TE 818: Synthesis: Theme 3b: What Should Schools Teach? "Controversial" Curriculum

Even as a write this synthesis post, I feel that my blood is not boiling as it should be. I came across the following poem...

http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/latinos/joaquin.htm

...and I could appreciate the sentiments, but I do not feel the bitterness and/or injustice that this poem conveys.

As I continue to think on it, and even after just having submitted my "brief" on Theme 3b, I think it may be because I honestly believe that I am a successful person. I do not feel oppressed. I do not feel that legislation could keep me from learning what I want to know about my culture and heritage.

Should schools teach it? Certainly. Heck, I try to inspire my students by EMPHASIZING Hispanic contributions to Texas' independence. National Hispanic Heritage Month is a big deal in my classroom. At the public school level, I think we're more likely to fall victim to the loss of Hispanic studies, and yet, I don't think it will be "felt" so much because there's a real hit-and-miss in public education. Some students may love and learn it, others are just going to go through the motions as is the case with any other subject. The college/university level is where I believe the loss will be detrimental. At this point, we have students, professors, and/or researchers who have a real passion for promoting and keeping alive our culture's contributions to the state, country, and inevitably, the world.

The initial interest and pride in Hispanic culture and heritage really does need to come from home. It is up to parents to dig deep and make the connections for our children so that they SENSE the absence of acknowledgement and take initiative to ask for educational courses to validate their (our) presence in this society.

I will go a step further and say that it is also necessary that the education about our advancements and changes as a culture come from the home also. We need to grow and emphasize changes for the better. Although not necessarily about Hispanics, the following link talks to gender roles, which are very prevalent in the traditional Hispanic culture.

http://www.science.tamu.edu/articles/1130/?utm_source=tamutimes&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2013-10-22

So perhaps the point-of-view, or the basis for continued Hispanic studies should focus on our strength. "Don't leave me out" is so needy. "Where would you and where WILL you be without me?" That sounds like a better approach.

TE 818: Theme 3b: What Should Schools Teach? "Controversial" Curriculum

I will begin with a parental view of not just these two issues, but all controversial issues in general. Recently my son relayed a story to me about something that had happened at school and in the middle of it all, he said, "gay," in a whisper as if he were afraid that someone would hear him. When he was done, I asked why he had done that and went on to explain that when we whisper words like gay, homosexual, illegal immigrant (because that's a word that gets whispered a lot in my neck of the woods), we perpetuate the stigmas, discrimination, and overall backward thinking that comes along with them. I can honestly say that although my husband and I have open conversations with our son, I am glad that the school takes the initiative to put "it" out there.

"Now we’re told we can talk about race, but it has to be through a multicultural perspective" (Siek, 2012). This, too, will come to an end. A state-wide curriculum in Texas was scrapped over the summer months because a parent got a hold of a high-school social studies lesson in which, in just so happened, the Muslim religion was being discussed as part of a "big picture" lesson. That's all it took for everyone to get riled up, and, as with so many other things, the politicians won. "Our students have already learned so much this year and this process is teaching them so much more. They are restless, ready to act and eager for their voices to be heard, and our community is equally supportive to their desires" (Acosta, 2012). It would be wonderful if the young students directly affected by this can in turn affect some real changes in how they are being edged out of the history of the state they live in. I wonder if being true to student-centered instruction, and allowing these students to "teach" themselves, or learn by way of self-directed investigation/discovery would also end up against the law. Will student research projects also be shut down to fulfill a political agenda?

In terms of curbing bullying all around, our school district has staff development and student presentations either through the counselor or outside agencies and by classroom teachers. Students and parents are asked to sign off on a parent/student responsibility and consequences contract no later than the 2nd week of school. It works for the most part along with reminders throughout the year. Education about tolerance for homosexuality has to begin at home though. I have had students come to school and refer to students that they don't like by calling them "gay" or (Spanish slang) "joto." Neither the speaker nor the target of the slurs are fully aware of what these words mean, but they interpret them to be "bad." As a classroom teacher, I know that I'm not teaching these words to my students, so they and their connotation must be coming from home...Education begins at home. (On a personal note, if parents whose children come to school ready to utter these words were as dedicated about helping with homework and showing up to parent/teacher conferences, we would all be much better off. Students. Teachers. Community.) When these words are spoken, we are somewhat forced to address the issue, and that puts us between a rock and a hard place because we do not have a curriculum for this. What do you say? What do you attempt to make the student understand?

