Writing Circle Review (5)

For class yesterday I read chapter 9 in Spring's book. It was all about the vocational system of education. This chapter really made me think about my own public school education and how it was affected by this part of American school history. Did my high school teach me to be focused on getting a job after high school or even after college or did that influence come from somewhere else? Because that drive definately exists. I really didn't like the influence that the government had on schools. I feel like our school system and our economy should at least try to be separated; I do believe that vocational school is a great way for those who know they aren't right for college to learn a trade, but what makes them believe they aren't right for society. I mean back when vocational schools started out the vocational guidance counselors pushed those from lower SES to not think about college and instead focus on which vocation would be best for them. This chapter really made me think about if I had gone to a Catholic high school would I have been affected as much as my public school?

Writing Circle Review 4

Today's writing circle was short but sweet. I was able to hash out my ideas on my paper since I plan on writing it later this week. I decided that I will have about five sources or however many I'll need to feel I've understood not only the history of public and catholic education, but also my own educational experience. I know that I don't want to focus soley on one instance of my educational developement, but rather I want to discuss how throughout my education I've experienced many things which could have only happened if the historical events (that I'll discuss) had happened first. I liked how Meghan decided to set up her paper though with her whole story of being bullied jumpstarting the paper. I think that will be a great begining and really help personalize her story. I was very excited to hear about Aaron's new research topic since it is one of my favorite historical times. I can't wait to hear more about his connection from ancient rome to current american culture.

Timeline

Web Log: Prayer in School

I found this chapter to be very thought provoking.  The "New School Prayer" poem that someone sent to Spring was extremely interesting.  I feel like sometimes I can understand where this author is coming from in the sense that it is very difficult to be politcically correct these days.  I mean I find myself tripping over my words sometimes because I am afraid of offending someone, but at the same time others are able to freely say that the 'white man' is oppressive and wrong.  On many levels, especially throughout history, white anglo saxons have committed a lot of horrendous crimes in American history, but I don't feel like I should be afraid to be who I am or that I shouldn't be proud of the person I am simply because I am white.  I feel that everyone should be celebrated for who they are no matter race, gender, beliefs or lifestyle.  As long as what you do doesn't harm others then you should be free to do it, and no one should judge.  I know that this may seem idealistic to say that no one should judge, but honestly that's how I feel.  To get back to the New School Prayer though, I felt that the auther was lets just say somewhat ignorant and potentially offensive in what he said about people who choose to have different colored hair or the 'pregnant Senior Queen' this is a great example of how he should let these people chose to live how they please without comlaint or judgement.  I do believe in separation of church and state for the very fact that to push your beliefs on others is wrong; I also believe that education is a way to end ignorance so to teach about different religions in school (even in public schools) is a great idea.  I know in my high school I was never exposed to different religions which left me extremely ignorant.  My only experience with being taught religion was at PSR (public school religion) which I went to every monday during the school year until eighth grade.  PSR was a wonderful experience that taught me everything about being catholic from what traditions we hold most dear to why we practice our faith the way we do.  I wish that every student would have to go to PSR, but instead of focusing on only one religion have each one hour session be about a different religion in a rotation or something. 


On a separate note, the elimination of  multicultural education frustrates me.  According to Spring,

"some Republican conservatives were distressed by the demands of African Americans, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans for inclusion of their histoires and cultures in the school curriculum"

I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous American history is the history of a great many cultures and nations coming together so to exclude part of that history is not helping our students whatsoever. Just had to vent on that for a second...

