions can discriminate by race, sex, age.
– Domination and oppression are worked into the traditional educational setup, through which a “culture of silence” is formed by eliminating the paths of thought that lead to a “language of critique” (Giroux, 2001, p. 80).
• Many proponents of the new sociology say there is no hope for change because traditional education reproduces the current system, so they only have critical theory, but Freire has . . .
Liberation Theology and “The Language of Possibility”
• Freire has a vision of a liberated humanity that can be achieved through shared struggle. This is a “language of possibility” or “permanent prophetic vision” that looks toward the establishment on earth of the Kingdom of God (Giroux, 2001, p. 81).
• Rooted in Liberation Theology Movement of Latin America: Freire has hope and faith in a God and in Christian love between the exploited that precludes oppression.
• Critique combines with hope to promote action.
Theoretical Elements of Freire’s New Radical Pedagogy
1) Power
• Power is not limited to the oppressor. The oppressed have power to react and resist.
• Educators must address repression (formed by habit and training) of this fact.
2) Experience and Cultural Production
• No culture is inherently better than another because each person has his or her own unique culture based on unique experiences. Power, rather, is spread disproportionately, leading to misconceptions of cultural supremacy.
• Thus educators must not repress a student’s cultural expressions (dreams, hopes, etc.) but work though them toward empowering the student.
3) Transformative Intellectuals and Theory-Practice Relationship
• Every person is an intellectual, developing his or her own concept about the world.
• Many intellectuals theorize but do not struggle with the oppressed. This reproduces the disparity of power.
• The oppressed need organic and transformative intellectuals amongst them:
• Organic: One of their own
• Transformative: Promotes self-education and opposition to oppression.
In this way, theory and practice work together to move toward social change.
Discussion Questions
• How do Freire’s pedagogical views compare to your own philosophy of education?
• What implications do Freire’s views have for teachers in multicultural school systems?
References
Giroux, H. A. (2001). Culture, power and transformation in the work of Paulo Freire. In F. Schultz (Ed.), SOURCES: Notable selections in education (3rd ed.) (pp. 77-86). New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Johnson, J. A., Musial, D., Hall, G. E., Gollnick, D. M., & Dupuis, V. L. (2008). Foundations of American education: Perspectives on education in a changing world (14th ed.). Boston: Pearson Educational.
Handout:
Salient Quotes from Henry A. Giroux's
Culture, Power and Transformation in the Work of Paulo Freire
"[Freire's] is a notion of education fashioned in more than critique and Orwellian pessimism; it is a discourse that creates a new starting point by trying to make hope realizable and despair unconvincing" (Giroux, 2001, p. 78).
"Education is that terrain where power and politics are given a fundamental expression, where the production of meaning, desire, language, and values engage and respond to the deeper beliefs about what it means to be human, to dream, and to name and struggle for a particular future and form of social life" (Giroux, 2001, p. 79).
"Though Freire does not use the term "hidden curriculum" as part of his discourse, he demonstrates pedagogical approaches through which groups of learners can decode ideological and material practices whose form, content, and selective omissions contain the logic of domination and oppression" (Giroux, 2001, p. 80).
"The notion of faith that emerges in Freire's work is informed by the memory of the oppressed, the suffering that must not be allowed to continue, and the need never to forget that the prophetic vision is an ongoing process, a vital aspect of the very nature of human life" (Giroux, 2001, p. 81).
Taken from:
Giroux, H. A. (2001). Culture, power and transformation in the work of Paulo Freire. In F. Schultz (Ed.), SOURCES: Notable selections in education (3rd ed.) (pp. 77-86). New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Brandi Cook
Kohl 10 Minutes a Day 4.1
*The beginning of change in how a teacher runs the class room, starts when the teacher is unsatisfied with how he or she is teaching
*The change has to be desirable to the teacher
*Kohl suggests that teachers remember how they were taught in order to reconstruct their classrooms
*What did they like or dislike?
*The suggestion of 10 minutes comes from his idea of trying a new method for 10 minutes and eventually expand to teaching that way all day
*Kohl encourages bringing adults from the community into the classroom who aren't teachers
*He also believes in the opposite: taking the students into the community where they live and relate experiences to the community
*Kohl believes that students can more easily adapt to an open environment than the teacher
*He suggests not trying something incompatible to how the teacher thinks
*“Changing the nature of life in the classroom is no less difficult than changing one’s own personality, and every bit as dangerous and time consuming. It is also as rewarding” (p 106)
*He warns that if you are content being an authoritarian teacher, there is no point in trying to change that
*Suggests that you discuss or write down what you want to change about your teaching style
*Present the students with options that seem like they would be interesting to the students- allow them to sit and do nothing if they choose for the 10 min
*Make it clear that nothing will be graded or needs to be explained in that time period
*Step out of the way, but don’t disappear- you are available for help or talk
*Learn to be lead by the students
- Follow their ideas, learn about the things they are interested in
*If you, the teacher, do not know certain things they want to learn about find someone who does know or get the information and share it- then step out again
*Allow the students to say no to what you want them to learn
*Kohl cautions that other teachers might think what you are doing as “uneducational”
*After the excursions, there was always a classroom discussion
*Ask for parental help
*The whole community should be where students learn, not just the classroom
Katie Carew- Ivan Illich 2.4
Opening Activity
1. Think about a moment from your childhood in which you learned something valuable.
2. When you were growing up, what career paths did your teachers guide you toward? Do you think they would have guided you toward different career paths if you were of a different gender, race, ethnicity, or social class?
3. What, in your opinion, is the function of school?
Ivan Illich’s view/his responses to the opening questions
1. *Illich believes that formal, state-run schools with mandatory attendance policies should be abolished and people should be allowed to explore their world and learn from these experiences (as cited in Shultz). Networks can also be formed to connect those who want to learn about a certain topic and those who want to teach about this topic (as cited in Hart). Furthermore, Illich believes, “Pupils do most of their learning without, and often despite, their teachers. … Everyone learns to live outside school. We learn to speak, to think, to love, to feel, to play, to curse, to politick [sic], and to work without interference from a teacher” (as cited in Schultz, 99-100).
2. He writes, “Curriculum has always been used to assign social rank” (as cited in Schultz, 97).
3. He believes that schools function to “provide custodial care, selection, indoctrination, and learning” (as cited in Schultz,2001, p. 97).
Illich’s Background (as cited in Palmer, 2001)
*Born in 1926 in Austria.
