Sythesis #3

                America is changing, both technologically and culturally.  As a result schools will have to evolve in order to prepare the students of the future for the world.  Currently as illustrated by Oakes, there is a strong lobby for the traditional mold of schooling.  However it has become apparent that this mold is quickly becoming obsolete.  Draves and Oakes both agreed that the current model is built on the concept of a factory, in order to churn out students as a finished product for the industrial era.  This attempt at a homogenized product, I would say did not provide education for all the students, even in the most homogeneous student body.  The student body however is becoming increasingly diverse, along with an increasingly globalized technological based economy. 

            The structure of schools will have to change.  As I mentioned before, the current model is based on the factory model with the intent of churning out a homogenized product.  However students are all different with different strengths and weaknesses that they bring to the table.  What is important is recognizing this and making changes to accommodate for this in ways that encourages students to work.  This can be done with a multitude of different policies.  However perhaps the easiest way to go about assisting students to learn is to have a prolonged contact with their subject teachers.  Graduating classes can be assigned certain teachers in each subject who they have throughout their career at that school.  Oakes writes on page 442 “Research has shown that students do better in school when their teachers know them well and when they work with the same teacher for two or more years”.  Having the same teacher only represents one minor problem for a teacher, which is having to prepare for new subject matter each year.  However the advantage is that the teacher will know their students more with each passing year and have a better handle on how each of them learn.  Teachers will be able to personalize their lessons and assessments to their students, instead of grasping at straws each year.  This makes basic sense to me, based on one of my hobbies which is Dungeons and Dragons.  In the game the Game Master (aka DM) creates a series of puzzles and other problems for the players to overcome.  I found that as time goes by with the same group of players, creating new puzzles and problems for them to enjoy becomes easier and more enjoyable.   I have so far likened creating lesson plans and assessments to planning for Dungeons and Dragons.  In both you are supplying the individuals with what they will need to later solve problems to prove that they are able.  It only makes sense that having the same students for more than one year will make creating lesson plans for that class far easier.  Another advantage is that by having the same students for a longer period of time, the teachers are able to aide students in ways other than academically.  By having the students, teachers are better able to get to know their personalities, and what they may need emotionally.  This could range between noticing on going trends, and being there for support, or noticing sudden changes.  This reminds me of an ex-girlfriend I had back in high school.  She was normally a very good student, hardworking and cared about her classes.  However her junior year events happened within her family that caused her a great deal of emotional anguish.  Her problems went by rather unnoticed by faculty who just assumed that she had an attitude problem, and that her apathy was normal.  She was stuck dealing with her issues on her own wit my help.  The problem is that at the time I was only 16, and in no way able to really help her continue on with school.  Her grades never recovered and she barely graduated.  Now if we had the same teachers that we had our freshman year, or even sophomore I firmly believe that teachers would have noticed that something was going on, and would have stepped into make sure she got the assistance that she required. 

            In fact it is this ability to care for the students that bleeds directly into how curriculum must be modified.  Perhaps the first thing that needs to go is the use of high stake tests to measure student performance.  The problem with standardized tests is that, first just like students learn in different ways; they also express what they know differently.  It boils back to students having different strengths.  What I suggest then is that schools rely on traditional tests less, and integrate more authentic assessments.  The video “Educational Futurists” covered this at great lengths.  They discussed how students become excited and more involved when they are actually doing what they are learning.  I agree with the one teacher who made the comment about how he remembered the projects he did in school, and referenced when he traced his hand to look like a turkey.  This was backed up by the teacher who made a comment about how students are always asking her “do you remember that one project we did...” and that no one ever asks her if she remembers a test.  Students remember projects because they find them interesting, and like they said in the video, there is a finished product they can be proud of.  As a result of the students remembering their projects, they are also more likely to retain the information used to accomplish the project.  Aside from that, it helps students develop problem solving skills, forcing them to think critically.  The one man interviewed in the video from Harvard who commented about how critical thinking is imperative for prost-scholastic life.  Testing skills are vital for tests only, however what is learned in the class room can be translated over to a broader range of uses.  This however would require that teachers force students to perform different tasks with the information used.  Students preparing a presentation on the American Revolution for example are not only showing what they know about history, but also perfecting vital research, and public speaking skills.  By having students produce authentic assessments instead of standardized tests, students are going to retain a greater amount of the content taught, as well as develop other skills then just testing skills.

            Lastly certain aspects of pedagogy could afford to be modified.  Aside from teachers making more of an effort to show that they care, all teachers could afford to use their class time to convey the importance of social justice.  I may find this to be important because I am hoping to teaching history or civics.  The purpose of these subjects is to convey the importance of ethics, justice, and how a democratic society should act.  However I do not feel that these topics can only be taught in those the social sciences.  Gardener makes a mention of different kinds of minds, and among them is the ethical mind, and talks about how a world without ethics would not be a world worth living in.  Students need to think about social issues to decide for themselves what it means to be ethical.  While the social sciences draw heavily on historical events, and politics, other subjects are also full of potential.  Students can create projects in math regarding economic issues, such as capitalism, or the issues with outsourcing jobs.  Science is a subject that brings up ethical issues all the time, be it evolution, or the ethics behind stem cell research.  By eliciting students to think about topics on an ethical level, they not only become more civic minded, but also the subjects take on another dimension of life.  This in turn will further increase their interest, and allow them to think about adult issues instead of being children practicing their times tables. 

