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Author Archives: Jenny Huang
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Chapter 11
The benefits of being a teacher in the nineteenth century is still very much the same as the twenty-first century, which is very low and unsatisfactory. In the nineteenth century, teachers were paid with low wages and lack of retirement funds. Teachers struggled back then to remain a prominent image for themselves because the occupation was seen as less than prestigious. Just like today’s society, teachers are often looked down upon because of their role in the work field. People have the notion that teachers have fairly easy jobs because all they have to do is teach a subject at a very elementary level compared to those who specialize in a subject and make a career out of it. For example, an elementary first-grade teacher would not get the same praise as a doctor or a lawyer. For this reason, teachers get lower salaries and are not appreciated as much. But teachers in modern society have to have a master’s degree and go through extensive training to get the position, where as a businessman, who would make more than a teacher, would only be required to have a bachelor’s degree. Also, in the nineteenth century, teachers’ social lives were put under constant scrutiny because teachers had to remain a certain way to be considered great educators. That leaves the teachers stressed because they cannot act or behave as their normally would. Even today, I feel teachers have that burden of concealing their real life so that they would seem like a great role model for children. I remember my teachers telling me not to smoke and that it was bad for you when I was in elementary school, but I saw a few of them smoking during their break. It definitely poses a dilemma if children are taught one way but the teachers are doing the opposite. Teachers are getting paid really little to do so much- from educating children to concealing their social lives. I feel that this job asks for a lot of responsibilities from the teachers but offer very little compensation.
Another thing I found interesting was the notion of the “American way of life.” The book describes a billboard ad that features a smiling family with the slogan: “‘There’s no way like the American way'” (317). I find that the value of the American Dream is still prevalent in today’s society. The notion that the American way is to have a family of four in a big house with a dog behind a white picket fence seems to be an ideal that Americans strive for. However, to get to the “dream,” a lot has to be done. By implementing this thought into children when they’re young and in school is to hopefully turn them into productive byproducts of the work force– to work towards this one unattainable goal seemed realistic at the time. So what the government does is feed false hope to children so that when they grow old enough to work, they believe they’re working towards the American Dream, when in reality, they are just working to boost the economy– it is merely a false incentive.
My two questions are: If teachers go through more schooling than most jobs and careers, why are they seen as less adequate in the work force? and what kind of incentives are effective to promote learning to increase a higher level of academic excellence?
Posted in Chapter 11 - Teach Unions...
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Chapter 10
There is such a heavy, yet unnecessary, emphasis on tests in school systems today. There is no point in creating a curriculum that caters to test questions because it is not real learning. If teachers just taught for children to pass tests, then the entire school system is useless. We should be teaching children to look forward to other things rather than passing the regents, the SATs, or any other important tests. To have children, teachers, and schools ridiculed over test scores is not realistic at all. Students could just be really bad test takers, but to have the burden of passing the test on their backs, just makes it that much harder for them to focus on school work. In high school, I was a straight A student, but my SAT scores were really low. In some cases, children can be good test takers and bad participants in school, but in the end, they’ll get praised because test scores is the only thing that matters. Despite disagreeing with the amount of weight put on tests, there seems to be no better way to screen children and schools to see if they’re on the right track.
The idea of eugenics and sterilization is extremely bizarre. It’s the same as categorizing people into adequate and inadequate groups, but who’s is to say if a person’s capabilities are worthy or not? Just because a student has a mental illness, it does not mean that they are dumb or stupid, and it is certainly far-fetched to try to contain levels of mentally-ill children from being born. Students with learning disabilities need more patience and attention, not neglect. They will learn at their own pace, and it may not be the same as the average child, but to try to “improve the level of intelligence of the American population.. by making it impossible for those with low levels of intelligence to have children” is extremely insensitive and unreasonable (286). Like the book says eugenics is similar to Nazi’s and their creation of the “super race”. American school systems are always trying to categorize students so that they can improve learning, but is that really working? I find that when you separate children and put them into learner groups, they tend to fail more because it will be obvious to them who is the smarter group and who is the failing group.
Ultimately, a reason that the American school system seems to be failing is because learning is geared towards the wrong purpose. To teach children strictly material on tests is useless and a waste of time. Academics should be taught in a way that can be applied to the real world, not just tests. So what changes should be made in the school systems so that students could learn realistically? And what kind of programs can be provided to ensure that?