*Ordained a priest in the Roman Catholic Church at age twenty-four.
Immersed himself in the culture of his Puerto Rican parishioners in New York City, and later in Puerto Rico and Latin America, because he felt that to impose American ideals and expect them to conform was dehumanizing and arrogant, denying the worth of other cultures.
*Founded the Center of Intercultural Documentation in Mexico to promote the exchange of intercultural dialogue
*Resigned from the priesthood due to his belief that the Church was too bureaucratic and did not give enough power to laypersons
*Published Deschooling Society (one of his many works concerning social issues) in 1970
Illich’s Beliefs (as cited in Schultz, 2001, except where otherwise noted)
*He did not want schools to be eliminated completely, but believed that they should not be publicly funded nor mandated for all to attend.
*He believed that since people would then attend school because they wanted to, not because they were mandated to, the quality of education would increase.
*School contributes to the maintaining of status quo, as it teaches students what to value and what their role should be in society.
*Teachers decide the futures of their students by guiding them in different directions and teaching students not to question authority.
*Childhood is a social construct.
------Prior to Vatican II, the Catholic Church taught that the age of seven was the age of reason, so children at this young age were capable of making decisions and consciously sinning.
*Illich writes, “Rather than calling equal schooling temporarily unfeasible, we must recognize that it is, in principle, economically absurd, and that to attempt it is intellectually emasculating, socially polarizing, and destructive of the credibility of the political system which promotes it” (as cited in Schultz, 2001. p. 96).
-----Illich writes that the U.S. expenditure on education at the time of his writing was 37 billion dollars. He states hat if the same amount of money was spent on education for the poor as was spent on the education of the middle and upper classes, the U.S. would have to more than double that amount to 87 billion, which was more than the amount that the U.S. had spent on the war in Vietnam at that time (Illich, A Celebration of Awareness, 1970 . p. 105).
-----Illich also noted that although the U.S. had spent three billion dollars between
the years of 1965 and 1968 to fund Title I, disadvantaged children still lagged behind their middle class peers. He concluded that there were three possible reasons for this: a.) not enough money was spent, b.) the money was not used as it was intended and was misspent, or c.) that formal schooling cannot adequately address the disparities in educational quality. Illich favored the third explanation (Illich, Deschooling Society, 1970. p. 5).
*“Pupils have never credited teachers for most of their learning. Bright and dull alike have always relied on rote, reading, and wit to pass their exams, motivated by the stick or by the carrot of a desired career” (as cited in Schultz, 2001. p. 100).
*Teachers take advantage of their ‘captive audiences’
*Possessing a diploma is not a guarantee that one has learned useful skills
*Educators have not done enough to increase the learning levels of the poor.
Illich’s Alternatives to Formal Schools (as cited in Hart, 2001)
Illich proposed four ‘educational networks’ to replace schools:
1. People to serve as a guide to resources (similar to the role of a librarian)
2. Exchanges of skills
3. Matching of peers interested in particular topics
4. Catalogue of experts on a topic
Does the Internet Provide These Networks? (as cited in Hart, 2001)
1. Online resources are available for almost any topic.
2. People advertise the skills they are willing to teach or want to be taught on online bulletin boards.
3. Discussion groups exist online (chat rooms, listservs).
4. Lists of experts (or organizations that are employ experts) in any given field are found online, often with contact information provided should readers have questions.
Limitations to Using the Internet as an Alternative to Schools (as cited in Hart, 2001)
*Discrepancies are found regarding the quality/ accuracy of educational resources on the internet and advertising and commercial interests are found almost everywhere online.
*Also, chat rooms/discussion boards can be potentially dangerous, and Internet access is still not available to many people worldwide.
References
Illich, I. (1970). Celebration of awareness. Garden City, NY: Doubleday.
Illich, I. (1970). Deschooling society. New York: Harper and Row.
Illich, I. (2001). Deschooling Society. In F. Shultz (Ed.), (2001). SOURCES: Notable
selections in education. (3rd ed.). Guilford, CT: McGraw/Dushkin, 95-102.
Hart, I. (2001). Deschooling and the web: Ivan Illich 30 years on. In Educational Media
International. 38 (2-3). 69-78.
Palmer, A. (Ed.). (2001). Ivan Illich. In Fifty modern thinkers on education: From Piaget
to the present. New York: Routledge. 181-187.
(sorry I couldn't change the formating in this text box to get the indenting of the sources to be correct)
Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far
John T. Bruer 12.4
Background information:
Scholar in cognitivist approaches to human learning and instruction
He argues from a selection from “Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far”, Educational Researcher( November 1997).
He refers to cognitive science with regard to the human brain serving as a basis for the development of learning and instruction
Reviews some literature on what is known about human brain development of the brain from infancy through adulthood.
The Neuroscience vs. the education argument:
Process of synaptogenesis explored, a.k.a, proliferation or rapid growth of synapses that connect neurons to the brain
Agrues that cognitive psychology, behavioral science, is making crucial contributions to the field of education and our comprehension of the brain
“Over the past year, there have been numerous books, journal articles, policy studies, and stories in the media about our emerging understanding of brain development and neural function could revolutionize educational practice”
Too large of a gap creates a failure to connecting what we know about brain development and neural function to link that understanding directly to instruction and educational practice. There has to be some middle grounds!
Two shorter bridges create this middle ground: between education and cognitive psychology and between cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Provides firm ground to anchor these bridges!
1st-Infancy- later childhood, dramatic increase occurs in the number of synapses that connect neurons in the brain.
2nd-Experience- dependent critical periods in the development of sensory and motor systems.
3rd-Complex, rich environments cause new synapses to form.
Up to age 10, children’s brains contain more synapses than at any other time in their lives. Childhood experiences reinforce and fine-tune these connections or snip away the unused ones.
The time of high synaptic density and experiential fine tuning is a critical period in a child’s cognitive development.
Bruer states there is not enough references to back up the plethora of citations in the Years of Promise to validate anything
Synaptogenesis:
Defined as synaptic proliferation
Neonates have fewer synaptic connections than do adults however the infant brain begins to form synapses far in excess of adult levels
The period of synaptic overproduction is followed by synaptic elimination or pruning
Mature nervous system has fewer synaptic connections present but a more complex pattern that forms the mature brain’s neural circuitry and supports normal brain functions
“Critical period” according to the Education Commission of States (1996) is between birth to three years of age
Synaptogenesis occurs early in the human visual cortex, later in the frontal cortex
Developmental milestones depend on brain development
It is the pattern not just the number of connections that matters for normal brain function.
