Final Metphor

1.       Education (Rousseau says, “…all that we need when we come to man’s estate, is the gift of education.”)

a.       A father’s duty is to support and educate his own children. (Rousseau: A man owes men to humanity and citizens to the state.)

                                                               i.      Tool: Teach them to talk slowly with a few distinctly spoken, repeated words.

b.      Children are the future. (Beecher: “…unless our children are trained to intelligence and virtue, the nation is ruined…”)

c.       Gratitude. (Antin: Not everyone has the chance to go to school.)

d.      Obtained on own. (Mann: “All these necessaries and conveniences of life should be obtained by each individual for himself.” I think that education fits in that category. Teachers can present the knowledge to the students, but it is up to them what they do with that knowledge.)

e.      Independence (Washington: “It is our duty to help him prepare himself to live there an independent, educated citizen.”)

f.        Intelligence (Ravitch: the idea that the essential purpose of schooling is to develop the powers of intelligence.”)

2.       Inspiration

a.       Discovery (Wolk: Help them learn and understand things on their own.)

                                                               i.      Tool: Do hands on activities that make them be involved and discover how things work on their own.

3.       Equality

a.       Biases based on appearance. (Perry: everyone has these biases. As teachers biases should not be there.)

                                                               i.      Tool: students learn by example. If you want to teach equality, then treat all students the same no matter what they look like or what their social standing is.

b.      Separate but equal. (Brown: Giving everyone a chance to go to school and putting them in situations that will help them learn the best, like special education) (Plessy) (Brown)

c.       Everyone has opportunity to go to school. (Jefferson)

d.      Self-respect (Du Bois: “In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and house, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing”)

e.      Special Education (PL 94-142: “… assures all handicapped children the right to a free appropriate public education.”)

                                                               i.      Tool: separate special students from main classroom for certain subjects. I think that whether they are handicapped or have above average intelligence, those students should receive special education to help them grow to their own capacity. In this way gifted students won’t be held back and regular students also won’t be held back.

4.       True Learning

a.       Problem-posing (Freire: This method of teaching encourages the students to think critically, to gain a deeper and better understanding, and to really know what they have learned and not just have facts memorized.)

                                                               i.      Tool: A way to teach this way is to not give them worksheets, but to ask questions that will make them think, figure it out on their own, and even give them more questions to ask. This could be done with some sort of research project or even just a class discussion.

b.      Skills vs. Knowledge (Perry: A summary of a book rather than an analysis primarily develops their typing skills rather than their analytical thoughts.)

                                                               i.      Tool: Give assignments where they have to think for themselves and not just regurgitate what someone else has said. Using one of Perry’s examples, have them turn in an analysis of the book rather than a summary. Also in an analysis don’t grade too harshly, they all think differently and will come up with different ideas. I don’t think they should all be exactly the same.

c.       Individuals find their own truth (Kierkegaard: “one or another individual might return from this assemblage and become a single individual.)

                                                               i.      Tool: After a lecture or even an assembly have each person do a write-up of what they learned to be true.

d.      Knowledge (Erasmus: “All knowledge falls into one of two divisions: the knowledge of “truths” and the knowledge of “words…”

e.      Continuous (Johnson: “...education is always an unfinished task.”

5.       Experience

a.       Knowledge (Addams: She says that schools, “rest upon the assumption that the ordinary experience of life is worth little…” but this is not true.

                                                               i.      Tool: Have students keep a journal in which they write about things that have happened to them and what they learned from those times.            

b.      Wide-Awake (Greene: Lacking wide-awakeness…individuals are likely to drift, act on impulses of expediency…To think about their condition in the world, to inquire into the forces that appear to dominate them, to interpret the experiences they are having day by day. Only then can they develop a sense of agency required for living a moral life.)

6.       Nature

a.       Develop the inner capacity of the child, then to produce isolated results by my actions. (Pestalozzi: His goal is to help them develop who they are and learn in the way that works best for them rather than pushing them to understand and them not ever fully understanding.) (Dewey: “The child’s own instincts and powers furnish the material and give the starting point for all education.”

                                                               i.      Tool: Taking the child back to the beginning points of human knowledge and patiently working on those until the child understands. 

b.      World values (Plato)

c.       Consequences: (James: “Pragmatists are interested in practical, concrete consequences of our actions…does it matter? Will I ever use this?”)

d.      Determined by needs (Cardinal Principles: “Secondary education should be determined by the needs of the society to be served, the character of the individuals to be educated and the knowledge of educational theory and practice available.”

7.       Pragmatism: method of settling metaphysical disputes that otherwise might be interminable.

a.       Different views for every situation. (James)

8.       Reformation

a.       Teachers (Anyon: “…teachers are perhaps the most important element, because it is they on whom change ultimately depends.”)

b.      Self-examination (Anyon: “…examine and change own behavior.” Instead of blaming the schools, or the teachers, or the students. I think everyone can change to help learning better.)

c.       Basic Purposes (Nation at Risk: “Our society and its educational institution seem to have lost sight of the basic purposes of schooling, and of the high expectation and disciplined effort to attain them.”