TE 818: Conflicting Notions of the Purposes of Schooling

I just spent the entire day writing a reading lesson plan for my grade-level for the upcoming week. It was late. It was due at the very latest this past Friday. One of the reasons that it took so long is that I was working to create a lesson which would engage students from the onset and prompt them, or lead them to that higher order thinking that the entire educational world speaks of. But how does that get accomplished in a one-hour block each day, in two languages, with accommodations for special education, GT, and RTI students, and pending benchmarks and three grades due for the grade book each week? Talk about losing sight of the purpose of schooling.

Labaree talks about social mobility in education, making education a commodity. At the elementary level, particularly in our bilingual classes, we don't see much of the parents who are fighting to make sure that their child/student is being distinguished in the classroom. We see them at award ceremonies at the end of the school year which indicates that they, too, see the value of academic success. However, the benefit to their children would be immensely multiplied were their interest year round.

As a parent, I see education as a commodity. I removed my son from the school district that I work in after his elementary years. As a district employee, I was privy to the state test academic outcomes of the middle schools available to my son. In addition, there were several instances in which the very teachers at the middle school level were not very flattering with their comments about their own schools. I also did not want my son to go to school to participate in a drill-and-kill academic environment. I placed him in a charter school, and so far, I am convinced it was the best decision we could have made for him. The school does resort to test-taking practice and/or strategy sessions as testing approaches, but for the most part, I see that a "real" education is being provided. I see that his school diploma and the college readiness that is highly and publicly emphasized will weigh more heavily than my school district's high school diploma when it comes time for college applications.

As a student I see that education is a commodity as well. Having received my bachelor's degree at the local university, I feel that it does not weigh as heavily as if I had received one from MSU or Texas A&M. In my decision to attend graduate school, I could have had that out of the way years ago if I would have simply enrolled in the local university's graduate program. I did not see how that would enhance my education. Some people see it as a chip on my shoulder, and perhaps it is, but I dare anyone to tell me that a master's in education from UT Brownsville weighs the same as a master's in education from MSU does. By the same token, I have a sister who does not have a college education, but who worked her way up through management levels of a retail chain which shall remain nameless, and now has a management position at a pharmacy chain which, too, shall remain nameless. She makes crazy amounts of money more than I do and never had a student loan to repay, much less a second one. Now let's compare the exchange value of her high school diploma and my pending graduate degree. She wins. In terms of salary, anyhow.

As a school teacher, I see education as a commodity, too. Its basic value and exchange value are different from those of my personal life. I want my bilingual students to be able to compete with all students at their grade level, in fourth grade as much as in subsequent years. Their ability to perform in English becomes an academic as well as a social issue for them. There is somewhat of a lingering stigma about the quality of a bilingual education in our school system. In my classroom, I work to provide an equal education for them, but I don't know what happened before me or what will come after. Another way that education becomes a commodity for me is that of accountability. The exchange value in this aspect is a high one in terms of job security. This is where the purpose of education becomes somewhat skewed. Was I hired and kept on to teach, to provide what I consider a "real" education to elementary school children, or was I hired to meet state-mandated testing requirements? I ask this question because before becoming a teacher, I worked at that local university from which I received my bachelor's degree. It was fed primarily from the local high schools which were achieving recognized and exemplary status for state test performance. Curiously, though, there were a large number of remedial courses having to be offered to these students. Now the question becomes, "What is the REAL exchange value of passing high school level state-mandated tests?" This does, in fact, place a huge strain on classroom instruction.

My goal for this year is to provide the best education for my students whether they choose an academic or vocational future.