“By the time kids get to high school, it’s too late," says Tess Dufrechou (Eckholm, 2010).

TE 818: Synthesis: Theme 3a: "Unconventional" Curriculum and Schooling

Can't we all just get along?

There has to be some kind of balance between an "unconventional" curriculum and meeting state-mandated testing requirements. Was state testing even an issue in the readings we had this week? If not, it'll come up, that's for certain.

I believe that one of the biggest problems is being able to tell the difference between curriculum and lesson delivery. Many of our teachers immediately associate resources with curriculum and teach according to what the resource provides to meet the curriculum. There is no consideration of the students' interest level or knowledge base. So when a student is not successful, the teacher panics and ironically, feeds the student more of the same of what they were unsuccessful with in the first place. I can see that, if we make lesson delivery something authentic and/or relevant to students, we can include the soft skills which would lead to more well-rounded individuals. When students see how Math, Science, Social Studies, Writing, and Reading skills apply to their every day lives, we can provide students with an answer to, "When will I ever use this in real life?" and then there will be some relevance to their time spent in a classroom. We are pressed for time as it is, and I am not suggesting that every lesson to turn into a drawn-out project, but there has to be some sense of discovery for our students. That "connect" will provide them a basis for practice outside of the classroom (grocery store, movie theater, gasoline station), without our guidance or insisting, and THAT will turn into consideration of outside factors. How neat would it be that our students "see" the use of the character traits that we are teaching them at school in action and how it affects them? This authentic learning will lend itself to application in other mediums, for example, state testing. See how that came full circle?

TE 818: Theme 3a: "Unconventional" Curriculum and Schooling

“We don't need the current schooling system” (Mitra; Build a School in the Cloud). I would like to say that this statement shocked me, but it really didn’t. In my mind it was not developed as far as only needing a grandma in the room, but the seed that a “teacher” should be more of a facilitator in the classroom was planted some time back. In general, I believe this is the way to go. Reflecting on Mugan’s A Short Introduction to the Studio School, there are many times when I just want to get in, I want you to tell me what I need to know, and I want to get out. However, there is no substitute for doing the work yourself, hands-on. As is the case with our students because so many of them lack the sit, listen, and learn skill.

I return to a thought that I expressed in Theme 2, "How is present day schooling going to prepare them for that world?" (Mitra). There is a gap between what is being taught and what will be necessary when students walk out our high school doors. And another thought occurs to me. One of our readings in Theme 2 talked about how there is so much available and accessible research out there about learning, curriculum and best practices. Now that I read and see and hear more of it, it truly does boggle the mind about how classroom teaching can boil down to so much testing. Mitra was able to collect data and show growth through unconventional teaching. Granted, there was testing involved (the 0-30% test), but the delivery was unconventional. I have tried several times to teach outside the box only to be corralled back in for testing. Could we not produce better-educated citizens through more student-directed learning? How long do we continue with the typical and rigid delivery of instruction that Nussbaum and Eisner say, and we know, goes on, and expect different results?

Eisner’s discussion of the Null Curriculum makes a lot of sense. We want to churn out better, less biased citizens with a varied repertoire of thought process, but THAT we’re not teaching them (98). I see that process learning does not develop these qualities in students beyond those who already have it as a natural ability.

I like what Mitra had to say about educational self organization, “it’s not about making learning happen, it’s about letting learning happen.” In fact, although not through the use of computers, I often answer my students’ questions with questions in an attempt to scaffold their discovery process. That scaffolding applied to the Null Curriculum could lead to those better-educated citizens we’ve been looking for.

