HW 45- More Big Thoughts on Schools

E.D. Hirsch seems to have been the person who first developed the idea of a core curriculum in schools. His premise was that the ability to learn on a more advanced level was dependent on having a base level knowledge first. Although this is a pretty basic idea, and completely logical, I think that schools tend to sometimes ignore children who may be learning below their grade level, and continue moving forward without bringing them up to speed first.

Hirsch's concept seems to be directly relatable to the No Child Left Behind Act, which seemed to work off of the premise that children should already have this basic core curriculum down pact. The idea behind the core curriculum is that children are failing because they don't have this basic knowledge, and that is the result of a neglectful school system in America. By passing ledgislation like NCLB, the government doesn't improve our school system or address the real issues with US educational policy, they simply blame it on the schools and make threats to cut funding. I'm positive that hasn't been an effective strategy.

Ted Sizer's writing on educational policy eventually culminated into the theory behind the Essential Schools movement in the 1980's. The movement soon became what is now "The Coalition of Essential Schools", of which SOF is a member.

In his ideal, educational policy should be determined from the bottom up, at the level of the school, rather than as a result of state or federal directives. Schools, he argued, should abandon one-size-fits-all educational methods like standardized tests, grading and even the grouping of students into classes by age.
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/education/23sizer.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all)

Up until this quote, I had been completely in favor of virtually everything that Sizer had said about education. This seemed to bring a new aspect of Sizer's philosophy to the table, showing me that Sizer's theory was not only about improving the current system but creating an entirely new system all together. I don't think the problem is the system. I think that the core values of the school system relate directly to the pedagogical way of developing a student, not just instructing a student like a dog or a machine. I think that where the problem lies in how the system is run. The system depends on teachers to function, and the core values of the system are being distorted and lost in translation because of uneffective teachers.

This all just begs the question; what makes an effective teacher? The answer to that lies in bits and pieces in many of the movies that we have been watching in class.

WORK IN PROGRESS!