In Another Life...

For the final week of the book club my group decided to split the chapters unevenly, I mean how do you split 11 chapters among 3 people right? So don't let this throw you off in any way! Seeming how I was the Discussion Director I was given the task of preparing questions for my group to see if we can have a productive conversation and maybe tied up loose ends to the book. Below are the results! 

1) (pg.169) What are some ways practicing for a test can be a problem in a child's life? -> Testing so much can cause anxiety, doing it for the moment (as in they would only be learning to pass the test so the information given to them is temporary and becomes useless after the testing) loss of passion, HUGE impact on self-esteem.

2) (pg. 199) Who were the TFA and what was their purpose? (Teach For America)- they wanted to build by boosting education in low income communities, they were not always certified. -> Teaching program trying to close the achievement gap, in need of actual trained staff.

3) (pg. 216) Ravitch mentions how the testing showed many kids going into high school without a firm grasp of basic skills, why do you think that is? -> Teachers might not be aware of the child's lack of ability in specific subjects or subjects might have been glossed over, the children could have also gotten pushed forward instead of being held back so that they can actually learn what they're having trouble with, little to no parental involvement.

4) (pg. 234) Ravitch sees public schools as a well organized democracy, do you agree? If you came from a different type of school, what would make you think differently? -> Yes because many PTA's  (Parent Teacher Association) are organized giving the parents the freedom to voice the changes they want to better shape the future of the kids attending these schools, it is a service where parents should be able to voice their concerns without the threat of their children being kicked out.

5) (pg. 240) Ravitch goes into details on how today's "reforms" will never be as great as we want them to be and how teachers will always be blamed, what are some solutions you think might help? Does not need to be realistic-> Start addressing things, looking into international school systems to see why their system works and use them as a model, find a curriculum that fits everyone, less talk more action!

Some reoccurring themes...

1) High stakes testing is not beneficial

2) Making America able to compete with other nations in the market no matter the cost!

3) Testing does not work, find a better solution!

Meaningless Legislation

Week 2 of the book club didn't go as I thought it would, I was the only one in my group who showed up, not only did I feel useless without my team I also felt nervous to present what I had for fear that it wouldn't make conversation but the professor kindly joined me and my worries diminished. It turns out that my teammates were out sick so I was the only who survived disease that week. Here are my notes as a discussion member/ discussion director on how the law and funding play a role in education (week 2 chapters 5-8)....

1) Ravitch mentions how Bloomberg tried to make an impact for schools in New York but there is a similarity in this to Jefferson's view of "raking the genius from the rubbish". (pg. 74)

2) No Child Left Behind did not help with bringing this country into the best conditions to compete with others, instead it brought more problems because people wanted to throw in more teaching methods that would either impede the learning experience for a child or make the lesson plan nearly impossible for a teacher OR BOTH! (pg. 105)

3) Students had the choice to break free of racist stereotypes but they still chose to stay in their respective schools/ communities in order to keep their their heritage and also because of their economic statuses which dictated where they could and could not go. (pg. 118)

Sections that caught my attention...

1) page 83 paragraph 2 -> Legislation did not change a thing! They were more concerned with what they would get out of it instead of focusing on the future of this country!

2) pages 102-103 paragraph 4 -> It was all a trap! A lie! (in Texas) they showed results of how the children were succeeding but the reality of those statistics was the fact that they looked positive because many kids were dropping out, losing their hopes and dreams, the information gathered were of children who stayed in the school system and pushed through! THEY LIED!

3) page 152 paragraph 3 -> Public schools had problems but charter schools faced more issues. Besides having limited seats and having a temporary job as a teacher (because unless you're a god at what you do, you're not going to last so long in the charter school system) charter schools have always been looked into advancements, this brought up an interesting discussion with the class on whether computer should replace teachers. I obviously objected as that would mean I wouldn't have a job, all of my years studying to do this job would be for nothing, but I did see some positive things in having a computer as a teacher, you would get more accurate information, we wouldn't have to worry about pedophiles but the downside to having a computer as a teacher would be that some kids would become distracted, the professor and I agreed that a computer cannot replace human emotions. Becoming a teacher means becoming someone's role model, their parent, their therapist, their justice, THEIR EVERYTHING! 

Point Your Finger

  

As my class started the book club session I took notice of how many people were in each group, some groups had more than 5 people in them, I felt unfortunate to be in a group of just 3 people including myself but regardless of how many people were in my group, we still did a very productive job at pointing out things that the professor thought was discussion worthy. Within the groups each of us had a task to do, as a discussion member the task was to write about interesting points in the chapters read, as a discussion leader the task was to come up with questions that would entice productive chats on the chapters. Each of us took turns being the discussion leader. The first week of book club went like this...     
                                                          
So for our first discussion, we looked into how society views the school system. I was shocked to see that people would blame the schools themselves of being broken when in reality the people to blame are corrupt government officials who make up the laws while slipping their own benefits because no one would do anything that wouldn't benefit them right? Here are my notes on chapters 1-4 (week 1 of book club) of "The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice Are Undermining Education" by Diane Ravitch


1) Ravitch mentions how school can't solve every issue but should be treated as the most important thing in a child's life, this reminds me of every parent I've heard say "the school will take care of it" or "it's the teacher's job" (pg. 6)

2) Ravitch states that schools are not to blame when a child does poorly, most of the time this is due to low funding, I remember how my elementary school didn't go on many field trips but the teachers I had did everything they could to keep their class interesting! (pg. 34)

3) Ravitch talks about schools in San Diego, California and how they were modeled to be like the schools in New York, she mentions how Alvarado would remind people that if they want to change something, it's not the responsibility of the District Administrations, it starts small with faculty, students, and their parents as a community! (the sum of chapter 4)

Three sections that caught my attention are as follows....

1) page 9 paragraph 2 -> I thought it was important to know the core history of the issues in schools.

2) page 15 paragraph 3 -> Through Standardized Tests we've lost direction in creating lesson plans that better a child's learning experience.

3) page 34 paragraph 4 -> It's not always the school's fault, most of them are poorly funded so they work with what they can find.

I hope my Christmas list of things didn't bore the hell out of you but it is important to keep in mind that in the school system many things go into it so we cannot simply blame a teacher or the school overall as it also has to do with how the school is funded and what laws have been passed!