Tells us little about how early childhood or learning experiences might enhance children’s cognitive capacities or their educational outcomes.
Mind, Brain, and Education:
How does brain structure support cognitive function?
1st connects educational practice with cognitive psychology then connects cognitive psychology with brain science.
Cognitive psychology- the study of mind and mental function
Brain imaging technologies- PET and fMRI- help to localize areas of brain activity
Brain recording techniques: EEG and MEG
Cognitive psychology can begin to link educational questions with cognitive neuroscience.
Conclusion:
“We should remain skeptical about brain-based educational practice and policy, but look more carefully at what behavioral science already can tell us about teaching, learning, and cognitive development”
Taken from:
Bruer, J. T. (2001). Education and the Brain: A Bridge Too Far. In F. Schultz (Ed.), SOURCES: Notable selections in education (3rd ed.) (pp. 319-329). New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Why Teachers Fail
by B.F. Skinner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-NlINHHKPI
Presentation by Julie Moritz
B.F. Skinner (1920-1990)
B.F. Skinner was one of the leading behavioral psychologists of the 20th century.
He attended Hamilton College with the intention of becoming a writer, however, he soon abandoned this dream when he entered Harvard University as a graduate student to study psychology.
Skinner is considered the leader of behaviorism, “…a psychological theory that asserts that behaviors represent the essence of a person and that all behaviors can be explained as responses to stimuli” (p. 324).
His ideas on teaching and learning had a profound effect on American teachers for several decades of the past century.
INTRODUCTION
Skinner believed that students needed to learn more, become better prepared for college and be held to higher standards, however, he did not feel that these reasons validated aversive pressures.
Skinner wrote (1968), “A standard is a level of achievement; only under a particular philosophy of education is it a criterion upon which some form of punishment is contingent” (p. 254).
Skinner felt that punishment was the most commonly used technique to control behavior in our society and that the only thing people learned was how to later avoid punishment.
AVERSIVE CONTROL
Aversive control may be explained as an unpleasant stimulant to change undesirable behavior.
Teachers may use aversive contingencies to provide students with an opportunity to adjust their behaviors that would result in an unpleasant or painful situation.
Skinner felt that aversive control was partly practiced in the classroom because it coincided with philosophies of government and religion and that cultures had taught teachers to behave accordingly.
Additionally, he wrote that aversive control could be defended as “nature’s way” since our environment may similarly teach a person to act in certain ways to reduce the threat of not knowing.
AVERSIVE CONTROL (continued)
Skinner believed that most teachers were indeed humane and did not want to threaten their students yet they often found themselves doing so.
Since there were no effective alternatives to teachers’ aversive behavior, he felt it continued.
Therefore, something else was needed, it was not enough to simply abandon aversive measures.
TELLING AND SHOWING
Skinner believed that even though children appeared to have a “natural curiosity” and an “inherent wish to learn”, a student could not simply learn by being told or shown something.
Rousseau was the great advocate of natural learning. He believed that there should be no arranged consequences.
Skinner writes of Pestalozzi trying to teach his son through natural learning methods. Pestalozzi concludes that natural learning is unsuccessful.
Skinner argued that students do not learn when they are simply told or shown because something essential was missing: “positive reinforcement”.
GETTING ATTENTION
The failure of telling and showing is often credited to students’ lack of attention. Consequently, teachers may feel that the only way to make their students pay attention is by punishing them for not listening or looking.
Alternative solutions may be proposed, such as: freeing the classroom from any distractions, making the material to been seen or heard more attractive or trying to make the school itself more attractive and pleasant.
However, none of these solutions are ideal since they do not actually teach the students what they are in school to learn. They merely provide the setting for the instruction that is to take place.
TEACHER AS MIDWIFE
Many educational theorists have concluded that teachers must HELP the students to learn rather than teach the students.
According to this approach, a student already knows the truth, the teacher must simply show him that he knows it by asking the student a series of questions that lead the student to a certain conclusion (Socratic Method).
Yet, even Socrates could not argue that the student’s soul knew the facts of history, mathematical proofs or a second language.
For this reason, perhaps the teacher’s role as a midwife must be applied to information the students have already learned. The teacher may then show the student that he indeed remembers what he has already been told or shown.
Cardinal Newman provides an example of the Socratic Method applied to a student’s prior knowledge in The Idea of a University.
TEACHER AS MIDWIFE (continued)
As Skinner writes however (1968), “But discovery is no solution to the problems of education…It is quite impossible for the student to discover for himself any substantial part of the wisdom of his culture, and no philosophy of education really proposes that he should” (259).
Skinner further elaborates that it is dangerous to suggest that it is beneath students to learn what others already know by memorizing facts, formulas, etc. Similarly, it would be just as dangerous for teachers to give up teaching these important facts in order to provide students with an opportunity to discover them for themselves.
There are other difficulties as well. For example, what is the role of the teacher who encourages discovery, is he to pretend that he does not know? How is the teacher to prevent a few good students from making all of the discoveries while leaving other students to just witness them?
Skinner concluded that students should be encouraged to discover but NOT to be taught by the method of discovery.
THE IDOLS OF SCHOOL
Through his famous idols, Francis Bacon determines a few reasons to explain why individuals arrive at false conclusions.
Skinner suggests that he may have added two special Idols of the School: 1. The Idol of the Good Teacher is the belief that what a good teacher can do, any teacher can do 2. The Idol of the Good Student is the belief that what a good student can learn, any student can learn.
Skinner (1968) suggests that an even greater source of error for educators is, “the belief that personal experience in the classroom is the primary source of pedagogical wisdom” (261).
He thought that teachers could not profit from their experiences with their students in the classroom because they almost never learned about their long-term successes or failures.
“CONTINGENCIES OF REINFORCEMENT”
Skinner thus concludes that teaching is defined as an arrangement of “contingencies of reinforcement” under which behavioral changes may occur without the use of aversive measures.
Skinner believed that certain experiences resulting with positive reinforcements or rewards would strengthen desired behavioral responses and increase the likelihood that the response would be repeated.
Then, behavior that is not positively reinforced (or rewarded) will eventually cease to occur.
Furthermore, through these relevant contingences, teachers may finally analyze student behavior under carefully controlled conditions.
REFERENCES
Schultz, F. (2000). SOURCES: Notable selections in
education. New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Johnson, J.A., Musial, D, Hall, G.E., Gollnick, D.M., &
Dupuis, V.L. (2005). Introduction to the
foundations of American education. 14th ed.
