Reaction to the Promise of Urban Schools

I found the reading, "The Promise of Urban Schools", to be both very interesting and informative. I have always known that the urban school districts don't have the same resources and advantages that the suburban school districts have but never knew exactly to what extent. This reading was full of this information and really made me realize that it truly up to the teachers and future teachers such as myself to know that if we are placed in an urban school district that we must bring that much more to our lessons. We need to really come through full force and make sure we teach these children all that we can in any way that we can. We won't always have the resources and tools that we may want or need but we should go out of our way to provide a productive learning environment that results in intelligent well prepared students who could go toe to toe with a student who came from a suburban school district and that was clearly brought up with more learning tools. I am looking forward to visiting the Newark Arts High School because I am eager to see if the issues and solutions that were discussed in this paper are really done and accounted for. I would also like to see the results and effect that it has on its students and the way they perform academically. I have never been in an urban school district or even a public school for that matter so the only knowledge I have is that which I have heard from others. I am really excited to see the Urban School at work and eager to see if the school we are visiting abides by the guidelines and promises discussed in this reading.

Inquiry Project Question

I am working with two other people for my inquiry project. Since we are visiting a Performing Arts High School and two of the people of the people in my group intend on joining the field of the performing arts we decided to base our question the idea of how the arts affect the performance of the students in their core subjects. We plan to compare and contrast test scores and overall grades of the students who have the arts in their curriculum with the students who don't have the arts available to them.

Reaction to the Parker Piece

Reaction to Parker Piece
“Teaching Against Idiocy”

Quote: “The children I teach are just emerging form life’s deepest wells of private perspective: babyhood and family. Then along comes school. It is the first real exposure to the public arena." -Vivian Gussin Paley

The public school system in this country is a great thing. It provides people of all races, gender, color and financial status the opportunity to better themselves and their future through becoming educated. People bring their families from different countries to come to America because they know that by living here their children will be granted the opportunity of a better education and thus a better future. Vivian Gussin Paley delves into this exact idea. She states that, “Boys and Girls are both there. Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Muslims, Buddists, and atheists are there together. There are African Americans, European Americans, Mexican Americans, Asian Americans, and many more. Immigrants from the world over are there in school.” (Parker, 2005, p.4) Her classroom just like so many other teachers’ classrooms are is an example of people coming to this country to be educated and become active and successful participants in society.

As I was reading, “Teaching against Idiocy” by Walter C. Parker and contemplating the four essential questions from our syllabus and which one I wanted to answer the above quote jumped out at me and I immediately thought of the essential question, “ Who are our students?” Our students are the children or younger generations of “students” who came before them. They are required to go to school from a very young age and school is usually the first place they interact with other children and adults without their parents or family around. As Paley stated her students are, “…just emerging from life’s deepest wells of private perspective”, meaning they go from being babies interacting in their own private homes with their families own rules and views to school where it is the first time they are going to follow rules and learn views that they aren’t accustomed to. As stated in Parker’s piece the variety of ideas or values does not occur in the home but in the public places such as school. It becomes clear when diverse people are thrust together in public places and have to come to terms with everyone’s different view and perspectives.(Parker, 2005, p.4) These problems or everyday issues that we are faced with in public places become not only issues that are our own individual issues but become the collective issues of all the people in said public place.

That is why children that are in Kindergarten as Paley teaches need to be shown the “way the world works” from this young age so that they can become used to it and carry it throughout the rest of their schooling as well as into their future lives as citizens. Students taught in a classroom in schools aren’t only taught the basic subjects they are being groomed to become future leaders or productive members of society who will be intelligent enough to right the wrongs of our past mistake and follow in the greatness that was laid before them. They are being taught to be the kind of people who are able to handle the situations of being thrown together with diverse people in public places and the kind of people who will prove that the education of young mind is truly the future of tomorrow.

Reaction to Tyak Article

Schools for Citizens:
Preserving the Republic

Although I have always know that getting our schools they way they are today must have been a difficult process, after reading this article I really know all it took to have the established educational system we have today. There were so many different elements that went into making the school system the way that it is such as race, religion and political beliefs. When the school system first was established it was meant to be portray only the republican way of life and the republican beliefs. I am truly glad that the educational system is a much more liberal place now accepting people of all ethnic and political backgrounds. Because our educational system has developed into this I feel as though this effected the government both for better and for worse. I enjoyed this article and found it to be very informative.

Haiku: Hope for the Future

Children are the future
Up to me to educate
Hope I am success

This Haiku goes along with the topics were are constantly discussing in class. It's true the children are the future leaders of tomorrow and our country. Education is the foundation of society and without good teachers well then our children don't have a chance to the great leaders they could be. In terms of my future as a teacher I just would love to pass along the passion I have for my subject to my students. I feel as though creative minds think outside the box and bring a different perspective to society. Children who have grown up with the arts surrounding them tend to interpret and explore ideas differently.