Web Log: Native Americans

In class, my group was assigned Native Americans and their fight for their land/citizenship/culture.  It was horrifying and enlightening to read about Native American history in Spring's book.  I knew from my own schooling that Native Americans were treated unfairly by the United States government, but I never learned the horrible extent of it.  I mean the government actually put into law (The Naturalization Act of 1790) that Native Americans were not allowed to be citizens.  They truely were domestic foreigners since their cultures were so distinct and 'foreign' to the anglo saxons who ruled the New World.  I always thought of education as a good thing, I know it always has been for me, but the way the US government used it to tear apart the Native American culture was horrendous.  They forced the children to speak english and adopt American dress/morals; this in turn made a huge generational gap where grandchildren are barely able to communicate with their own grandparents due to lack of education of their own acesteral traditions/cultures.  I am actually able to see this with family friends today.  My friend's grandparents and parents were born in italy and they immigrated to the United states when the parents were about ten years old.  Tony, my friend, knows some italian, but he isn't fluent while his grandma knows very little english this creates a disconnect between their generations since Tony who was born here, has adopted the culture that surrounded him since birth.  I always find it a little sad whenever I'm over at tony's house and he and his grandma don't talk as much as I do with my grandparents; however, I wonder how my view on this would change had my parents been from a different contry would I have been all for learning their traditions or would I have chosen to fit in with my friends and rebel against my parents (the more likely option).

Web Log: Education for all

In chapter 8 of Spring's book he quotes W. E. B. Du Bois (who is refering to Booker T. Washingtong) as saying, "Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things-- First, political power, Second, insistence on civil rights, Third, higher education of Negro youth-- and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, the accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South". (p219)  This quote really stuck with me after reading this chapter.   The aspect about no higher education for Negro youth is what truly upset me.  I just can't believe anyone ever would tell children to basically sell themselves short.  I am truly appalled with Booker T's attitude towards how black people should have behaved.  I mean I guess I can never truly understand being a young, white woman, but I can relate on a human level.  No one should ever tell children that they can't be anything they want. I can remember ever since I was a little girl that my mom would always tell me that I could do anything.  I think one week I changed my mind on what I wanted to be when I grew up about ten times and the jobs ranged from mommie to doctor to even a dog walker (I love dogs). Each time my mom would tell me that if it made me happy then I was meant to do it.  I agree with Du Bois that change can come from education; if we educate leaders then the end of oppression is possible.  I wonder though how I would have felt if I had been born just fifty years earlier.  If I had been in my twenties in the sixties would I feel the same way about civil rights and equality or would I have been like the majority of white people and thought themselves superior?  It's a very scary thought I would hope I would be the person I am today who fights for treating people how I would like to be treated, but I'm not sure. 

Web Log: Common School Comments

My beliefs regaurding the Common System of Education:

One aspect of the common school system that I liked was the idea of a 'common culture'. This idea of children of all cultures coming togther in a school house is wonderful, but I felt as though the anglo saxon's destroyed ths view by manipulating it for their own good.  They wanted everyone to be like them so instead of everyone coming togethr to create a new and better (diverse) culture it was everyone becoming like them.  In my own experience, people who force their beliefs on others are the ones most afraid of change.  I went to an affluent high school where being rich and dressing 'preppy' was the only way to be cool.  I was more into theatre in high school and I had a lot of friends that loved to wear vintage outfits that they put together themselves.  I learned a lot from my friends that stood up for themselves or cared more about making themselves happy instead of focusing on what others think.  This experience helped me to be the student I am today because I was afraid of being geeky or uncool for liking science and math, but these friends taught me that I need to be proud of who I am and that everyone has something special to contribute.

The Common School System's idea of having state influence also benefited this plan because then the source of money and being official/certified was all power in the hands of the anglo saxons.  The common school while a nice idea was too focused on control and power instead of freedom.

Writing Circle Review (3)

The writing circle this past Thursday was great.  I was very happy with everyone's ideas for my project.  One idea that Kate gave me I especially liked was the survey.  I think it would be very interesting to ask everyone in our class a few questions about their past to see how they came to be in a catholic school grad program.  I especially wanted to look into what about their high school/undergrad allowed them this opportunity.  That's at least one aspect of my reasearch that I am looking forward to; another thought that the writing circle gave me was to compare my perceptions from high school on what a private education would be like to the reality I experienced at John Carroll.  Some statitics I want to look into are how often Ivy League schools admit private vs public high school students. 