Boston: Pearson Education.
Cornel West
The Struggle for Freedom in Education-Race Matters
About West
Cornel West has been known for his view on “race relations”.
This is seen in his book titled Race Matters.
In Race Matters, West emphasizes that minority cultures should be viewed as “constitutive elements of life” (Schultz, 2001, 165). In other words, minorities should be viewed as essential components in society
In Race Matters, West’s goal is to talk about and “confront” major race issues that still exist in the 1990s (Schultz, 2001). He mainly focuses on the black community.
If we confront these race issues, West believes that society will then “ensure that all American children receive just and fair opportunities to develop well in American society” (Schultz, 2001, 165)
In order to create equality West stresses the creation of “a new framework for the discussion of racial issues, which is positive and affirmative in our conceptualization of one another” (Schultz, 2001, 165).
In other words, society must create a new way to discuss race, where people will view all races in a positive light.
The Rodney King Case
Rodney King, a black man, was pulled over after a car chase. He refused to comply with police officers, but was cruelly beaten with batons, kicked and tasered.
He suffered permanent damage to his face; however the police officers were found not guilty of violating Kings “constitutional rights” (The Nizkor Project).
This verdict was in 1992 causing a huge riot in Los Angeles among the black community, where at least fifty people were killed.
Eventually two of the officers were found guilty; however, West believes this is a prime example of the segregation that still exists within society.
People outside of the black community just seemed to ignore the fact that this event occurred and went on with their lives.
Ideas on society in the 1990s
West believes there is a noticeable decline in race relations in the 1990s.
The United States is becoming more segregated.
This is especially seen within liberal and conservative views on race.
Liberal and Conservative View on Race Issues
On race issues, the liberals believe that government aide is the solution in resolving the race division.
However, this is a problem because it only emphasizes the “economic dimension” of the race issue (Schultz, 2001,166).
Conservatives stress the need for change in the black community. This includes a belief that black males provide greater support for their families and reduce involvement in crimes.
The conservative view only emphasizes “immoral actions, while ignoring the immoral circumstances that haunt fellow citizens” (Shultz, 2001, 166).
West believes that both liberals and conservatives still emphasize the black population as “problem people” and not “fellow American citizens” (Schultz, 2001, 167).
Liberals feel that the black population should be “integrated” into white society and conservatives feel the black community should be “well behaved” according to the white way of life (Schultz, 2001).
West emphasizes that the black community is neither an “addition” or “defection” within society (Schultz, 2001, 167).
Instead the black community is a “constitutive elements of that life” (Shultz, 2001, 167)
In other words, essential components of society.
West’s view on Race
One must start with the problems in America’s society, instead of “problems” within minority communities.
Feels that white society ignores minority needs and instead wants minorities to try and “fit in” with society (Shultz, 2001, 168).
This causes Black nationalism, which is a revolt to “fitting in” (Schultz, 2001, 168).
As long as racial injustice continues to exist, so will black nationalism.
Afro centrism is another type of black nationalism, which tries to establish “African identity” (Schultz, 2001, 168).
However, West believes Afro centrism only focus on the narrow topics of “black doings and sufferings” (Schultz, 2001, 168).
Needs to emphasize a diverse amount of issues within the community.
Establishing a new framework in society
West stresses “the need to begin with a frank acknowledgement of the basic humanness and Americanness of each of us” (Schultz, 2001, 168).
This has not been shown within the past decade.
In the 1990s, West believed that society had become more segregated.
“86% of white suburban Americans, live within communities that are less then 1% black” (Schultz, 2001, pg 168).
The Problem With Society
There has been a decrease with the amount of jobs within cities (where there is a majority of minorities) because industries have moved to cheaper areas in the United States or are now overseas (Schultz, 2001).
“An eroding tax base”, which leads to a cut in government programs (Schultz, 2001, 168).
Thus this results in “unemployment, hunger, homelessness, and sickness for millions” (Schultz, 2001, 2008)
SpiriBecause of the developing unemployment and poverty, “spiritual impoverishment” occurs within the minority communities (Schultz, 2001, 168).
Spiritual impoverishment involves the “absence of love and self of others” (Schultz, 2001, 168).
Thus, according to West, this causes “cultural denudement” (Schultz, 2001). In other words, people are stripped of their cultural roots. This is seen especially in children.
Support networks no longer existstual Impoverishment
Having no support networks in society, causes “random nows with acquiring pleasure, property, and power” (Schultz, 2001, 169) .
Has a huge effect on the poorer populations who turn to violence, in order to seek “pleasure, property, and power” (Schultz, 2001, 169).
Political Problems
West believes the political atmosphere is where “images, not ideas dominate, where politicians spend more time raising money than debating issues” (Schultz, 2001, 169).
There is also a lot of greed within the political system.
Politics also seem to ignore blacks, females, and homosexual issues (Schultz, 2001)
What can be done in society
West emphasizes that “citizens must admit that the most valuable sources for help, hope, and power consist of ourselves and our common history” (Schultz, 2001, 169).
We must also “focus our attention on the public square”, or the needs of the common good. Neglect in the sewage system, streets, and other areas of the community shows the “low priority society places on common life” (Schultz, 2001, 169).
We see this disregard for human life, when 1 out of every five children in the United States lives in poverty (Schultz, 2001). This includes “one out of every two black children and two out of ever five Hispanic children” (Schultz, 2001, 169).
Parents are overburdened with the ills of society, and therefore can not give their children both “spiritual and cultural quality” (Schultz, 2001, 169)
In order to protect children and society, West wants the formation of a “large-scale public intervention program to ensure access to basic social goods-housing, food, health care, education, etc” (Schultz, 2001, 170).
Lastly society needs to develop new leadership
Leaders “who can situate themselves with a larger historical narrative of this country and our world, who can grasp, the complex dynamics of our people hood and imagine a future grounded in the best of our past, yet who are attuned to the frightening obstacles that now perplex us. “ (Schultz, 2001, 170).
Leader must have democratic ideas and each provide “freedom, democracy, and equality to the landless, propertyless, and luckless (Schultz, 2001, 170).
21st century leaders must create a “multiracial” democracy in a xenophobic world” (Schultz, 2001, 170).
References
Schultz, Fred. (2001) Sources. Connecticut: McGraw Hill.