TE 818: Synthesis: Theme 2: The History of Curriculum in the United States

I didn’t read the Dewey chapter for my initial post, so I referred to it for an additional perspective for my final post. Two things to say about The Child and the Curriculum. First is that just yesterday I was working with our education service center. The presenter talked about how this particular curriculum included the Performance Indicator (test of sorts) in each lesson so that teachers could keep “the end in mind” so that lesson delivery can build toward that end. And so it has been from the beginning of this curriculum endeavor. The Performance Indicators are always listed at the beginning of the instructional focus documents and the exemplar lesson. I’m going to have to ask one day if they are following Dewey’s model. The second is that I like how Dewey emphasizes that a child has an interest in what is being taught to him. “Appealing to the interest upon the present plane means excitation…” (p. 112). I have served as a new-teacher mentor several times, and one of the points I make to my new teachers is that student learning has to be meaningful in order for them to engage. This is not an original idea of mine. I heard it at one of a hundred professional development sessions, but it made so much sense to me that I pass it along every chance I have. “They must operate, and how they operate will depend almost entirely upon the stimuli which surround them…” (p.114). I do believe it is up to teachers to take the curriculum and find the stimuli that will both meet the curriculum requirements and hold real meaning for the student.

TE 818: Theme 2: The History of Curriculum in the United States

Reading through Schubert's perspectives on curriculum, I immediately identified with the Intellectual Traditionalist. For a moment I thought it was because it was the first one I read, and I linked it to the hypochondriac who believes his/her symptoms match every illness in the book. As I read through the others, I found, as Schubert said, that I was a "blend" of probably two other perspectives, but the main ingredient was that of the Intellectual Traditionalist. The place where I found I most related to the Intellectual Traditionalist was where the textbooks were concerned. I told myself that I didn't consider myself an elitist, unless you count where I try to stay away from textbooks as much as possible because I find them so limiting, particularly in Reading, and I won't even go into how embarrassingly outdated our Science textbooks are. I have been with my district for ten years, and they were already old when I got here. Reel it back in, Lupita. "Too many teachers do not know or appreciate the depth and breadth of their subject, so how can we expect them to inspire others to immerse themselves in it?" (Schubert, p.2). I know that because I am a good reader and writer, I put on a great show for my students when teaching these subjects. I had to develop a better understanding of Texas history and Science in order to put the same effort into those areas, and Math, well, let's say it's a work in progress, and I can tell the difference in my classroom. Where the Social Behaviorist was concerned, I clearly understood the point of hanging on to old courses and/or teachings..."Fish Grabbing with the Bare Hands and Saber-tooth Tiger Chasing with Fire." Times and needs change and we must change with them. Also from the Social Behaviorist's perspective, I related to the "what" and the "how" comments about curriculum as I have gone through a number of trainings where this was reiterated after our district adopted a new curriculum. What also struck me here was the discussion about a needs assessment. I'm assuming someone in Texas put one of these together to develop our TEKS. And they have obviously re-re-revisited that needs assessment many times as our TEKS are now "college readiness" based. I seemed to have a lot to say about the Social Behaviorist quoting Bobbit..I get it, except that by the time their assessment is over, the students who would have benefited most from the assessment are probably out of high school and on not-to-college, or are pursuing the jobs and/or degrees of the previous needs assessment. The students who will receive the instruction based on the new needs assessment will be yrs down the "ladder, " and by the time they reach the job/college world, the results of a new needs assessment will be on the horizon. In other words, there is a HUGE gap between needs assessments and implementing the results to those who would truly benefit from it. The last tidbit I will include about the Social Behaviorist, I'm beginning to think I might swing this way after all, is the discussion about "[T]he multitude of handbooks, encyclopedias, journal articles, synoptic texts, and research reports that exist make it inexcusable that research is not a stronger basis for curriculum development" (Schubert, p.5). I wonder if the idea of a tailor-made curriculum is too daunting for the policy makers. It's interesting that teachers end up tailoring the curriculum to meet the needs of our students on a daily basis. Schwab also makes mention of how educators are only brought into the picture for developing assessments and for evaluation (p.125). In reading the Critical Reconstructionist's reply to the Second Questioner, I began to wonder…would I be perpetuating educational injustices were I not seeking my master's degree? I mean, I would then only be exposed to whatever professional development came down the pike, and I would be responding to my social environment. I believe myself to be a rather intelligent person, and to some extent, I can see having run into some research on the whole thing, and I do see inequities in the system. Finding teaching materials in Spanish alone will suffice. But how time would be lost in the long run?

