Remembering that your Alternative Schooling Moment (ASM) must happen outside of a traditional schooling environment (college or secondary campus, tutoring centers, or community class spaces), please write two paragraphs describing your group’s ASM.
- Our ASM has two phases, an informative stage and a practical stage. Any public environment outside of school could be our ASM environment — coffee shops, parks, shopping malls, restaurants. Preferably a place where one can sit down and can comfortably interact with the “teacher”. Generally we will have a small “lecture”, in which we provide readings or instructions about the subject we want to teach. This is meant to give an overview of the topic to the individual. Then we will provide the important details of the topic- the message we are trying to convey.
After the informative stage, we transition to the practical stage. Here we apply practice and utilize the information the individual was just exposed to. As the hands-on experiences progress, we take notes, ask questions, discuss lessons learned and hear comments. In the meantime, we observe and record people’s behaviors as indicators of their understanding and engagement of the subject. This practical stage is meant to complement and enhance the lecture while also finding out what the individual needs to work on. This is similar to self-reflection, which is to gauge how much the individual has learned/understood. Most importantly, we want to understand what the individual values the most out of the lecture, which can be a summary or feedback of what they learned. The good thing about our ASM is that there is no set curriculum. The “students” learn from experience. They can pursue what they are interested in if they want to. This also establishes better attitudes towards learning.
2) Who will be the audience/students of your ASM? Why?
Our audience/students will be adults between ages 18 and 24. This group of people who are currently attending have just completed college or an institution of higher education. They can more accurately see the pros and cons of our ASM since they have a broader understanding of the educational system. Additionally, our group can provide diverse feedback to our program. Our choice of audience can help us fully understand learning so that we can grow on our idea as well as to determine how to adapt to a different target audience if needed. Potentially with our audience, we can help grow and change our ASM to be more efficient than traditional schooling. As such, the methods that we utilize can ultimately give us a better understanding of how the audience responds as well as how they decide on if a particular subject matter is either meaningful or completely useless subject.
3) Remembering that learning objectives are active, please list the three main objectives of your ASM?
1) A general understanding and comprehension of the subject matter.
2) Application to real life that will benefit the individual.
3) Ability to share their recent findings with others and share the knowledge.
4) How do those three main objectives reflect your group’s philosophy of education and school?
We believe that it should teach us things relevant to our lives. Not everyone wishes to learn advanced calculus or modern physics. What we learn should be a choice. This is the problem with traditional schooling. Many students complain that what they learn does not have any practical use. In our ASM, we want to teach individuals something that is potentially useful and could at some point be used in their life. Namely, interview and resume writing skills, etc. Most students cannot endure learning subjects that do not interest them and will soon decide to drop out of school. Secondly, we believe that people should know more than the surface of the topic. It’s easy to “know” of the topic, but it is another thing to be able to carry a conversation about it. To do that, you must have a strong understanding as well as a good foundation of how that particular topic applies to real life. But most importantly, one has to want it. If an individual isn’t learning what he/she wants, it’s useless. Our system maximizes each individual’s education in a way that is not only enjoyable but also effective. One has to be actively engaged in the topic. The strong understanding leads to our third point, the ability to share the knowledge. With a solid understanding, you can be the teacher yourself and educate others on your recent findings. If you find it useful in life, another individual can benefit from it as well. This is the ultimate goal of what we are trying to achieve.
5) Which two of the readings does your group’s philosophy on schooling and education respond to (either by supporting or challenging)? Please provide textual evidence of the relationship between that reading and your group’s philosophy.
In The American Scholar, Emerson points out the danger of bookworms and the importance of being original. Our ASM will avoid focusing excessively on the text because individuals really have to actively engage in the teaching part in order to get the most out of it. By providing them the instructions first, what they create or perform later is really their own idea and a form of self-expression. Additionally, we will go in-depth to analyze and exemplify the significance of what Emerson states as the “Man Thinking” and how it contrasts with the typical bookroom which is evident in modern day society (Emerson 2). By giving an insight as to how the text and the precepts it discusses applies to real life, we can then commentate on the ways in which students should learn. Unlike the normal method of studying, we can create a new way to study. Differentiating between how books should be used as mere tools of influence rather than idolised forms of text will also be of great importance to our group’s philosophy of education. As books are great; however, experience can be just as valuable.
“Discourse on the Method” by Descartes supports our group’s philosophy on schooling and education. His first learning law states that a person should never accept anything as true unless it is evident. Hands-on experiences is the best way to have the individuals examine the subjects themselves. His fourth law states that a good learning method involves constant reviewing. This is particularly evident in the text in the sense that Descartes had to travel the world to gather an understanding of things he later regarded as either valuable or important. By giving a synopsis of what Descartes learned throughout his travels, our group can then elaborate on how a person can get an education no matter where they are, even if it is a little extreme or subtle from what they know. Therefore, by describing, explaining, applying and debriefing the text, we can then assure that nothing is omitted from our group’s philosophical point-of-view of education and schooling. Furthermore, Descartes explains how each subject does not benefit him. He says “I revered our theology, and aspired as much as anyone to reach heaven: but being given assuredly to understand that the way is not less open to most ignorant than to the most learned” (Descartes, pt.1, par.10). He thinks that studying theology is not likely to obtain the secrets from heaven. Rather, it is just a node between the real world and the human perception of heaven. Regarding philosophy, Descartes says “there is not a single matter within its sphere which is not still in dispute… I reckoned as well-nigh false all that was only probable” (pt.1,par.11). Even the best poets are “unacquainted with the art of poetry” (Descartes,pt.1,par.7). in his opinion. As to science, Descartes thinks it has “no solid superstructures” and is “infirm”. Therefore, our ASM can definitely serve to help individuals find what is not for them as well; as education should be subjective rather than to be uniform.
