I just finished reading Chapter 5 for today's class and I just am so angry about the way people were treated back in the 1800's. When establishing a common school, the name to me suggests an education for everyone. No matter your race or religious beliefs. I am sure we have all experienced discrimination in one way or another, and some more than others. But I would have a very difficult time understanding why I was being denied an equal chance at an education because I am Irish/German and because I am a female. Just reflecting and thinking how I would react if I was put in that position makes me furious. I would have probably started my own school, just like the Catholics did. I would not want to go to school with people who thought I was a heathen.
I then think how can someone treat another human being that bad? Then I fast forward and I think about today and how there are still inequalities among people today, and not just related to education.
I think about yesterdays chapter, discussion in class, and the word education. I am not sure what the word education means to me, I am still processing my thought but what does that word education mean to you?
For me, education is about an interaction or collaboration with other people that results in some sort of growth. It does not always follow the currciculum, but the knowledge is still useful. If I am working with a group in a math class, I may end my day still not understanding the problem. But it is likely that a learned something about myself and how I interact with other people. Or how other people can be empathetic or apathetic, and how to deal with that. There is so much that can be learned just from being around people.
ReplyDeleteTo me, education should have a very broad definition. Essentially it's nothing more than the gaining of knowledge. But that will look different for everyone - both in the way in which they learn and the things the need/want to learn about. I think our job as teachers is simply to do our best to give an education to each student that best suits their needs.
ReplyDeleteFor me, education involves the attainment of knowledge through various means over the course of a lifetime. Everyday we are learning new things by observing the world around us, whether we are actively thinking about it or not. To me, education not only involves cognitive growth over time, but also social and emotional development.
ReplyDeleteWith that said, I believe that we are lifelong learners. Even when graduate school is completed, there is still so much to be learned as we grow older. As teacher, I would like to impose the idea that, just like my students, I am learning something new everyday.
I believe education is a collection of knowledge of different types and to be complete from differetn sources. How can you learn everything from one person's or one peoples point of view? Education should be ongoing and never ending. You should learn things that are important to you as well as things that are important to other people. This makes learning meaningful and promotes tolerance.
ReplyDeleteI re-read this post after our discussion today in class about chapter 7 in The American School and after the holiday weekend and just about dropped my jaw. Our group specifically was discussing Puerto Rico and the unbelievable story behind their search for freedom from Spain and winding up with the U.S. colonizing yet not allowing them to be citizens of the country for twenty years. Seems right, doesn't it? I mean, honestly, how do you expect to "take over" a place where people speak their own language, embrace their treasured culture and identity, and all of a sudden you expect them to know YOUR language, adopt YOUR culture, and yet you're not allowed to be a full member of the country. It's like telling someone who has belonged to Smalltown Fitness their whole lives (great people, nursery/babysitting area, decent facility, friendly atmosphere, fun classes) that World Gym has bought out the place and you have to start taking cycling (even though you HATE cycling!) while watching a propaganda video every day for five hours, pay intensely higher membership fees, listen to the fitness instructors there - even if they tell YOU to mop the floor, YET you can't call yourself a member of the gym. At least that's what pops into my head. Another point we raised in our group discussion was the fact that American textbooks and curricula were forced on the students in Puerto Rico as a means to Americanize and deculturalize them. Um, what?? We forced our textbooks (likely written by white, American men) onto an educational system in order to rid them of their memory of what history they learned and to reinforce American customs onto them. Seems fair. Education should be discovering on your own, not having your opinions forced on you and spoon-fed information as the instructor saw fit. We're an interesting country, that's for sure.
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