1)
If Obama had called me and asked me what were five things that
needed to be done about education I would have to first of all really think
about the whole picture and then try to let Obama know that this is not an easy
task, but here is some starting points. First get rid of NCLB! This system does
not promote an educational system; it encourages test-taking skills that are
not useful in our communities and the American society. We need to encourage
students to think critically and be well-rounded citizens with a deeper
knowledge then just English/Literature and Mathematics. To begin to create
this, which leads into my second piece, is that we need a National Standards to
be implemented across the nation in all our schools. The catch with these
National Standards is that they have to be just the basics, not too much, but
central themes that every American should know. If a State wants to add to the
National Standards they are more than welcome to, but they must follow the
basic National Standards. Make it simple and a place to build from, but we do
not need every four to five years a revolutionary style of teaching or way to
educate the students, its not working. We’ve all seen from the Gates Foundation
that just putting money into a new idea doesn’t always work (i.e. small
schools), but lets get to the roots of the curriculum and develop what basics
are needed and from there schools, communities, counties, states, etc. can add
what is need for their population. But again, we need a basic National
Standards. With this idea bring me to the third suggest that will begin to help
schools and that is equity within the founding of schools. We need to spend
money on the youth and not the military, I know that the Republicans will never
allow that, but the reality is that as we continue to cut funding from the
Federal level and also from the State level towards education, students are not
being educated, they’re not able to get a job, and as a result either the state
is taking care of them through some sort of well-fare program or taking care of
them inside a jail cell. This is not the future we want for our students. The
idea of a kindergarten class having 35 students running around with one teacher
sounds scary, those children are not getting the attention that they need and
deserve at that crucial age level of learning, while the wealthier individuals
can afford to take their children to private schools where they can get the
proper attention. So, we need more equity within funding of schools, because if
we put the money into the schools we can save a ton later on when these
children have graduated and have jobs and being productive members of our
society. The fourth piece that needs fixing is stop hiring politicians and
business men/women to determine what is best for education. The classroom is a
separate entity from businesses, it is true that we want success as a business
wants profits, but our success can come at different rates, whereas stock
holders want those successes to come every quarter, this is not a realist goal
for education. What we need to do when dealing with a creation of a National
Standards and any kind of educational policies is that we need to look towards
the states, communities, and teachers and have them share what is needed and
what works. No reason to re-create the wheel, there are practices out there
that do work, may not work in all settings, but that is what we need to
determine, what style works best for each individual state, community, teacher,
etc. Teaching is not an exact science, but give us some basic guiding points
(National Standards) and the proper funding and we will begin to see the
students more engaged and a nation with less problems and more prosperity. This
brings me to my last point; at this current state what is our goal for
education as a Nation? Is it to continue to use a testing system that has
flaws; is it to continue to pump millions and billions of dollars into the
magic cure of charter schools; what is our goal, because right now it is
unclear and with an unclear goal nothing is going to be accomplished. So, to
assist you in finding this goal we need to recognize that education is first
off not a “business” we will produce success, but it takes time and money, an
investment that we should all be willing to pay for. As education is not a
business and students all learn in different ways, we need to accept a variety
of teaching methods and schools; charters seem to be the evil cancer towards
public schools according to Diane Ravitch, but in reality the problem in
charters is the media around it and its selection process. This doesn’t mean
that charters are bad, but what we need to recognize is that we can not go a
way from one style of schools, but embrace them all as long as they are
following a National Standards and there is an equal opportunity to attend and
a equal amount of money being spent on all types of educational systems. Public
schools are not the problem; they just need some of the support that all these
other types of schools are getting. So, education is a challenging agenda, but
there is hope and we as a country can help, we just need to be willing to do
so. And one last piece before we start to fix our educational system, we really
need to consider looking at other nations from around the world, Ravitch makes
points about Japan and Finland and their successes, even though they are not
the same size as our nation we can potentially learn some things about how they
deal with education, so we need to get beyond the old mentality of the Cold War
when we thought that we had to be better than everyone else, but understand
that we live in a different world now, a more global one and we can learn and
benefit from each other. Thank you President Obama for listening to me rant
about how to fix education, but again we can do this.
2)
The thing that has
been the most meaningful for me with Ravitch is her whole approach towards the
issue of education. I first off like the fact that she recognized her mistake
in supporting NCLB, but even more so appreciate how she breaks it down and then
breaks down other miracle works and tries to get to the root of education. I
wish that other politicians would learn from her and realize when a thing is
broken to start to fixing it instead of just ridding it out and being arrogant
thinking that it is still right even when data tells you and everyone else
differently. With Ravitch recognizing all these flaws, my one concern is that
there isn’t too many solutions, not that I have the solutions either, but after
reading Ravitch you feel like nothing has really been resolved and you’re still
looking for a way to fix education. I like her insistence of creating a strong
curriculum and beginning to create a well-educated person as a goal, I
completely agree with this. I also found that most of what Ravitch was talking
about I had already had similar feelings, but again not too much in the
solutions department. So, overall the most meaningful aspect is that Ravitch
has addressed these concerns and maybe we can start restructuring this flawed
educational system that is hurting a lot of our students and even educators.
