First things first! My independent choice book is The Long Haul by Myles Horton.
Now onto the readings...
I loved the Dewey reading. I think that from the second page I was really gripped-- possibly just being in the preschool setting with such frequency, or maybe just because my interest lies in so many areas of education-- the idea that school truly is geared toward listening, or more crucially as Dewey puts it, "[marking] the dependency of one mind upon another; passivity, absorption" (32) is a scary one. However, daunting as it may be, schools really are set-up in a way that encourages--scarily enough-- as little "thinking" as possible. When I say 'thinking" here I mean actual independent thought formation, not repeating back what a text book "teaches" you.
I don't just say that I agree that schools are set up this way blindly, either. When I taught in my practicum classroom, an 8th grade class at Mt. Blue Middle School, I asked them to "infer" certain things about the poem we were working with. They were completely stumped. I asked them what they thought the poet meant by certain phrases, if they could find anything that possibly had a deeper meaning, a "symbol" of some sort possibly-- they acted as if I had five heads. When I told them what I thought, to use as an example or jumping-off point, they wanted immediately to know "where in the poem it said that," and "how I knew that." Critical, independent thinking is not fostered in (I hate to say this) most classrooms. Furthermore, Dewey invites us to instill this inquiry based learning at a young age-- these were 8th graders I was dealing with! Imagine if they would have had teachers who fostered these types of learning experiences earlier on.
Also, I love the metaphor Dewey uses about education as a solar system-- that in the new educational model, children are the sun, and the curriculum, the lessons (in short, the education), revolve around them and their lives. In this metaphor, the children are obviously the focus. However, like the solar system, the sun isn't the only piece involved-- the planets, too, still matter, and if these planets aren't aligned, then what is the point of the sun? Dewey points out that while the children should be the axis around which lessons and curricula orbit, the way the planets orbit (or the lessons are planned) is just as important. And for Dewey, to keep everything valid and in sync, this means connecting the inner and outer lives of the child, that is, in and out of school life and experiences.
Ultimately, if school is designed (as many people push in a democratic society), to churn out useful, literate citizens, then it only makes sense that we would want our schooling to reflect that by probing students, questioning their thinking, asking them to take both sides, respond critically to both educational and other prompts--if that in fact is still our goal.
This point brings me to the next reading that I wish to discuss, "The Lack of a Public for Public Schools." I thought this reading was interesting. I liked the idea of public-building and re-involvement of the community in our educational systems, but I also wasn't entirely sure if the pessimism of this author was necessary-- I guess I would need to know more about how much our "public" is actually dissenting.
However, I did like the points made-- the different reasons why, should this be (or if this is) a vital issue, our public needs to ban back together in order to reinstate an educational system that promotes our current value system. It only makes sense, if you are a follower of Dewey and the assigned reading of his, to look at education in that way-- how else are we going to respond to the educational needs of childrens' lives both in and out of school?
What I liked most about this reading was actually the part that I feel could be applied to any context-- covering perhaps a much larger bounds than just education, and that was the part that discussed ways of building community. I feel that here the author was skilled in making his case come alive.
*Another response to come on the last two readings. :)
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[yes, Mathews did give some good concrete examples, for the public building piece. Now that you mention it, I remember that, and you are right.]
ReplyDeleteAbout Dewey, and thinking, and schools being places where we don't ask/allow kids to think.
Often, it is the TEACHERS who do too much of the thinking. We end up - for lots of reasons - doing all the [thinking] work for the students.
someone I really respect once said to me, that as teachers, we need to regularly ask ourselves, as we plan curriculum and instruction: "who is doing the thinking?"
Of course, it is not always easy to get the kids to do the thinking - for lots of reasons, but, as teachers, who do the planning, some of that planning needs to keep in mind this question of thinking, and how to make sure that we are setting it up so that kids learn to, and do, the thinking.
Related to this, I think, is something about listening. I don't think we are all that great about listening to students. It's pretty hard, in classes of 25-30, to listen to what students think. But, the more we can do to set up opportunities for kids to talk (about what they know, think, care about, etc), the more we can build around them and their interests, and, in turn, get them thinking.
Not sure if I've made the connection between these things clear, though it is clear in my mind, anyway!