Discipline Presentation

I really enjoyed this presentation. It was interesting to learn about the different disciplinary styles that can be found in my classroom. There was certainly a good activity when each group was given a disciplinary situation to deal with. I was in the group that was generally less authoritarian, and it was interesting to me when the class disagreed with the preferred method of dealing with the situation (gambling in school).
The resources that we were provided with were also fascinating artifacts. I definitely learned a lot about the ways that disciplinary issues have been treated in the past. I feel that discipline in the classroom is a very personal issue, to a certain degree. In one regard, the school has its own policies that come down from the top, but with a lot of small classroom issues, I feel it's best to let the disciplinary technique match the general tone of the classroom. This should be very deliberately thought out.

Philosophy Abstracts and Reflections

Idealism

Idealism is a philosophy based on the idea that ideas are the main reality in the world, and that the physical world can be misleading if it is overly focused on, rather than the underlying spiritual world. One epistemological function of idealism is that the human reasoning must be the source of knowledge, as physical exterior would-be-sources do not actually contain truth. It is based or rooted in the writings of the Greek thinker Plato, and frequently utilizes Socratic method to discern knowledge.

Realism

Realism is a philosophy that stands almost precisely counter to idealism. Realism puts its focus on the idea that truth does not exist within the human mind, and that all knowledge and reality exists solely on the exterior. The epistemological function of realism is based on scientific method and observation of the natural world. The works of Aristotle, and much later, John Locke, served heavily to form modern realism.

Pragmatism

Pragmatism is a philosophy that dismisses idealism and realism as inconsistent with a natural world and internal world that are changing and evolving. This has an epistemological nature that requires an interaction between the self and the universe, but not necessarily from a scientific observation standpoint. While both idealism and realism state that there are universal truths that must be discerned in some way, pragmatism focuses more on the process of obtaining knowledge than the knowledge itself. It is centered on becoming rather than being.

Existentialism

Existentialism is a philosophy that is contrary to the other three philosophies we’ve studied. Rather than finding meaning in the mind, in the natural world, or in the process of change and evolution, existentialism claims that there is no absolute meaning or principle to live by. The chief principle of existentialism is that because there are no absolute values, humans are free to make their own choices. Existentialism is based heavily in the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre.

The two educational philosophies I’ve chosen to focus on are idealism and existentialism, mostly because these are the two ideas that I tend to alternate between in my own views. I have been deceived enough by and seen enough negative works come from the hands of the scientific process and observation of the natural world and natural laws to believe that there is any kind of absolute meaning found in the observable universe. I have also always felt deeply that if there is some kind of absolute meaning, it must be found internally. The Socratic method and use of questions to learn are things that I have always felt strongly about.

As for existentialism, I also have long periods in which I dismiss the idea of internal meaning as well. I agree with the somewhat pragmatic idea that the search for meaning may be the largest source of actual meaning in life, but I still feel that even this is not enough, as it can be by no means described as a universal truth. 

Response to "Rejuvenation"

Rejuvenation

This reading had a lot more great moments for me than any of the Teaching Hope segments so far. A lot of them were solely about the teachers’ experiences, and many of those had some great introspection. However, the chapters that most reached me were the ones where individual students had really great breakthroughs.  After the last segment, I needed a collection of refreshing and heartwarming stories. Number 120 with Tara, the girl who was afraid to be in the Public Speaking class, was really nice to read. Another one that I really enjoyed the themes of was 112, which dealt with Max, the boy who assaulted his teacher. The forgiveness and understanding that the teacher shows is really admirable to me – I firmly believe in as many second chances as it takes to make a breakthrough, and the teacher really captured that well. 127 also really got to me, about Manie, the boy whose family was upset that he was visiting the Holocaust Museum. Watching a single breakthrough must be the most awe-inspiring thing, and although I haven’t seen anything like this at my summer camp quite yet, I certainly hope to experience this sometime soon in a classroom.

