Hey! Since we had to post on the forum today because we had no class I decided to post about the readings we had to do for Thursday class. I really enjoyed all three of the readings, especially the first two. I really enjoyed "Whats Wrong With American Teachers" and "Daily Grind" because it let me read about something that I have never really thought about before. I completely agree with the "Daily Grind" article when it talks about how the teachers are really only caring about a little bit of the child's school expriences and intsead focusing on thier behaviors and or accomplishments. These are both two very important aspects of a child's day to day routine but school is there for children to receive an education and teahcers need to focus more on this fact. As a future teacher, I will remember these two articles when I am in the classroom and try to have education of the subjects be the main goal.
katie gray nelli

I liked those articles too. I liked that they didn't put teachers or schools on a pedestal and instead showed the sometimes not-so-nice sides of them. It really is sad that so many teachers and schools are solely focused, like you said, on students' accomplishments. Accomplishments usually mean something that was turned in and graded, nevermind that Johnny daydreamed a really cool story during recess or Jane wrote a poem while sitting in math class. I think those are accomplishments too. One of the articles mentioned that "school teachers aren't allowed to do what they think is best for each student." A lot of these articles make references to how school traps people (even teachers). I don't like how standardized and conformed the education system has become. You can't standardize learning or assessment. It's ridiculous. You've got a classroom of thirty kids from thirty backgrounds who had thirty different mornings on that big EOC or writing test day. It isn't fair to grade those thirty people against each other, slap a label on them, and call them - based on that one test - average, above average, or below average.

I also thought that these articles were very interesting to read. The "What's wrong with American teachers" article made me really think about things I had not thought about much before. It was so true when they started talking about how science teachers are taught the way they are told, not the way they would like to help students design their own experiments or test hypotheses. The article then pointed out that if teachers did these things, they would be fired, so it is just a shame that education has come to a point where teachers can not teach the way they want to teach or in a way they think is the best for their students to learn. This article also told us that the American system of teacher training was inspired by nineteenth-century Prussian philosophers who introduced schooling to the world and encouraged the creation of teachers who would serve the state as efficient as an army. I had no idea where the system of teacher training originated so I found this very interesting, and all these people talk about emerging teacher education needs to be changed, but how will this really happen?

All three of the articles were very informative. The first, "Bitter Lessons", was really pretty depressing. It's sad that that is how many people view teachers, and I hope that our generation of teachers can change that. In many of my education classes we discuss how we as students can take what we're learning and turn it around for the better in the student's best interest. As someone else already talked about, teachers are teaching to the test too much. If only we could teach the love of learning, instead of learning for just getting to the next grade level, our students will learn more than ever. The second article talked a lot about general things that happen in so many elementary schools that I have never thought about. After reading through "The Daily Grind," I found how my elementary school experience had been really similar to many things discussed, such as "one-on-one time" that others listened in on, or being finished with my work and not knowing what to do. These articles further helped me realize how much I hope that when I am a teacher, I can teach students how to really appreciate and love learning.

Both articles ("Bitter Lessons" and "The Daily Grind") emphasize greatly on the standardized nature of today's schools. As a result of this kind of across-the-board standardization, there is very little room left for creative freedom and expression. Instead, today's schools focus very heavily on the evaluation of it's students and teachers.

Both students and teachers are held to such a strict and rigid standard that the joy that comes from learning new skills and using them in a way that benefits you, is almost completely lost in the midst.

As an art educator, standardization seems counter-intuitive to the field. Yet when we're in the classroom, as teachers we are encouraged to create art products, akin to that of an assembly line. Within these products of art the self-expressive quality is lost and replaced with cold aesthetics that are meant to please the adults within that child's life: their parents, their teachers, their principals.

It's true in almost any field within education that what the child wants out of education doesn't matter. What does matter, is acclimating them to the cold ideals of the society we have set in place for ourselves. Instead of trying to fit the children into the society of today, we ought to be teaching them how to create and shape the society of tomorrow.