There is no reason for a good teacher to go to an under-performing urban public
school if we base your salary and position off of the test scores of your
students. The system is broken, it just needs to be fixed, but our government
needs to recognize that it is broken and stop trying to ride it out.
3) Given
the current state of American education the thing that I can do as an educator
and as a citizen is continue doing what I am doing. Meaning that as an educator
I need to continue to reach as many of my students as possible on the values of
education and the need to be productive and active members of our society. As
Ravitch puts it we need a well-educated person and to accomplish that I try to
have my students think critically and I am always trying to challenge the
students beliefs as I hope they do to mine. Playing “Devil’s Advocate” within
class discussion helps me understand what the students know about the topic and
really challenges the students to look at things from an alternative
prospective. As an educator with the current American education system I am not
looking for the highest test scores, but I continue to try to build on the
ability to critically think and with that power they can take any kind of
multiple-choice test. As a citizen I vote, I voice my opinion when needed or
appropriate, and I hope that others are too. It all starts with a good
foundation built around education, but I have to keep a positive attitude that
the system will eventually get fixed, if not any one down to go to Australia,
they got good surf and some say they are like the United States, just 40-50
behind.
4)
While looking at national or state associations
from my subject area of social studies, the first one that I found was the
National Social Science Association (NSSA). This association was founded in
1983 and has conferences and seminars about 3-4 times a year to bring together
the different ideas around social science, with new discoveries, teachings,
ideas, strategies, etc. Just this past weekend there was a seminar in Lake
Tahoe focusing on professional development. Another association that I found
was the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). The NCSS was founded in
1921 and has grown to be the largest association in the United States devoted
solely to the teachings of social studies. The NCSS framework consists of ten
themes incorporating fields of study that correspond with one or more relevant
disciplines. The organization believes that effective social studies programs
include experiences that provide for the study of:
·
Culture
·
Time, Continuity, and Change
·
People, Places, and Environments
·
Individual Development and Identity
·
Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
·
Power, Authority, and Governance
·
Production, Distribution, and Consumption
·
Science, Technology, and Society
·
Global Connections
·
Civic Ideals and Practices
This
association is holding its annual conference in Seattle, Washington, in
November (16-18).
5)
As six weeks was a challenge to collect all the resources that
I needed or even wanted to for my capstone project based around the social
impact of WWII on the Bay Area home front, I find it even more challenging to
come up with an additional 19 with this last assignment. Looking at areas of
experiential resources within the Bay Area (5), books (5), journals (2),
conferences or events (2), and world connections (5). Here is what I am finding
or still trying to find.
a.
Experiential Resources within the Bay Area (5):
i.
Japanese American Resource Center Museum, in San Jose
ii.
Japan Town, in San Francisco
iii.
The Oakland Museum of California, in Oakland
iv.
Visit Port Chicago and try to get a tour or some more
information about the location, in Concord
v.
Visit San Francisco and walk around and visit museums to
gather more information as San Francisco was heavily impacted by World War II,
in San Francisco
vi.
Visit the San Francisco Chronicle to look at their archives of
newspaper during World War II, in San Francisco
b.
Books (5):
i.
Wartime America: The World War II Home Front (1998), by John
W. Jeffries
ii.
The Journey Continues: The World War II Home Front (2005), by
Wilbur D. Jones, Jr.
iii.
World War II: From the Home Front (2007), by Gale W. Day
iv.
When All the Men Were Gone: World War II and the Home Front,
One Boy’s Journey Through the War Years (2010), by Ronald G. Capalaces
v.
On the Home Front: Everyday American life from Prohibition
through World War II (2012), by Mary Jo Ryan Clark & Jack Clark
vi.
Home Front U.S.A.: America during World War II (Third Edition
2012), by Allan M. Winkler
c.
Journals (2):
i.
World War II: Defending Park Values and Resources, doi: 10.1525/tph.2007.29.4.15
ii.
On the Homefront
and in the Workplace: Integrating Immigrant Women into Feminist Discourse,
retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3317463
iii.
Utopia, Nostalgia and World War at the 1939-40 New York
World’s Fair, retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036413
d.
Conferences or Events (2):
i.
Maybe check out the National Council of the Social Studies
(NCSS) annual Conference in Seattle, Washington in November.
ii.
Maybe even check out the California Council for the Social
Studies (CCSS) conference on Teaching
for Social Justice in Troubled Times, October 27, 2012, in
Sacramento, CA.
e.
World Connections (5):
i.
Look at Japan’s home front efforts
ii.
Look at Germany’s home front efforts
iii.
Look at the Soviet Union’s home front efforts
iv.
Look at Great Britain’s home front efforts
v.
Look at France’s home front efforts