Posted in Meritocracy, Testing, and Special Education
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Chapter 9
I think America put the wrong emphasis on education. For example, the text states that “the emphasis on education to serve economic goals shaped the development of the modern high school” (237). Going to school by means of having a leg up when you apply for jobs is not the way it should be. The reason we have such low literacy and academic rates is because some people do not value work as much as other countries. Going to school does make getting a job easier, but people should be learning for the betterment of themselves, not because it will act as a leverage for future career opportunities. I think America is setting up a bad example for children because 1) schools started out as means of teaching morals, not so much educating on academics, 2) schools were created to get children off the streets and to lower crime rates, and 3) higher education is used as a tool for jobs in the future. The purpose of school is for education, but it seems that now, people only see education as a phase in life they have to get through in order to be at a certain level in society. Ranking students and people according to their educational level is wrong and does not show anything. The correspondence of education and economic wealth shows that our society only values education because of money.
Also, I feel that the implementation of extracurricular activities was a great idea but now that schools are being underfunded, those are the first programs to be eliminated. “The other organizations making up extracurricular activities were justified as contributing to the unification of the school and the preparation of the students for participation in a cooperative democracy” (243). Non-academic activities actually help students do better in school, and like the quote says, it provides unity. When students get time to know each other away from the learning environment, such as the classroom, it gives them time to build bonds, thus building connections. And in my opinion, networking is more important that academics. Even in college, there are so many clubs and organizations for students to join, because in the end, the people you know are the ones who can help you achieve in the future. Academics is important, but so is creating a network. How can we help find a balance between work and play to help ensure the best results for students? and how can the government help change the value of education for children so that we can appreciate education?
Chapter 8
The Kindergarten Movement was interesting to me because the chapter says that it’s sole purpose was to get children off the streets and provide education for the child as well as the parents. I agree with this section that school should be implemented on children when they’re young because it will be the only way to instill a great foundation for latter learning. I work with young children and I can tell that the parents are highly influenced by their children’s education. I also work at a program that is geared towards immigrant families, and in order for them to assimilate into the U.S, they have to learn English and the American culture. The parents often do so but talking and learning from their children. Since the children I work with are in kindergarten and first grade, their literacy level is often times higher than that of their parents. The children will also teach their parents how to speak English and help them learn as well. But I would imagine that any parents, immigrants or not, will try to help their children succeed academically as much as possible. And to do so, similar to what the book exemplified, is to just provide a better learning environment at home and to set good examples for them. However, I find that implementing such a rigid system on younger children is not the best way for them to learn. Children should be able to incorporate play with learning to make it better for them. However, as a result of budget cuts, recess and other outdoor activities are being under-funded, so children are beginning to go to school without any sort of break time to ease their stress.
I also thought the establishment of summer schools was interesting. When summer schools first began, parents were fighting for their children to admitted into the programs. But I think there is a bad connotation to summer school in contemporary society. When I was younger, my friends and I all knew that summer school only meant you failed regular school and you need extra time and practice to show that you could graduate to the next grade. However, when summer schools were first implemented, it’s primary purpose is to prolong the school year so that children would be idle for a good two months. And in that time, crime would increase, children would be unproductive, so it seemed to be a great idea to extended school to help get kids off the streets. According to the book, “idleness is an opportunity for evil0-doing” (214). I have to disagree with this point because I feel that the only thing children seem to look forward to when they’re in school is summer time. It is the only time they get to take a break from mental stress and just relax. Just as adults often need to take a vacation to relieve stress and have a mental break, children need the same. Now parents and politicians want to prolong school days and the amount of days spent in school. Increasing the days will just make children resent school even more. Referring back to video we saw in the beginning of the semester, school does not have to same meaning for children in the 21st century compared to the 19th century. So how can we revamp the school system so that it will benefit children’s style of learning better? and how will elongating the school year help?
Posted in Welfare Function
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Chapter 7
The beginning of Chapter 7 reminded of the discussion we had about single sex schools today. Chapter 7 begins with “in the latter half of the nineteenth century, the educational treatment of Mexican, Asian, Native, African, and Puerto Rican Americans ran counter to the common school ideal of uniting all children in the same schoolhouse. Issues of racial segregation, language policies, and attempts to destroy cultures clouded efforts to provide equal educational opportunity for all children” (162). We can to discuss how boys and girls learn differently, but never touched upon how different races, ethnicities, and cultures learn. If there can be debate over how to better teach boys and girls, there should really be debate over how different races could be better taught. Statistically speaking, blacks and hispanics are the lowest achieving academic group in the United States. Why not now focus on helping that particular demographic, or any for that matter, to achieve? It is apparent that America is a melting pot of different cultures and races, and to single out a group of underachieving youth does not seem at all fair. Though Chapter 7 speaks about the mid nineteenth century, I believe that some of the norms still hold true. America had neglected nonwhite races for a long time, and I still feel that it is continuing to happen. Like mentioned before, blacks and hispanics, mainly those who come from the lower class and poverty-ridden areas, are struggling in school. Why is it that this injustice still stands today? We established that it seems that boys are falling behind compared to girls today, so imagine what the statistics would be like for boys who are black or hispanic? Gender struggles seems to be the least of our worries.