Hate-Motivated Violence (1991).
http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/orgs/canadian/canada/justice/hate-motivated-violence/hmv-006-00.html
Shannon Morgenstern
James Baldwin: "A Talk to Teachers"
Background
20th century African American essayist, novelist, and playwright
Lived in Harlem ghettos as a child and eventually became advocate for civil rights
This excerpt is derived from a speech given on October 16, 1963 to NYC teachers and was later printed in an edition of the Saturday Review under the title “A Talk to Teachers”
Education versus Ignorance
“The paradox of education is precisely this—that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated” (Baldwin, 1963).
Education allows an individual to question the society he or she is learning in and about
However, much of society seeks to suppress this questioning as someone who consistently questions and disobeys is seen as dangerous to national order
However, Baldwin states that society’s only hope for change is through those individuals who question
African American History
Black child is disconnected from American ideals such as “liberty and justice for all”
Under the American flag his or her ancestors were sold into slavery
“It is impossible for any Negro child to discover anything about his actual history” (Baldwin, 1963) lack of celebrated African American figures in education leads to a disconnect from individual and group identity
Separation Between Black and White
Church, government, politicians all aim to please white people
Black child sees this separation but does not understand why
School is where he ultimately realizes these differences
Reaction is rage and hatred towards white people who have slammed the “doors of opportunity” (Baldwin, 1963) on his ambition
Baldwin ideally desires that the child grows to use this rage for positive social change
Lack of the American Dream
America has perpetuated segregation to keep “the Negro in his place” (Baldwin, 1963).
Fear of diminishing white power prevents the black man or woman from gaining a respected place of power in America
No social mobility for African Americans: Baldwin states that even after slaves were freed, they were still at the bottom of the labor market and have remained there
Implications for Education
Addresses the teachers as educated peoples who have the ability to create social change through power in classroom
America has created myth of own history to forget and hide from past induces ignorance and falsity in American identity
Baldwin desires teachers to teach truth and not the sugar-coated version of American history
Suggestions for Future Educational Practices
Include prominent figures in black history in curriculum to give the black child a sense of history and identity
Show black child the “criminal conspiracy” (Baldwin, 1963) that white people have devised to keep him in his “place”
Make peace with this conspiracy and use education as a weapon against the ignorance of others in order to incite change in American society
…Continued
Feel a sense of ownership of actions and realize that he is his own self he does not have to listen and blindly obey administrative policies
Continuously question to discover what is best for self and society
Teachers must foster these qualities so that a formerly oppressed black child can gain confidence as an educated individual and commence positive societal change
References
Schultz, F. (Ed.). (2001). Sources: Notable Selections in Education (3rd ed.). Guilford: McGraw-Hill/Dushkin.
Perspectives on the struggle for freedom in education
Benjamin R. Barber:
• An internationally renowned political theorist, Dr. Barber( b. 1939) brings an abiding concern for democracy and citizenship to issues of politics, culture and education in America and abroad. He has written books and articles about: Jihad, Capitalism; Democracy; Feminism; Globalization.
• He is the Walt Whitman Professor of Political Science and director of the Walt Whitman Center for the Culture and Politics of Democracy at Rutgers University
• In this reading he looks at the possibility that Post-Modernism and Deconstructionism may have become new orthodoxies.
• He perceives as a problem replacing a dogma (principle, tenet or creed) with another one.
Post-Modernism:
• The term was coined in 1949, as a reaction to Modernism (Modernism recognized the supreme importance of such ideals as rationality, objectivity, progress and other ideas derived from the Enlightenment, the Positivism and Realism of the 1800) Postmodernism is questioning the real existence of these ideas, it is the theory of refusing all theories.
• Influenced by the disillusionment induced by the Second World War.
• Denies the existence of any ultimate principles and hierarchy.
• Reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective, efforts to explain reality. Lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth, which will explain everything for everybody (which is a characteristic of the “modern” mind).
• Reality is constructed as the mind tries to understand its own particular and personal reality.
• In the postmodern understanding, interpretation is everything.
• Relies on concrete experience over abstract principles.
• Sees one's own experience as fallible and relative, rather than certain and universal.
Deconstructionism:
• Closely tied to Post-Modernism
• Term coined in 1960 by Jacques Derrida in his paper “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences”. He launched a major critique of traditional Western metaphysics.
• It takes apart the logic of language in which authors make their claims, a process that reveals how all texts undermine themselves in that every text includes unconscious “traces” of other positions exactly opposite to that which it sets out to uphold.
• It undermines logocentrism, therefore the ‘meaning’ of a text bears only accidental relationship to the author’s conscious intentions. One of its effects is that it has loosened language from concepts and referents.
• It challenges to the attempt to establish any ultimate or secure meaning in a text.
Based on the premise that much of human history, in trying to understand, and then define, reality has led to various forms of domination - of nature, of people of color, of the poor, of homosexuals, etc.
In the Post-Modernist and Deconstructionist view of education: Teachers should have a socially transformative role, help students “deconstruct” the dominant’s group’s vision of social reality and justice, and to replace dominant conceptions of knowledge with visions of social reality based on their own experience of it. Barber’s stance on this view: Questioning the elite’s views and voice can be a pedagogical tool as long as it does not end in total nihilism; denying any objectivity, any rationality, any esthetic value has no pedagogical value.
Barber takes a look at post-modernist and deconstructionist critics. He sees a fault in their wearing questioning and removing any value from everything on the basis that it is just a show of power of the elite class. Barber is very concerned, and sees no pedagogical value in hyper-skepticism, where each argument turns endlessly on itself and values are rendered relative. Barber sees a negative also in hyper-pluralism, since the over-differentiation destroys any possibility of integrating a community. Barber concedes that they begin from a positive starting point: they seek more equality, more justice and better education for all, but he disagrees on how they go about it. Radical skepticism, reductionism, solipsism, nihilism, subjectivism, and cynicism do not help the powerless and voiceless to be heard if they deny standing to reasons and normative rational terms such as justice and equality. Diversity is a condition of freedom for all, but if taken to extremes it can empty everyone of common identity. It destroys the liberty of individuals. Barber states that what began as a sound attempt to show that art is produced by real men and women with agendas and interests attached to things like gender, race, social status, … ends as the nihilistic denial of art as object. For Barber, this view transposed to education leads to a counterproductive nihilism/skepticism, which has no pedagogical value if it’s not satisfied by answers. Questioning everything as power and interest, removing reason, justice leave us without the ability of establishing affirmative pedagogy. A teacher cannot teach when his/her only choice is between dogma and nothingness, between orthodoxy (holding correct or current accepted opinions) and meaninglessness, between someone’s covert value hegemony and the relativism of all values.
