Friday, October 2, 2009

Why Education?

Hello Fellow Bloggers,

I realized that there is a fundamental question missing from the blog so far.

Why Education?

I have my own reasons, but I do want to hear your thoughts as well...

Why does education deserve our very valuable time?

Is it important for only some people, or all of us? Is it an important subject of debate for non-parents and parents alike? What about the kids? Will you let your son/daughter blog with us?

Is this about the rights of children? Is this about being socially just? Is this about the future of society, or protecting the freedom of the family? Is this about crime rate, or welfare, or is this a conspiracy by the government to indoctrinate our children? Should we listen to politicians, doctors, psychologists, administrators, text-book manufacturers, teachers, parents, or students? Who should have the last say?

What do we already know about education? How do children learn? Does this change as they grow?

Are America's children really underperforming internationally? Will China be the next world super power?

I want to hear your questions and answers on the topic. This will hopefully open up discussion and point us in some directions we want to explore...

Thanks for your time!

Danielle Cassetta

4 comments:

DevinRS said...

I do not know why they always take money away from school, but I do know they should start cutting back on other areas. Spending less on education hurts our future and people's freedoms (the less educated you are the less likely you are to have a good job, the less likely you are to be financial stable). Do they attack education on purpose? I do not know. I do know that California spend $9,000 per student, yet countries like Korea who are #1 in scientific literacy and #2 in mathematic literacy spends $4,500 per student for primary education and $6500 per student for secondary education. So some how California spends more yet achieves less. I think we need to cut bureaucratic jobs and wages in schools.
If we were looking at this from a business view point we would first take a look at the quality of the product (the students literacy), then look at the amount of investment (spending), then take a look at the mechanical system (the educational system), and figure out ways to cut costs, fix flaws, and raise the product value. Also it seems that high school students are taught around standardized testing and not around the actual material.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GklCBvS-eI

Anonymous said...

I think an important part of the discussion is what is being taught. What is education but the absorption and integration of specific knowledge into our lives with a goal of mastery and application.

I firmly believe the future of our society depends on our children being given every possible tool to be successful. They should be able to read, to write, to express themselves coherently and persuasively. They should be aware of not own their own history but the general history of mankind.

However,I do not hold to a nebulous concept of learning for the sake of gaining knowledge alone. If what we know does not improve our condition or give us the impetus to do so then we are, quite frankly, wasting our time.

I'm surprised by students that I see who emerge from local schools with all the tools to be "cool", to quote a few statistics and to defend their freedom to do whatever the heck they feel like while lacking the ability to logically defend a personal position,no concept of local, state or national political standings and no desire to pursue studies on their own. These young people, without a love of learning or desire to better themselves, languish in a puddle of teenage angst.

The certificate on the wall is not the equivalent of a successful application of the years spent earning that piece of paper.

Btw... In the interests of full-disclosure, I am a long time home educator and have found that my children succeed quite well on a very small budget.

(I'm Shelia Walker's friend, she gave me the link to your blog I look forward to reading more from your perspective. :) I wish you all the best. I think the system, flawed as it is, needs people with your perspective and drive.)

Danielle 'Red Bird' Cassetta said...

First, DevinRS brings up the role of government, not only in our lives in general, but in terms of social programs. Arguing that federal/state spending should be decreased in many areas, but not in education, indicates that there is something that sets education apart from other social programs. Education has a direct effect on the rest of society in terms of less crime, higher literacy and salary rates, more productivity and innovation, less need for taxpayer dollars in the form of welfare programs, prison guards, etc. However, if more people start to go to state funded colleges, the taxes will raise in that respect. Even for a die hard libertarian, we have to ask ourselves, is the amount of money spent on education worth it in terms of the positive affects it has on society? Do we have a right to take the money of others to provide better education for children in need? Could we volunteer our money for intervention programs for children in poverty without having to tax everyone? Can we accomplish educational reform for the better without having to rely on federal and state funding - say in the private sector? This will come up especially in terms of the discussion on universal preschool (which is not currently the dominant system like it is in primary and secondary education...)

DevinRS also brings up the issue that we seem to be spending more on American students when compared internationally, but achieving less than other countries. One important question to ask here is what kind of assessment is used to determine student performance.... We are increasingly narrowing ways of assessing students to standardized tests that can easily provide comparable data. Standardized tests have come under critical observation, and many experts in education question their validity. Another point that has been brought up by people in the field is that although we are ranking lower on the list, we are not technically behind other developing countries by that many "points". This is something the media often leaves out, and has been used as a measure to scare parents into letting the government and policy makers make changes to the schools and policy. Standardized and "high stakes" testing has also come under fire by "progressives" and can have devastating effects on our teaching practices and learning. To read more on this subject, visit www.fairtest.org . Some great authors o this topic are Deborah Meier, Alfie Kohn, and Susan Ohanian.

DevinRS is right. While in some areas we may be seeing increases in test scores - and we all know many people who treat a test score as if it is the last and final word on their children's abilities (or the abilities of teachers) - what do these increases really tell us? One answer to the question is that increases in performance are merely the result of teaching to the test... something that has taken a hold of many classrooms, especially around testing time. The emphasis on rote memorization and test taking skills can get our children through the test, and may indeed increase the amount of "knowledge" or facts that they have in their head, but do these facts stay there? Research shows that they don't, unless they are used over and over again over a period of years. The process of cutting of connections in the brain that were established but not reinforced enough is called "pruning" - this is why only the things we continue to use stay in our memory banks. Also, can children apply the knowledge they learn in school out of context and make connections across subject material and circumstances? We have to really examine what testing does to our teaching practices, our motivation to learn and teach, and what the effect is on the student's learning and retention.

As, DevinRS notes - if we look at this from the perspective of a business man, and school is a business, we seem to be putting an awful lot in, and it's time to question if what is being sold to us (as students, parents, and community members) is really a quality product?

Danielle 'Red Bird' Cassetta said...

The goals Pebblechaser cites as being important for children's learning throughout the schooling process are: logic (the ability to apply good reasoning skills to any situation and not just spout off about one isolated issue you have previous - classroom - knowledge of), practical knowledge (like how our world works, an ability to navigate our political system, etc.), and motivation to make learning a lifelong pursuit. These are extremely valuable goals, and we should really examine if the ways in which we teach and model behavior for our children is actually leading them and helping them to reach those goals.

If you sit in a "regular" high school classroom, you will most likely see little or no motivation to learn and very little knowledge of our political system and how we interact with it. I definitely don't find knowledge of current events to be the norm. I would also argue that by teaching for the test, and by teaching children as if they were meant to sit in desks ALL DAY and listen to someone lecture about topics that are disconnected from their lives and not connected to other classes they are in, we are not really giving them the tools necessary for logic and reasoning. When rote memorization (the kind of memorization when you are cramming for a test on - say - vocabulary words that you're not familiar with) and passive receiving of knowledge (listening to a lecture) is going on, there is very little time and motivation to engage in critical thinking skills.

Lastly, this discussion touched upon the issue of home schooling as a viable alternative. I would love for someone who has actually home schooled to write a piece debunking the arguments against it. Just for kicks, I can argue against it so that we have more of an objective discussion going on.

Thanks for participating, pebblechaser, and nice to meet you! I hope this is food for thought that will lead to more participation, and even a few of your own articles for the site.