I have spent a lot of time on this, and I can obviously provide support for each of the perspectives. I will end my observation of Schubert's article by focusing on his reference to Dewey and not to become a "card-carrying" anything. I know it's not the same, or maybe it is, but this is what I think about when we attend a professional development session. There is an underlying pressure to implement every aspect of the training every day in every subject. This is entirely too overwhelming for any teacher. I say, take the best of each training and work with that. After all, if you pay close enough attention, they all tend to overlap one another. Also, do what works best in your classroom and for your students. That ALONE might require you to change your approach from year to year.

I saw in Popkewitz and Schwab's articles that Labaree's idea of education being a "public good" was present. Schwab says "...for societies do not exist only for their own sakes, but for the prosperity of their members as individuals as well" (p.28). So yes, we want students to be able to serve society, but Schwab also emphasized meeting the individual's needs so that they can help out with the public good. Popkewitz was a little more direct, I believe. "These technologies linked public objectives about good health and the moral order of the social body with individual personal health and well-being" (Popkewitz, p.185).

In general, I found Popkewitz's History of Curriculum a difficult read. I did relate to his citing Thorndike that the purpose of education "was to shape the mind and the spirit so the individual can be responsible for her or his progress and trustful of her or his future" (Popkewitz, p.183). I made an instant and personal connection to this. I do believe that we are all responsible for where we allow our education to lead us. I found the establishment of a curriculum in the United States interesting, and did I understand this correctly...the use of the word "all" doomed curriculum to inequities from the onset? And as a final chuckle, I can see Paul Rabinow's (which fittingly I read as "Rainbow" at first) and the whole "education is aesthetic." I have to think about how to make my lessons "look pretty" every day so that I can keep kiddos engaged and interested.

TE 818: Synthesis: Theme 1: Conflicting Notions of the Purposes of Schooling

After reading several TE 818 posts and responding to the required 2 and also reading through the responses on my own post for this theme, I realize that focusing on only one aspect of our readings left most of my thinking unsaid, even on the one point.

I will maintain that education is a commodity to me, in each of the perspectives from which I commented. I can see how it came across a little crass, and perhaps even very black and white. I do, in fact, have a very real love of and enthusiasm for learning which I connect very closely to a formal education. I say these last few words because we all know that not all learning comes within the confines of an academic institution.

I'll refer to my "teacher self" and say that I hope I convey this to my students on a daily basis. I want them to come to school wondering "what will I learn today?" and I want them to leave thinking "Wow! I can't wait to come back tomorrow." That's what I want for them. Do I tell them that they have a better shot in the world with an education? Sure. But I also tell them that if they don't actively participate in their learning, they'll never appreciate where it can take them. I don't think I've ever told them that they need to fill a specific niche in the real world, although the teaching of good character does lend itself to discussion about the kind of person they want to be outside of what occupation and/or career they will hold. And Jillian hit it on the nose in response to my post when she said we're not in teaching to get rich (or something very close to it). I really do work to provide quality learning for my ELLs, more than anything to build their confidence and self-worth. Public good? I will say this, though. I really do wish many more parents would see their child's education as a commodity even if only to light a fire under them to speak up for an equal education for their children, to get them involved and in the schools to see what's going on between teachers and students.

As my "parent self," I know that I have instilled a love of learning in my son. He's always gone off on his own either exploring, reading, or observing. Is that a "private good?" I am now trying to develop in him a sense of loyalty, if you will, or some connection with an institute of higher learning to get him a little more excited about college. He KNOWS he has to go to college, and I suppose that's the "commodity" point of view, but I want him to look forward to it as what may well turn out to be some of the greatest years of his life.

As a student, I will say again that I love learning. I remember when my relationship with my husband started getting serious. I sat him down and told him that my education was very important to me. I didn't know what I was going to be "when I grew up," but I had to complete my degree no matter how long it took. I told him in no uncertain terms that if he could not support that part of me, that it was a real, honest to goodness deal breaker. We could negotiate children, a home, and anything else, but there was no negotiating my education.  I needed that piece of paper. I had no idea where it would lead me, if anywhere at all, but I needed it. As I mentioned in my original post for the cycle, I know that a degree from MSU carries more weight than one from the local university (commodity), but this degree is really for private/personal reasons.

So much to say about this. I don't know if I packaged my thoughts any better than I did the first time in trying to provide the flip side of my original post. "Too many minds..." as one character says in The Last Samurai.