Also, the chapter conveniently divides into subgroups of various non-white races– which include: Mexicans, Asians, Native Americans, African Americans, and Puerto Ricans. Not only were they mistreated in the nineteenth century, I still feel that there is a disconnect with these races in modern society. Though we have come a long way from segregation, there is still the notion that non-white races are less able to become as successful as whites. This not only shows in the common school, and actually school now, but also in the work field. As mentioned before, child of color seem to be the ones who are suffering most from academic failure and are the ones who have the highest drop out rate. And historically speaking, nonwhites were forced to work at a little to no wage for their labor. As a result, non-whites work for a less substantial amount of money in contemporary society because of a lack of education or because they can be immigrants trying to build a foundation in America. Thus, lowering the standards we hold for nonwhites. Also, in the government, most of the officials are white males, and whenever someone of color gets elected into office, it becomes immediate news. This shows that as long of a way we’ve come from the nineteenth century mindset, we need to go further and have more people of color acquire better paying and prestigious jobs to show children that they too can be successful. This goes back to the conversation in class when we said that men have more substantial jobs than women parallels to whites having better jobs as nonwhites. I’m not denying that the work force in any area has been diversified in the past years, but I feel that there needs to be more people of color working and holding more elite job titles. This goes back to how poor children are less likely to succeed in school because of a lack of funding for their zone, facilities in their school, and other amenities that well-funded schools have. If there were a role model of the same race as the child, I believe that they would do better in school and show an increase in performance. Just as we said a woman teacher can relate better to female students, and a man teacher to male students, a Spanish/Asian/Black role model will set up a good example for a Spanish/Asian/Black child.
So what I’m wondering is: is there any way we can help the nonwhite community excel, or at least measure up to norm? and if there is, how can we do it in a way where all groups of learners are getting the same attention and learning as progressively?
Posted in Immigration and the Challenge of “School for All”
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Chapter 6 Resources
http://www.rae.org/women.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/179408/education/47596/Western-education-in-the-19th-century
http://www.pbs.org/onlyateacher/timeline.html
http://faculty.knox.edu/jvanderg/202_K/Pestalozzi.htm
http://www.localhistories.org/education.html
http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP9By3l7rlo
group members: Fanny Choo, Florence Leung, and Jenny Huang
Posted in Role and Perception of Teachers, Teacher-student relationship, Teachers and Pedagogy
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Chapter 5
Chapter 5 brought up the fact that “educational segregation resulted in unequal educational opportunities” (117). Though segregation isn’t prevalent anymore, we can see that certain schools get more funding than others depending on the neighbor in which the school is. There has been news that schools in the Bronx are closing because of low test grades and that the schools are falling behind. Why is it that Manhattan schools aren’t closing? Why are specialized schools better funded? The government seems to care more about numbers than they do the children. Yes, schools in bad neighborhoods are failing, but the government doesn’t seen to be intervening and helping. Similar segregation where the government believed that non-whites were inferior, thus receiving less funding, schools with failing grades are treated the same way. Also, students is low performing schools are a majority of non-whites, so is there a parallel? I think it’s safe to say that the money will go to which ever school that represents the country well, but for the schools that lack grades and performance, they’re just going to cast offs, which will inevitably lead to it closing. It is not fair that that is happening. In my opinion, I think more money should be going to schools with poor performance– after all, there is a reason why. These schools are doing so poorly are because they lack the funding and lack the opportunities to use the same facilities and same resources that well-funded schools have. Maybe if the government paid more attention to schools that actually needed help, we wouldn’t be at such a low rank in terms of education compared to other countries.
