Schwab

I found an interesting quote while reading Schwab's "The Practical: A Language for Curriculum." Schwab states, “A curriculum based on theory about individual personality, which thrusts society, its demands and its structure, far into the background or ignores them entirely, can be nothing but incomplete and doctrinaire, for the individuals in question are in fact members of a society and must meet its demands to some minimum degree since their existence and prosperity as individuals depend on the functioning of their society. In the same way a curriculum grounded only in a view of social need or social change must be equally doctrinaire and incomplete, for societies do not exist only for their own sakes but for the prosperity of their members as individuals as well.” (pg. 108) I liked his balanced view that both the individual learner and the role that they assume in society is important.

Final Paper

I am currently working on my final paper, which is the development of the theory of "Meganism". It is interesting to "hypothetically" be in charge of creating an education system. It helps define what I believe is valuable in education. In the pre-writing stages I thought that my theory of education could be summed up in approximately five pages or less. As I am writing it I am surprised to see how many topics I feel passionate about either defending or changing in education. I am six pages in and feel that I have many more ideas to develop and explore.

Bobbitt

I found Bobbitt's article, "The Scientific Method in Curriculum Making", an interesting read. There are a few ideas that the article presented that I would like to address. I found his statement, "A program never designed for the present day has been inherited" (pg. 9), thought provoking. I do agree that education must change with the times but many of the basic skills (reading, writing, and arithmetic) that we teach remain the same over centuries. Bobbitt's belief that we should teach to the shortcoming of pupils is a practical one but does this approach leave room for development of critical thought by the individual? Critically questioning our society is the first step to implementing social change.

Weekend in North Battleford

There was plenty of interesting discussion during our weekend in N.B. I found the explanation of Schwab's article particularly insightful. Honestly, the language of the article was so confusing that I could not get through it in my first attempt. Now that I have a basic understanding of it I am going to try again. I also found the debate on the new curriculum interesting. Although I am a relatively new teacher, I think less prescriptive guides are a step in the right direction. I am an educated person and should enjoy more academic freedom.

Meganism - Take 1

Meganism is a traditional educational model which has the ultimate goal of producing caring and productive citizens. It will begin with mastering the 3 R's and then evolve to developing critical thought. It will promote an interest in local and world events. Curriculum guides will be no more than 20 pages in length and be less prescriptive then they currently are. This will allow teachers some time to teach what they are passionate about. This model discourages teachers from "bandwagon jumping" and believes that only fundamental problems in education need to be addressed. The job of the teacher is leader and role model. While it is the teacher's duty to maintain order and a structured environment, students must also view them as approachable. The role of the student is to master basic skills and then investigate their surroundings to develop a worldview. There will only be one school system so all children are unified in their experience.

Counts

From a historical perspective George S. Counts' article, "Dare the School To Build a New Social Order?" is very interesting. At first I thought it was written in modern times but then it became glaringly obvious it was written during the Great Depression. It discusses the impact of industrialization on the nation. It also states the importance that the role of the teacher and the education system have in regard to implementing societal change. Many of his suggestions are "Utopian" and looking forward into the future, they have yet to be implemented. His writing style is full of imagery but long winded at times.

P.S. If I would have looked at the heading of section 1, "Looking Back: A Prologue to Curriculum Studies", there would have been no doubt in my mind that this article was not modern.

Addams

I enjoyed reading Jane Addams' article, "The Public School and the Immigrant Child". The best part about it was its brevity. It did raise a few interesting points that made me look at the education of immigrant children in a different way. It has never occurred to me that American education is widening the gap between immigrant children and their parents. Another interesting statement was, " We bring the young to see Italy, but we do not utilize Italy when it lies about the school house." (pg. 27) There are so many times when we can bring culture into our school by inviting certain community members into our classroom, but it is something that is often overlooked.