Another thing I'm looking forward to is surveying our student teaching placement schools to document what technology resources they have available. I don't remember if it was Jeff or Kristin who mentioned that we would be doing this in the fall. But I'm really interested in seeing not only what is available in Ann Arbor Huron HS, where I'll be, but also what the other schools have. I really appreciate the wiki page of web resources that Kristin put together and took us through in the morning. I'm curious to see how easy or difficult it may be to make use of these resources in the various schools.
And I wouldn't have minded if the Dewey discussion had gone on for another couple of hours. The guy had a lot of provocative things to say, many of which or very much still relevant today. His strong focus on the individual child, but in the context of that child's "social life", seems to have been lost in this age of NCLB, Race to the Top, and high-stakes testing. What would Dewey have to say about all of this? I found myself also thinking about Diane Ravitch in the interview we watched in 649 railing against too much reform; isn't stability one of the most important things for the healthy development of a child? Back to Dewey, one of my favorite statements from his creed is where he said that education should be of the greatest importance to a community. I hope to contribute to that idea in whatever community I end up teaching in.
I was talking with my cousin, who teaches middle school orchestra in Las Vegas, about her school's frantic effort to avoid failing NCLB again this year. It actually involved tons of specialized, individual attention for the marginal kids who were close to passing but not quite making it, while the kids who did fine in the past and the kids who were "beyond hope" got much less attention. Not exactly what Dewey had in mind, but interestingly a totally logical distribution of resources for her school, given the constraints and conditions they're operating under.
ReplyDeleteStability is something that has been greatly challenged in public education. Just look at Detroit with its succession of superintendents. Also teacher turnover because of chaotic situations undermines stability. Some of the teachers I had in junior high and high school are just retiring now. I don't know given the challenges in education today how many stick around. The lack of stability means a loss of collective wisdom and experience and undermines the ability of the students to keep connections that can serve them for life.
ReplyDeleteStability is important, to be sure, but if something isn't working we can't simply sit by and allow it to continue to fail. The problems arose when the people implementing solutions didn't really understand the fundamental problem.
ReplyDeleteBut, to get at what Bill said, stability is very important for development. If anything, we need to find ways of shielding the students from the changes that need to be made in the system, perhaps by finding ways slowly transitioning them into whatever new system comes out of all of this reform; it's a difficult task, I know, but I don't really see any other way to go about it.
Emotional stability matters for kids, but I'm not sure it justifies the continuation of poor instructional/structural practices. (I don't think that's what you mean, either.) One sad part of school reform, I've found, is that administrators often move on to the next reform before the previous movement has really taken hold. So some teachers (and I can't blame 'em) say, "Just wait it out. We'll be on to the next ridiculous thing by September." So part of the issue is half-implemented reform is only going to half-succeed. We are an impatient profession, for many reasons.
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