Chapter 20 (Week of 3/23/09)

I found that I disagreed with some of the points made in this chapter. First the author starts out by saying that school rules are designed to create a hierarchy. The result is that there are a few "gifted" students at the top, while the majority of students are failures at the bottom. While this may indeed be the outcome of some school policies, I highly doubt that when administrators put school regulations together that their intention is to alienate a majority of the student body. I don't necessarily agree with the Radical Schooling Theory as well. This theory states that "schools embody the class interests and ideology of the dominant class." This may be true in some schools, but I would hesitate to make such a generalization. Almost all of the educators I have worked with (granted, I haven't been in education very long...) have seen equality in education as a priority. Although the interests of the dominant class may occasionally be inadvertently taught in the classroom, more often that is not the case.

Another statement I struggled with in this chapter is that "Conformity to rules is treated by school adults as the essential prior condition for any classroom learning to take place." My initial reaction to this idea was to agree with it. I am teaching a couple of challenging classes right now in which the students struggle with classroom rules. I find it very difficult to teach and provide a positive learning experience for the students without them following certain rules. I struggle with keeping them under control almost every day. Then it occurred to me that even though the classroom rules are not always followed, the average grade in the class is pretty high. So there is an above average level of learning going on in that class despite the discipline problems. Therefore, maybe conformity to rules is not an essential prior condition for learning to take place in a classroom.

Chapter 18 (Week of 3/9/09)

I found some of the facts given in this chapter particularly interesting. For example, I did not know that the laws involving cocaine use were so prejudiced. The use of crack cocaine, which is cheaper and used more in communities of color, holds a higher penalty than the use of cocaine powder, which is more expensive and used more in upscale white communities. Laws such as this perpetuate the discrimination against minorities in our judicial system. Programs, such as housing projects, keep minorities contained in one area, which also perpetuates racial discrimination. I also found it interesting that reading scores are used to predict imprisonment needs. According to the latest scores, the need for prisons will increase in the future. The prison system itself is prejudiced. By removing libraries and educational programs, prisons are proving to be less about rehabilitation and more about punishment these days. These facts do not bode well for the education system. There is major inequality in education and it is the educators job to fight for equality in schools and also in society as a whole.

Standardized Testing

I found Linda M. McNeil's study on standardization to be particularly interesting. I have always been opposed to standardized testing and McNeil's findings have only cemented my feelings on the subject. She makes a good point when she says that testing widens the gap between the poor and minority students and those who are more privileged. The former is already at a disadvantage so standardized testing just exasperates this problem. The worse they do on the test, the lower quality of education they will receive from that point on. This is not fair. However, the problem is in finding alternatives to standardized testing. How do we determine if the state-mandated standards are being taught in the classroom without testing? There has to be some other way to hold teachers and schools accountable for the material that the state has determined should be taught to all students? I don't really have a solution here but there has to be a better alternative. Students who do not do well on the standardized tests should not fall by the wayside. They should not be treated as a lost cause. We need to concentrate even more on them. I'm open to suggestions...

Recommendations

Enora Brown provides us with the list of recommendations from the Turning Points report in 2000. While reading through these seven recommendations, I find that I agree with all of them. They are all great ideas and would improve the educational system in this country. The problem I have is that these recommendations are not followed up by any suggestions as to how an educator can implement these things on a day to day basis. This is a problem I have frequently run into during my short time teaching so far. My cooperating teacher complains of this as well. The district administrators will present ideas or recommendations for improving the education of the students, but will never tell teachers how to carry these ideas out in the classroom. We find ourselves sitting there and agreeing whole-heartedly with all of the suggestions presented. We will leave the meeting with a great feeling of accomplishment. But then the more you think about it, it becomes clear that you have idea how to achieve these goals. This is why I really appreciated Chapter 29. Eric Gutstein provides a specific way in which he used math to teach social justice in his classroom. Granted, I will not necessarily be able to use his exact ideas because I do not teach math. But those who do teach math could definitely take a lesson from this guy. I hope that more educators share their stories like this so that we can have ideas on how to better educate our students and implement new ideas in the classroom.

English Only

I really agree with Donaldo Macedo's points in Chapter 25. An English Only policy is not in the best interest of bilingual students. Although I do think it is important for these students to learn English in order to function in society, I also believe it is important to cultivate their thoughts in their native language as well. If we concentrate on making them learn and use only English in the school setting, they may not develop critical thinking skills because they can not express their ideas as fully in English as they can in their native language. Our society is so Anglo-centric and it alienates anyone who speaks a different language. This can make young students feel like their language and culture is inferior. Especially in middle school, when students are vulnerable to begin with, we should not add to this by demeaning their background. Our curriculum needs to embrace a variety of cultures, not just American culture.

A quote that I found particularly interesting in this article is that "speaking English has not enabled African-Americans to change this society's practice of jailing more Blacks than even South Africa, and this society spending over 7 billion dollars to keep African-American men in jail while spending only 1 billion dollars educating Black males." That's a staggering statistic. What would happen if we put that much money towards education?