HW 51

I have done plenty of research on what makes schools works and how they can be improve so students can benefit more from the academic programs. I’ve read a few chapters of Schools That Work, America’s Most Innovative Public Education by George H. Wood and I came to an understanding that besides the fact of what’s being done in schools it’s all about how its done. We always here about the positive intake on the education system but here we have 3 people who go against it and an interview on Mr. Manly, a current high school student at School Of The Future.

There are different types of ways to teach. We have the Progressive Groovy educational system and the tradition system. In the progressive groovy system kids are taught through discussion rather than textbooks (The Traditional way). Instead kids are more project based and teacher and students are more involved with each other. The Traditional way is the structure that has a planned curriculum that goes by the book. Another way of teaching that Lisa Delpit mentioned in Silenced Dialogue was Distar lessons. In this lesson teaching was slow so all kids can understand. She didn’t argue it but it "provided an opportunity for those who already knew the content to exhibit that they knew it." So in other words this method was successful for the "Cultural of power". This lesson & the groovy way of teaching doesn’t succeed for many other students who are not in the cultural power. (Basically African Americans were still failing). She heard schools "call parents uncaring when parents respond to the schools urging saying, but that’s the schools job". They think of them as uncaring because the parents have to teach their children things that need to be learned at home, "in order to survive in their communities." So she believes students need to be taught codes that will be valuable in the American Life. When kids are not being taught this "what it feels like to people who are old enough to judge is that there are secrets being kept, that time is being wasted". There are times when a child/student feels like their time is being wasted and it having that mentality will not motivate the student to pass. Like she said, "This sense of being cheated can be so strong that the student may be completely turned off to the educational system." This is the lead to why 52% of African American Men are not succeeding in white dominant educational system. The reason she came up with the culture of power was by analyzing the themes presented in schools. The 5 things she observed was the power of the institute, ones self, Those who succeed, One can only understand their culture. and those in power will not acknowlege it but one who is not in power will determine who is.

After reading her entire artcle i feel as if she is right about everything said. This is because i am personally experiencing. Everything being said. The only way i can put my all into school is if i can connect to the topic and it is taught in a way that will interest me. Like Lisa said, you must engage the student for them to gain motivation to succeed. The distar lesson was a surprise to me. I never really thought about it but it is important. When kids are going to a school, the teacher automatically feels like all the kids are on the same level, which is not the case. For both my junior high school and high school. I did not take a placement test. For CUNY i must take one. That shows how the teachers at CUNY’s know that everyone is not at the same level and will be in a class with everyone else that is. When i was at a information session for my college New York City College of technology one of my professors said a student will not move on to a more advanced math class until he or she can understand the basics of everything. Basically he is saying they will take their time and make sure you UNDERSTAND everything you know and not just MEMERIZE. So by reading the article with Lisa, my own personal experiences and by listening to one of my professors, Schools need to expand the cultural power and have more than one race be apart of the decision making cause as the world can see, those who make the rules are the only one who can truly succeed.

Another person who disagree with the way things are being taught is Jon taylor Gatto. In the article The .six-Lesson school teacher, He believes their are 6 lessons being taught "from Harlem to hollywood". The main 6 lessons are -

-stay where you are put
-be involved in thier (Teahcers) lesson
-do what you are told
-Curriculum will be determined by the teacher
-Grades are made to evaluate you, so dont trust yourself.

His lessons are based off of the traditional way of teaching. He has won teacher of the year so he should know the real educational system since the culture of power nominated him. Like he said, "I teach school and win awards doing it. I should know".

After knowing his 6 lessons its clear that students have less power in the schooling system. Our say doesn’t matter I guess this is because the adults knows what’s best right? The way they set it up like Lisa said, only the cultural power can succeed through that. I can't deal with that because I'm not in the their culture which makes me aware it. So with Gatto saying students have no power it makes one think, what is truly the best thing for EVERYONE.

Next, according to chapter 2 of the Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Fieire believes students are the depositories and the teacher is the depositor. This is also known as the banking concept. Besides that he feels like the "education is suffering from narration sickness." The teacher is always narrating giving students insignificant information, like Lisa mentioned. "The students records, memorizes, and repeats these phrases with out perceiving what four times four really means..." Students are like robots jotting down what ever the teacher said, like Gatto believed.

I feel like the banking concept is what makes students fail. School is make for learning but instead we are just being told what to do, limited with our creativity, lack of knowledge and not understanding how the concepts we are learning can be applied in the American Way of Life. A story told by one of my professors was there was an internship job at the MTA and so he sent the student with a 3.75 GPA. Soon ad they told him to do something the student was nervous and did not know what to fully do. So he did not get the internship. Instead the student with the 2.7 GPA got it because he knew what he was doing and was relaxed. So therefore remembering what and how things are done are not a way for students to succeed in life. Students need to fully understand and teachers and students need to communicate more with each other so everyone understands what’s going on and the teacher can self evaluate on them so they can improve. Learning is not a one-way stream.

Last but not least I interviewed Tim Manley, my High school teacher at School Of The Future in Lower Manhattan. I asked many questions and the that made him go more in depth was, What is more of a effective, groovy or traditional? He then. Said. "It is a hug debate. There is no right answer because traditional might work for some people. It should be a mixture but it really depends on the students but at the end school wants you to teach a certain way."

Since he said schools want teachers to teach a certain way, students are stuck in the system. Either you deal with it or don’t. If you want to succeed then you have to deal with it. I had Mr. Manley for 2 years and I can say that I like the way he teaches. What he teaches makes me think outside of school and does impact my life. We are able to be very creative but I do feel like we still need structure. Being both creative and structural will help us succeed in writing papers in the future and knowing how to speak. If everyone can join ideas then I think our school system will empower everyone and not just the cultural power.

Ted Seizer is like the grandfather of School Of The Future. Basically using the habits of mind creates students into critical thinkers. It seems as if he feels it's all about the process of how we think. One thing leads to another, known as the Process. He wants students to get taught what’s interested to them. For example in Faculty Shack Chats with Ted seizer the faculty asked,

FACULTY SHACK: And to give students a product that they wanted that would engage them in the kind of thinking that you wanted them to do?

SEIZER: Right.

So overall his theory is not what is taught but how it is taught. Unlike Seizer E. D. Hirsch's idea is that Knowing stuff will help you understand. You need to know a certain amount of information in order to achieve. So it’s really the opposite of Seizers idea. Hirsch theory generated from his sons principal. He went to complain to the principal and his reply was,

“Our kids don’t need to learn about the Civil War. What they are learning at P.S. 87 is how to learn about the Civil War."

This is the similar theory to the way Hirsch wants students to think. It's all about the Product!!!

SO in conclusion its all about how things are being done in our schools.