Education should be a dialectic (art of investigating the truth of opinions; testing of truth by discussion) in which there should be a balance between probing and accepting, between questioning and answering, between dogmatic belief in absolutes and cynical negation of all belief. All useful education starts with questioning, but at one point there is the need for answers to be accepted. The object of questioning is to test and strengthen rather than to annihilate the idea of the rational. A teacher needs to be able to ask questions that expose illusions, to help students distinguish the counterfeit from the real, but NOT to expunge the very ideas of the good, the beautiful and the right.
The not assigning value and making no distinctions creates the annihilation of literature and its replacement by criticism, which led us to seeing Emily Dickinson and MTV as equal, as cultural products of interested artisans pushing their ideological interests.
Seeing the difference between pop and high culture as an invention of the elite to try to maintain cultural hegemony has removed power from the word culture, creating the impression that there are no standards of excellence, all this instead of promoting the idea of multiculturalism, it makes multiculturalism not worth debating since culture has no value to start with. Questions should challenge objectivity but also be capable of redeeming it. Criticism has pedagogical legitimacy when it can save virtue from hypocrisy; truth from counterfeits, if it goes over it gives subjectivism the aspect of narcissism.
Benjamin R. Barber, Radical Excess & Post-Modernism
Terms & definitions
Postmodernism: In literature, it is a reaction against an ordered view of the world and therefore against fixed ideas about the form and meaning of texts. This reaction is reflected in eclectic styles of writing through the use of such device as pastiche and parody as well as development of such concepts as the absurd, the antihero and the antinovel, and magic realism. The perception of the relativity of meaning has also led to the proliferation of critical theories, most notable deconstruction and its offshoots. (Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature)
Deconstructionism: A method of literary criticism, which assumes that language, refers only to itself rather than to an extra textual reality and which asserts multiple conflicting interpretations of a text and bases such interpretations on the philosophical, political, or social implications of the use of language in the text rather than on the author’s intention. It takes apart the logic of language in which authors make their claims, a process that reveals how all texts undermine themselves in that every text includes unconscious “traces” of other positions exactly opposite to that which it sets out to uphold. It undermines logocentrism; therefore the ‘meaning’ of a text bears only accidents relationship to the author’s conscious intentions. One of its effects is that it has loosened language from concepts and referents. (Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature)
Skepticism: skepticism refers to the teachings and the traits of the Skeptikoi, a school of philosophers of whom it was said that they "asserted nothing but only opined" (Liddell and Scott). In this sense, philosophical skepticism, or Pyrrhonism, is the philosophical position that one should avoid the postulation of final truths. Turned on itself, skepticism would question that skepticism is a valid perspective at all. (Wikipedia)
Reductionism: philosophical position that a complex system is nothing but the sum of its parts, and that an account of it can be reduced to accounts of individual constituents. (Wikipedia)
Solipsism: (Latin: solus, alone + ipse, self) is the philosophical idea that "My mind is the only thing that I know exists." Solipsism is an epistemological or metaphysical position that knowledge of anything outside the mind is unjustified. The external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist. In the history of philosophy, solipsism has served as a skeptical hypothesis. (Wikipedia)
Nihilism: is a philosophical position which argues that Being, especially past and current human existence, is without objective meaning, purpose, comprehensible truth, or essential value. Nihilists generally assert some or all of the following: there is no reasonable proof of the existence of a higher ruler or creator; a "true morality" does not exist; objective secular ethics are impossible; therefore, life has, in a sense, no truth, and no action is objectively preferable to any other. (Wikipedia)
Subjectivism: philosophical tenet that accords primacy to subjective experience as fundamental of all measure and law. In an extreme form, it may hold that the nature and existence of every object depends solely on someone's subjective awareness of it. (Wikipedia)
Cynicism: was originally the philosophy of a group of ancient Greeks called the Cynics, founded by Antisthenes. The Cynics rejected all conventions, whether of religion, manners, housing, dress, or decency, advocating the pursuit of virtue in a simple and unmaterialistic lifestyle. Currently, the words ‘cynicism’ generally describes the opinions of those who maintain that self-interest is the primary motive of human behavior, and are disinclined to rely upon sincerity, human virtue, or altruism as motivations. (Wikipedia)
Booker T. Washington
The Atlanta Exposition Address, September 18, 1895
Background
Washington was born into slavery in 1856
He was freed in 1865 at the end of the Civil War
Founded Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama in 1881 to educate African Americans- spent his life improving school
School initially emphasized industrial, skilled trade education rather than traditional college-level liberal arts studies
He thought former slaves would gain acceptance through education and financial independence
The Atlanta Exposition Address- 1895
Washington became a popular spokesperson for the African American community so he was asked to give an address on the topic of race relations
Presented before a predominantly white audience
This speech became his most famous articulation of his educational philosophy
Speech has been recognized as one of the most influential speeches in American history
Highlights of Speech
African Americans should secure constitutional rights through economic and moral advancement rather than legal and political action
Argued that economic progress for African Americans must precede full political equality
Achieve equality through hard work and self-improvement
Accepted the separation of blacks and whites
Famous Quote #1
“In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
He felt that both races could win this way because essentially blacks and whites could live together, but at the same time apart- come to a mutual understanding.
He was trying to accommodate everyone through his conservative approach.
His speech pleased many whites and he gained financial support for his school.
Famous Quote #2
“Cast down your bucket where you are”
Urged African Americans and whites to work together for economic advancement
He was saying that everyone needed to make the most out of the situation they were in, in order to make a better life for themselves
Famous Quote #3
“No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. It is at the bottom of life we must begin, and not at the top.”
He felt that people must learn what is truly important, and what leads to true wealth, not just riches.
A foundation must be established to be able to build on and grow-Washington insisted that he achieved his position through hard work.
He wanted black people to not feel ashamed of using their hands, but rather to have respect for what they were creating.
Critics
W.E.B. Du Bois didn’t agree with Washington that education should focus on economic empowerment and practical skills- he felt this curriculum was too narrow
Du Bois felt that schools should focus on intellectual empowerment- a more academic curriculum
Many people criticized Washington because they felt his speech undermined the quest for racial equality
It almost seemed that he was endorsing separate development of the races
Critics Cont…
They felt that Washington was accommodating injustice- Du Bois felt that he was accepting the alleged inferiority of the African American race
They felt that he was a black leader chosen by whites to please them
Conclusion
Washington is still known as one of the most influential black men of his time
His life was devoted to the improvement of the African American
He is best remembered for helping black Americans rise up from the economic slavery that held them down even after they were legally free citizens
He played an essential role in helping the African American community participate fully in American life
Questions or Comments
If you would like to listen to his actual speech:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/88.