Response to "Engagement"

This section was a really interesting combination of uplifting stories and depressing, but motivating ones. Many of these stories involve students making some kind of breakthrough. One trend that I thought was interesting in this section was that it had a lot more focus on rural schools and the issues that come with that, rather than the urban stories which I generally think of with Erin Gruwell’s work. The section where the teacher worked with the white student with racial prejudice was a scenario that I think about a lot. I thought it was handled well in that the teacher didn’t merely lecture him as to why that was inappropriate – the teacher asked questions and made it a long-term goal to introduce new perspectives to compare with those proposed by his family. I think my favorite breakthroughs in the chapter were those in which a student decided to open up with either the teacher or the entire class. 

One section that I was uncomfortable with the teacher's behavior was Section 56, which dealt with a homophobic student who had made inappropriate statements of opinion. Although the teacher may not have intended to do so, the technique they used to deal with the student was not one that encouraged tolerance or explained why those statements were inappropriate - the teacher basically just embarrassed the student in front of everybody in the classroom. That was not the action of an impartial tolerant instructor - it pointed out ignorance without pointing the student in the right direction. Essentially, it was hating the sinner, and not the sin.

PBS Documentary: 1950-1980 Response

This section of the documentary was very interesting. It definitely seemed a lot closer to the way schools are now. It’s good to hear a more complete and finished telling of what happened with the different civil rights laws and court cases. With Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, I wasn’t aware that some southern schools used the National Guard to keep black children out of schools, or that the President called in the military to enforce the law.  That was really interesting to me, to think that a military conflict, very much along the lines of North versus South, was occurring almost 100 years after the American Civil War. I also wasn’t aware that Brown v. Board of Education was a unanimous case in the Supreme Court.

As a longtime rebel, modeled after those in the 1960s, I was surprised to hear that Lyndon Baines Johnson was a champion of civil rights, or that he was a teacher. I clearly see my own bias in that perception, and I’m glad that was opened up.

As for most of the documentary, I am painfully uneducated about the majority of the issues. I know a good bit about Title 9, thanks to a friend who is an expert on the law, but I know almost nothing about bussing, the demands of Mexican-American students and faculty, and other more contemporary issues. That is obviously something I will have to keep an eye out for to study. 

Response to 1900-1950 History of Schools

I was fascinated to learn about the history of standardized testing in schools between 1900 and 1950. Entire educational history, from Dewey to the experiential schools to Sputnik, is really cool to me. It’s really interesting to look at all of the things in schools – what I like, what I hate – and see what the circumstances were that led to the institutionalization of those elements. Of course I’m not surprised, for instance, that in the midst of World War I, students were encouraged to speak only English and to burn German-language books. No matter what the issue of the day is, people are passionate about it. The thing that really struck me about the documentary, however, is that when I go out into the school, simply by teaching and doing my job, I will be contributing to the future “history of education.” This is all the more reason to be deliberate in everything I do.

Generation Reflection

This was a very interesting article. In my summer job, which is my main work environment, I work entirely with people in my own generation, excepting our director and assistant director. While I’m hesitant to put everybody into a big group with the same traits, I understand that culture over time does produce certain trends, and the article is not necessarily declaring these as universal truths. That being said, I think this is a fascinating collection of commonalities and differences between generational groups. One reason that this article is great is because failure to notice common differences between generations can definitely lead to protraction of one’s own generational traits. The example about the Gen. Y manager who offered a vacation to a Boomer instead of a bonus is a good example of this – the Gen. Y manager may have preferred a vacation to a bonus, and assumed that this was true for other coworkers and employees.

As a member of Generation Y, I see myself working for administrators in the two generations above me, at least right away when I begin teaching. I will also be working with these generations, in addition to my own age-peers. Given my own interest in working together with other teachers, it is very likely that I will be collaborating with members of other generations. Communication in particular will be a topic that I will have to pay particular attention to.