            The world is changing, through a combination of new technology and more students of different backgrounds.  For America to maintain world dominance, the school system will have to evolve to help students meet the new challenges of the future.  America as a nation will benefit from the increased number of more capable high school graduates. 

Sythesis #2

I believe the role of schools in 2025 will be to develop students in three different areas which are skills, character, and content knowledge.  Content knowledge is what school perhaps is most famous for.  No one would argue the importance of being taught content knowledge in Math and language arts.  It is important that students to learn the basics in these classes as their importance is more readily apparent, so much so that the government readily funds these programs.  However it is also important that students learn the content of other classes if not for the simple reason of knowing, but that the content of history or music helps student develop in skills and character. 

Skills are important because they are able to be applied in multiple settings, knowing how to analyze a document for bias is valuable in more settings then being able to recite the Rome’s Five Good Emperors.  The question however is what skills will be the most important in the world of 2025.  The skills that will be most important will center on interpersonal skills, and technological I believe.  The Nine Shift really made a lot of sense when it talked about the Internet Age.  Students will first off need technological skills taught in school, and have their assessments involve technology.  It can be too easy to assume that students will develop these skills on their own, or in another venue.  However these skills are too vital to leave up to assumption.  Just as students used to learn how to write in cursive (The Nine Shift asserts that this isn’t the same anymore) elementary students should be taught typing skills.  Students should be around technology as much as possible in order to give them plenty of experience and time to think about how new programs and devices maybe used for school projects as well as for life after school.  The next skill is interpersonal, since the work place is becoming increasingly group orientated.  The work place is a gathering point where people from an assortment of backgrounds and skills will come together to solve basic problems and create products to help our society.  If a student is not taught or does not have practice in how to treat people or even communicate they will be lacking in an essential skill that even employers today are looking for.  I wrote earlier in this blog about how increased globalization will also place added pressure on interpersonal skills.  I repeat this issue in this blog because I do feel that this is perhaps one of the most important things a person must learn.  All the problem solving skills and content knowledge in the world does not do any good if a person is not able to communicate the solutions nor motivate those around them to comply.

Character is the last point here that I will write about concerning the role of schools in 2025.  This is because the character of the young decides the fate of society for the next generation.  The point of all species is to propagate the next generation.  For simpler organisms this means merely passing on your genetic code, and hopefully it will be the winning code to further the species.  Humans however are nowhere near as simple.  We are a species that regularly adopts other species (pets), so genetics being passed on to the next generation is not necessarily what we worry about, we worry about our values and culture living on into the future. Gardner in 5 Minds for the Future wrote that a world without ethics is a bleak place to live in, and I agree.  Now many people would assert that this is really the job of a child’s family and not some stranger like a teacher.  As a parent myself I am inclined to agree, however not every child is blessed with parents that care to teach them positive character traits.  For this a child does need another role model to look to, and this is where school steps in as it traditionally has.  Though when I say that schools should teach values, I mean some of the overarching themes of being a good citizen.  Students should be aware of some of the United States’ major values such as equality, and natural rights.  After teaching students about these themes, then teachers especially social studies and language arts teachers should prod students along using their classes to help students figure out their own values and what is right and wrong. 

I also believe that it is important that students be taught in a way that skills and knowledge come together in meaningful ways for them.  By striving to make learning experiences more authentic students will be more receptive to the material, and it will reach a wider range of students.  Too often teachers revert to the sage on the stage, leaving out students who do are not talented at learning from only hearing and watching.  Those who do not do well, Jeannie Oakes writes often get written off as just not talented in that subject.  I can relate to being one of these students as Math did not feel relatable to me.  Teachers in my high school were content with just letting me get by in math, and since I did not feel that the subject was going to relate to my future I blew it off so long as I maintained a “B”.  I think one way to make learning experiences more authentic is with collaborative efforts by teachers in different subjects.  In middle school I was lucky enough to have my social studies and language arts combined into a “humanities” course.  In 7^th and 8^th grade history, reading and writing were closely linked.  We read a great deal of historic fiction such as My Brother Sam Is Dead, and Red Badge of Courage.  These books helped history come to life for me, and were the beginning of my interest in the subject.  For the history part of the class we were expected to give presentations, and write reports instead of take multiple choice tests.  The presentations forced me to draw links between the various historical facts being taught, and I had to synthesize themes that could be drawn from the units and draw a conclusion.  From there I was then expected to not only write about it but then explain to the rest of the class what I felt was important about the unit.  As corny as it may sound, it made me feel that I was learning about life, and not just names and dates.  Looking back on these memories I really feel my passion for history and people came from this interdisciplinary class.  I bring this up because while I felt that I could not relate with math, I was an avid fan of the sciences.  Biology, Earth Science, Chemistry, Physics, I enjoyed them all; I enjoyed learning about how the world worked around me.  I often joked that I was an “A” student in physics, but never had a desire in fact dreaded the concept of entering pre-calculus.  I wonder how things could have been different if my math teachers worked together with my science teachers in the same manner as my “humanities” teachers did in middle school.  I believe that you have a higher chance of reaching more students if teachers worked with teachers of other subjects to create unique lesson plans that showed the value of the information being taught.  If a student is not necessarily interested in one of the subjects, its ties to the other could spark a new interest.