Further Reading
Up From Slavery an autobiography by Booker T. Washington
The Story of the Negro: Rise of the Race from Slavery: Volumes I and II by Booker T. Washington
The Negro Problem by Booker T. Washington
The Negro in the South: His Economic Progress in Relation to his Moral and Religious Development by Booker T. Washington
Booker T. Washington Symposium in Chicago June 4-6, 2006
Web-site http://www.newcoalition.org/btw2006/welcome.cfm
Listen to the speakers at the event http://www.fromtheheartland.org/live/btw-audio.html
References
Schultz, F. (2000). Sources: Notable selections in education. New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Johnson, J. A., Musial, D. Hall, G.E., Gollnick, D. M., & Dupuis, V.L. (2005). Introduction to the foundations of American education. 14th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.
Beck, Sanderson. (n.d.) Booker T. Washington and Character Education at Tuskegee Institute 1881-1915. Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://san.beck.org/BTW.html
Norrell, Robert J. (2004, May 15). Booker T. Washington: Understanding the Wizard of Tuskegee. New Coalition News and Views. Retrieved March 29, 2008, from http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artld=15014
My presentation was on William Heard Kilpatrick. Besides my original presentation and fact sheet, I have included below some links to websites containing biographical information on Kilpatrick, and I have included some citations for journal articles written by him or about him or his theories.
Links To Biography
http://www.bookrags.com/biography/william-h-kilpatrick/
Journal Articles
Groth, R.E., Bergher, J.A. (2007). Teachers’ perspectives on mathematics education research reports. Teaching and teacher education: an international journal of research and studies, 23, 809-825.
Parker, F. (1992). William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965): philosopher of progressive education and teacher of teachers. Retrieved on April 22, 2008, from ERIC database.
Van Ausdal, S.J. (1988). William Heard Kilpatrick: philosopher and teacher. Childhood education, 64, 164-168.
VanTil, W. (1990). William Heard Kilpatrick: a memoir. Teaching education, 2, 36-39.
“Amazing Grace” by Jonathan Kozol
Michelle Costantino
UEGE 5102
Dr. Kathleen King
Jonathan Kozol:
-He is a non-fiction writer, educator, and activist, best known for his books on public education in the United States
-Kozol graduated from Noble and Greenough School in 1954, and Harvard University in 1958 with a degree in English Literature. He was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford.
-He tutored children in Roxbury, MA, and soon became a teacher in the Boston Public Schools. He was fired for teaching a Langston Hughes poem, and then became deeply involved in the civil rights movement. After being fired from BPS he was offered a job to teach for Newton Public Schools, the school district that he had attended as a child, and taught there for several years before becoming more deeply involved in social justice work and dedicating more time to writing.
-Kozol has also worked in the field of social psychology. Kozol is currently on the Editorial Board of Greater Good Magazine, published by the Greater Good Science Center of the University of California, Berkeley. Kozol's contributions include the interpretation of scientific research into the roots of compassion, altruism, and peaceful human relationships.
Jonathan Kozol’s Message:
-In Amazing Grace, Jonathan Kozol portrays the sad realities of young life in the South Bronx in New York City.
-He describes children who live amongst poverty and social chaos, but who also cling to hope and love for survival.
-He tells us that children are not hardened; they are full of hope and are open to welcome life.
-He describes specific places in the South Bronx: St. Ann’s Avenue, Mott Haven, Beekman Avenue, Cypress, East Tremont, Hunts Point Market, etc.
Kozol’s Opening Questions:
1) Why doesn’t America care about the children of the poor?
2) Why are they neglected?
3) Don’t they have the right to the same educational opportunities as the children of wealthy suburbs?
4) Why do we shun them?
5) How can the children of the South Bronx still pray?
6) What gives them hope?
St. Ann’s Avenue:
-“St. Ann’s Church, on St. Ann’s Avenue, is three blocks away from the subway station. The children who come to this small Episcopal church for food and comfort and to play, and the mothers and fathers who come here for prayer, are said to be the poorest in New York. ‘More than 95 percent are poor,’ the pastor says – ‘the poorest of the poor, poor by any standard I can think of” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“At the elementary school that serves the neighborhood across the avenue, only seven of 800 children do not qualify for free school lunches. ‘Five of those seven,’ says the principal, ‘get reduced-price lunches, because they are classified as poor, not destitute’” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
St. Ann’s Avenue Continued:
-“In speaking of rates of homicide in New York City neighborhoods, the Times refers to the streets around St. Ann’s as the “deadliest blocks” in the “deadliest precinct” of the city. If there is a deadlier place in the United States, I don’t know where it is” (Schultz, 2001, p. 373).
-“In 1991, 84 people, more than half of whom were 21 or younger, were murdered in the precinct. A year later, ten people were shot dead on a street called Beckman Avenue, where many of the children I have come to know reside. On Valentine’s Day of 1993, three more children and three adults were shot dead on the living room floor on an apartment six blocks from the run-down park that reserves the area” (Schultz, 2001, p. 373).
-“In early July of 1993, shortly before the first time that I visited the neighborhood, three more people were shot in 30 minutes in three unrelated murders in the South Bronx…Three weeks after that, a minister and elderly parishioner were shot outside the front door of their church, while another South Bronx resident was discovered in his bathtub with his head cut off” (Schultz, 2001, p. 373).
Mont Haven:
-“Crack-cocaine addiction and the intravenous use of heroin, which children I have met here call ‘the needle drug,’ are woven into the texture of existence in Mott Haven. Nearly 4,000 heroin injectors, many of whom are HIV-infected, live here. Virtually every child at St. Ann’s knows someone, a relative or a neighbor, who has died of AIDS, and most children here know many others who are dying now of the disease. One quarter of the women of Mott Haven who are tested in obstetric wards are positive of HIV. Rates of pediatric AIDS, therefore are high” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“Depression is common among children of Mott Haven. Many cry a great deal but cannot explain exactly why” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“Fear and anxiety are common. Many cannot sleep” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“Asthma is the most common illness among children here. Many have to struggle to take in a good deep breath. Some mothers keep oxygen tanks, which children describe as ‘breathing machines,’ next to their children’s beds” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“The houses in which these children live, two thirds of which are owned by the City of New York, are often as squalid as the houses of the poorest children I have visited in rural Mississippi…” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
-“Some of these houses are freezing in the winter. In dangerously cold weather, the city sometimes distributes electric blankets and space heaters for its tenants. In emergency conditions, if space heaters can’t be used, because substandard wiring is overloaded, the city’s practice is to pass out sleeping bags” (Schultz, 2001, p. 372).