The entire chapter reminded of the conversation we had on Wednesday. Americans, namely Protestants, and their relationships with those who are different from them, whether it be skin color or religion, are all forced to conform to their ideals and way of life. It doesn’t seem fair to impose one’s own thoughts onto someone else if they do not believe the same thing. The way Protestants treated others is harsh and unreasonable; taking over their Native American land and then trying to instill Christianity into them because it would make them civilized, and segregating blacks because of their skin color are examples of how we should just respect people for who they are. Back to the conversation we had about what makes an American American, relates to how native born Americans are judging immigrants by how they are not the same as us. This country is made up of different races, ethnicities, cultures, and religion. Isn’t time that we realize that we’re just repeating history and that the only way to be civilized is to accept other for who they are. The differences that are pointed out make for a very unfair society. Once there are these differences, we will gravitate towards those who have similarities and favor that group of people. Equal opportunities are, quite frankly, inaccessible to many people that live in the United States because there is such an emphasis on being similar. So my questions are will we be able to ever achieve equal opportunity for anyone if there’s always going to be a bias? and what are the steps to take to ensure that everyone gets that chance?
Posted in Common School and Power, Native American Education
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Chapter 4
A quote I found interesting was that common schools were created with “the belief that human nature can be formed, shaped, and given direction by training within formally organized institutions” (81). This seems to put an emphasis on the responsibilities that schools have. Not only do educators have to teach children about various subjects, they also have to mold and instill morals into the children. I find that that’s still relevant in the contemporary world. Parents often put the responsibility onto educators to help them raise their children, when in fact, I do not believe that those are a teacher’s requirements. That’s not to say that teachers and educators do not have to discipline children when they do the wrong things, but to go as far as to instilling morals and going the extra mile to do what parents are supposed to do, is not within the job requirements. In my experiences working in a day care, parents often complain about various problems with their children and expect the teachers to solve it. Teachers are not there to pick up after parents and school is not just a facility to leave children while parents go work. I agree that educators have the responsibility to teach children what is right and what is wrong, but they should not be liable for forming and shaping students– it is ultimately the parent’s job.
Another thing that was interesting was the dispute between the Whigs and the Democrats. The Whigs believed that “the government should intervene to maintain social order through a centrally managed school system designed to educate moral and responsible citizens. In contrast, members of the Democratic Party believed that social order would occur naturally, and therefore they believed in minimal government intervention and local control of the schools” (93). In my opinion, I think that the government should have more involvement in schools because it is the only way they can regulate what happens. The reason there are so many school closing down now is because the curriculum is failing and the government did not step in soon enough. Students from developing neighborhoods are falling behind and failing. Instead of trying to figure out what the problem is, the government is deciding to cut the school’s budget and lay off a great amount of teachers. Had the government been more involved, students and teachers would be able to keep their facilities and work towards a creating a better environment for learning. Going back to the fact that the United States is behind in terms of education, there is a clear reason why. When the economy isn’t doing well, our government decides to take slashes at the education system rather than make reforms. The government obviously finds the education system less important than other areas, which is why we are falling behind. So my questions are: how can the government intervene in a way that will help schools and help the U.S develop a better reputation for themselves in terms of testing/reading/writing/math? and whether or not a new curriculum is needed to improve the quality of schools?
Posted in Common School and Power, Native American Education
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Chapter 3
Thomas Jefferson believed that “education should provide the average citizen with tools of reading and writing and that political beliefs would be formed through the exercise of reason”…. and that an “an individual is ‘endowed with a sense of right and wrong . . . this sense is as much as part of his nature as the sense of hearing, seeing, feeling; it is the true foundation of morality'” (55). I agree with Jefferson. As long as a person has enough information about a certain subject matter, they can decide for themselves which is right or wrong. Education is supposed to help guide children along the right path and impose strong morals, however, it is up to the child himself to decide what he wants to think and do. Through my years of schooling, teachers and professors are there to probe students to think and analyze more critically– by providing sufficient information to help students determine what they think is the best answer. Jefferson and I both believe that children and adults, alike, have the capabilities to make good decisions through learning and education. Jefferson has a more contemporary view on learning and would identify with more people in modern society.
“Urban families believed that … childhood was a stage of life where character could be shaped to make the virtuous adult. Schools were seen as logical institutions for the extension of childhood that would protect and mold children” (60). It is important to keep children from the dangers of the streets and to prevent them from falling down the wrong path. A way parents thought that was possible, was to put children in school, where they could learn and possibly better themselves. However, there are exceptions. Sometimes children act out in schools and form posses and cliques that often alienate others. It becomes a hostile environment for some children, so how can we ensure that schools are the best alternative? And what should be regulated in schools to make sure that children are getting the best education possible?
Posted in Multiculturalism, Nationalism, and the Role(s) of Education
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