Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Being told what to teach
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Author:  Kelsey McGraw [ Sun Nov 30, 2008 1:06 am ]
Post subject:  Being told what to teach
For a lot of the bigger school systems to make their life easier they will pick something that everyone has to go by and use in their classroom, for instance for elementary grades Charlotte Mecklenburg uses Open Court. Most of the time this will tell you what books to use in your classroom to meet certain standards and what words to use, basically they are very detailed in what should be done in the classroom and that is what the teachers have to go by. This leaves very little room to be creative with your lessons but it also cuts down on your lesson planning because they have told you exactly what to do. I can see how this can be helpful in a big school system, but if they are going to tell us exactly what to do why are we in school? Personally, I think that as long as we meet the standards and our students learn the material then we should be able to teach it however we want, even if that means turning in our lesson plans to the principal to get them approved. What do you think? Is it a good or bad idea? Would you like it or not? If you didn't like it but worked in a school that had it what would you do?
Author:  NikkiTester [ Mon Dec 01, 2008 8:28 am ]
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I personally don't like this idea at all. It bothers me that "the powers that be" think that every child will learn the same thing the same way at the same time. Children need flexibility. I highly doubt that I would work in a school that supported this system.
Author:  Dana Currin [ Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:36 am ]
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I don't necessarily like the idea of being told exactly what to teach in my classroom, just as Kelsey said, it leaves little to no room for my own creativity in lesson plans, but at the same time it would help out tremendously. I think that it would be a good thing to have, but only as a reference. For example, if a teacher couldn't come up with a good way to teach a certain standard, they could refer to something like this for assisstance. I also agree with Kelsey in the sense that if we are told exactly what to teach and how to teach it, why are we spending this time in school? In a case like that, it seems as though anyone could simply go into a classroom and teach what the book tells them to teach. If I had the choice to work in a school that uses something like this or a school that doesn't, it would be my deciding factor...I would definitely choose the school that doesn't. But if I didn't have a choice, I would at least try it out and try to add as much of my own creativity as I possibly could.
Author:  Jerry Nicole Whitener [ Mon Dec 01, 2008 2:40 pm ]
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I kind of like it and then again I do. I know that there are some teachers out there that if they had the freedom to teach whatever they wanted, even with approval, would not get the information that students "need" covered. I think it is good that we are given a base, to go by, or that someone looks at what we are going to teach, however, I do think that our current system puts stress on teachers and students that could be avoided by not making us follow such ridged guidelines.
Author:  Ryan Earnhardt [ Mon Dec 01, 2008 9:40 pm ]
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I think this is a result of everyone, administration and teachers alike, becoming increasingly lazy, for lack of a better word. I believe that teachers should have the standard course of study and it should stop at that. I can surely imagine that in a large school system there is an incredible amount of information to keep up with (students, student records, etc.) but I believe that even though this may be, teachers and students alike must have some kind of space to learn and teach their own way. It is the systematic appearance of education that makes so many students dislike school. I agree with the other posters that not all students learn at the same pace, or in the same ways. Teachers, likewise, can not all be expected to teach at the same pace or in the same ways. In my opinion, there should be only limited guildlines on the way that information is presented to students, but strong guidelines on the information that is presented. I agree that there should be a standard course of study that is equal throughout the state, but the ways in which these bits of information are presented should not be limited by a county school board.
Author:  Quantina Chau [ Tue Dec 02, 2008 6:12 pm ]
Post subject: 
I think that it is a good idea for the schools to give you those lessons to teach but should also allow you to modify them if you need to. I do not think that you should have to teach those exact lessons all the time. If you have a more creative way of teaching something than I think you should be allowed to. I do not think it is a bad idea for the administration to give you lesson ideas though in case you can not think of something.
Author:  Kollin Kalk [ Thu Dec 11, 2008 9:39 pm ]
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I agree with Quantina. Good for reference. Teaching and learning is a dynamic and every changing experience based. No class will ever be alike. As students change so should the lesson plan in order to fit who they are. To provide such a structured and concrete way of teaching would be to teach based off an assumed understanding rather than what the actual situation should dictate.
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