Kozol’s Thoughts:
1) What is it like for children to grow up here?
2) What do they think the world has done to them?
3) Do they believe they are being shunned or hidden by society? If so, do they think that they deserve this?
4) What is it that enables some of them to pray?
5) When they pray, what do they say to God?
Kozol’s Search for Answers:
-Kozol is searching for explanations for the sadness heard in many of the voices he interacted with. He runs into problems because his inquiries are not resolved by factual questions. He wants to know how certain people hold up with terrible ordeals, how many more do not, how human beings devalue other people’s lives, how pity is at length distinguished, etc. These are all complicated questions.
-Kozol mentions in this article that to find answers, he visited with priests and theologians. He spoke to ministers and priests in almost every neighborhood, to Gregory Groover in Hunts Point, to the priest of St. Luke’s Church.
-Every time he spoke to one of these people, their conversation started with something specific (AIDS, education, welfare rules, lead poison, etc.), but ended with talk of personal pain, anxiety about the future of children, the search for faith, and even with the talk of God.
The Divides of the Bronx:
-According to Kozol, there is a divide between races in New York between 96th and 97th street. He calls this the “demarcation line.”
-“The sharpness of the demarcation line, which I have never seen before at the street level, is more dramatic and extreme than I anticipated. To the south, along Park Avenue, impressive buildings stand on both sides of the street, pedestrian islands with well-tended grass and flower paintings in the center. In the other direction, to the north, a railroad line, submerged beneath Park Avenue up to this point, appears from under 97th Street and spits the avenue in two. The trains, from this point on, run along the street for several blocks until Park Avenue dips slightly and the tracks are elevated on a large stone viaduct that shadows children playing in the sun of afternoon” (Schultz, 2001, p. 374).
-“Luxury grocers advertise their willingness to make deliveries only south of 96th Street, and even liberal papers such as the Oberver print these ads. McDonald’s announce ‘home delivery’ from 40 of its outlets in New York, but none of them north of this point on the East side…” (Schultz, 2001, p. 374).
Will times get better?:
-“No one in New York, in any case, expects the racial isolation of these neighborhoods to lessen in the years ahead. A demographic forecast by the city’s planning agency predicts the population of the Bronx – both North and South- half of which was white in 1970, and nearly a quarter of which was white in 1990, will be entirely black and Hispanic by the early years of the next century, outside of a handful de facto segregated enclaves of white people and a few essentially detached communities like parts of Riverdale. By that time, the Bronx and Harlem and Washington Heights will make up a vast and virtually uninterrupted ghetto with a population close to that of Houston, Texas, which is America’s fourth-largest city” (Schultz, 2001, p. 375).
-Despite these demographic probabilities, the Bronx borough President, Fernando Ferrer, is enthusiastic that things will change for the better.
-“Many men and women in the Bronx believe that it is going to get worse. I don’t know what can change this” (Schultz, 2001, p. 378).
What children in the Bronx are facing today:
-In New York, thousands of black and Hispanic children of low income have lost their parents to the plague of AIDS.
-In 1993, 10,000 children in New York had lost their mothers to the AIDS epidemic. As many as 2,000 of these children were believed to live in the Mott Haven community and in the three or four adjacent sections in the Bronx.
-Between 1993 and 2000, HIV-infected mothers in New York gave birth to 32,000 to 38,000 HIV-infected babies.
-“According to the city’s health officials, 91 percent of children in New York who were born with AIDS are black or Hispanic, as are 84 percent of women who have AIDS” (Schultz, 2001, p. 376).
-The incubation period for development of AIDS in infants is an average of three years. Most babies die in 18 months. Only about five percent live to be 12 years old.
-A Kozol experience: “In another family in the neighborhood, she says, the father died two years ago and the mother is about to die. The four soon-to-be-orphaned children are being cared for by their 75-year-old grandmother. One of the children, a nine-year-old, is sick with full-blown AIDS. Another child, seven years old, is less sick but he’s been getting IV blood infusions. The six-year-old may be okay. But it’s the 13-year-old girl, who isn’t sick, who’s causing the most worries. She’s staying out all night, defying her grandmother. She stared to do this at 11, when her father died. Recently, this girl had an abortion” (Schultz, 2001, p. 377).
How do children face these losses?:
-According to Kozol, they follow this prayer faithfully:
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost and now am found.
Was blind but now I see.
-Kozol expresses shock in his article. Despite all of the hardships Bronx residents face, they find joy through song. They pray, and are open to life.
Discussion Questions:
1) As teachers, what can we do to help students like those in the Bronx?
2) What are your reactions to the statistics mentioned in the presentation?
3) If you could grant every child three things – what would it be and why?
4) What is the significance of the song, “Amazing Grace” in this context?
Reference:
Schultz, F. (2001). SOURCES: Notable selections in education. New York: McGraw-Hill Dushkin.
Recommended Outside Resources:
Kozol, J. (2000). The hopeful years: Children of the South Bronx. Christian Century, 117, 536-541. Retrieved April 22, 2008, from http://web.ebscohost.com.avoserv.library.fordham.edu/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=116&sid=e829d572-1334-4877-9871-c4561f57be46%40sessionmgr108
Levine, C. & Stein, G. (1994). Orphans of the HIV epidemic: Unmet needs in six U.S. cities. The Orphan Project, 1-71. Retrieved April 22, 2008, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/15/a8/62.pdf
Lewis, C. & Moore, J. (2008). African American students in k-12 urban educational settings. Urban Education, 43, 123-126. Retrieved April 22, 2008, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=2&hid=14&sid=7cd9f163-89b3-4c0e-bcd1-73bc4b162839%40SRCSM1
Lightfoot, M. & Rotheram-Borus, M. (2004). Predictors of child custody plans for children whose parents are living with AIDS in New York City. Social Work, 49, 461-468. Retrieved April 22, 2008, from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdf?vid=3&hid=14&sid=5a8021de-02a6-4aed-9711-f81ec3d4ab37%40SRCSM1
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