Writing Circle Review 2

It was very interesting during the writing circle to hear everyone's ideas for their research project.  I started to form my idea more solidly during this time as well.  I knew that I wanted to do something related to the history of public and private schools and how their differences could be seen with my own education at a public high school and a private college.  Throughout the writing circle it became clear that I need to narrow down my subject so, although I'm not completely sure which specific topics I want to cover, I know this: I want to talk about catholic schools specifically since my experience was here at John Carroll University, I want to look into the statistics behind public high schools and private high schools to see if there is something behind the idea that more opportunities are available to those who go to a private school, and I also want to potentially look into the structure of the schools whether there is more discipline to private schools or why on average students who attend Catholic schools tend to do better on standardized tests.  Those are just some of my ideas, but I think that by doing some research this week I'll get a better idea of what information is actually out there and what I am most interested in.

Web Log: Public School vs Private School

Yesterday in class we discussed the 'creation' of the public school system in the United States.  This history is fascinating to me particularly because it deals with the struggle of education and religion which are two of the most important things in my life (family being up there as well).  When I was in high school I would always wonder how my education would differ if I had gone to a private and especially a catholic high school.  During our discussion yesterday, I had the opportunity to hear about private school education from people who attended some, and I was very interested in the fact that religion was something that was taught in school.  This would have been a wonderful class to take not as a purely christian religion class, but more as a world/general religion course.  Another aspect we touched on was if private schools really do provide opportunities that public schools can't.  Kate was telling me about someone she knew who went to Hawken for high school then to an aclaimed private school for college, and who now is a professor at Stanford and other Ivy league schools.  I wonder if he would have had those same options if he hadn't attended a private high school.  This discussion has made me think more about having my final research paper focus on the differences both modern and historically between public and private schools.

Writing Circle Post (1)

The first writing circle that we had last Thursday really made me think about what kind of student I was and in turn what kind of teacher I want to be. When I look back over my education I can distictly picture a few teachers that truly impacted the person I am today.  These teachers are the kind of teacher I aspire to become, although I realize that it will take years of experience to get to their level.  Mainly though I want to focus on their style of teaching how it was more laid back, how the students were in charge of their own eduation by being held accountable, and how learning was something everyone in class participated in which in turn made it extremely fun. Over the next few weeks, I plan on exploring specifically what types of activities/teachers I've remembered as being the most influencial to my education in order to help decide what kind of teacher I wish to become.

Class Survey (Web Log 1)

Hey guys my name is Liz Lewis.  Welcome to my blog! I'm originally from Buffalo, New York, but for the past ten years my family and I have been living in Hudson, Ohio.  My email is elewis12@jcu.edu if you ever need to reach me.  Even though I go by Liz my family calls me Elizabeth so I respond to either, but PLEASE don't call me Lizzie I will not respond to that.  I am in the School Based M. Ed program and I'll be teaching Chemistry this fall at St. Ignatius. I love doing new things and going new places; next week I'm going to go rock climbing with some friends.  I've been skydiving, white water rafting, and this past March I was able to go to March for ten days.

My learning style is pretty traditional.  I don't mind being lectured to, but it is nice to have group discussions.  In order for me to take risks in class I need to feel as though the teacher is open to hearing what I have to say even if it doesn't agree with their opinions.  I don't really mind speaking up in class I've always been that kid in class that raises their hand a lot. I have also been the student who bugs the teacher about assignments way in advance because if something is sprung on me last minute I get extremely anxious.  I love to plan out my homework so I know I'll have enough time to do it well.  Towards the end of the class I tend to not do as much of the reading since most of the time that's when projects are due so projects always take precedent over readings when there isn't enough time.  When I can't understand something I have zero fear of asking a teacher/student for help. 

My favorite experience as a student so far (no offense Dr. Shutkin that it wasn't our summer class together...) was in high school.  It was a humanities course that covered: anthropology, philosophy, sociology, and psychology.  The class was so great because everyone was devoted to it since we all had to interview/apply to take the course.  Every day when we would have a discussion everyone would participate; it was so wonderful hearing everyone's opinion and take on the different topics.  One of my biggest concerns for the field of Education is that students don't want to put in the effort to get the grades.  They expect everything to be handed to them and to be so easy.  I've seen it a lot with my fellow students in the past few years especially in group work.  No one is willing to put in any work it's almost as difficult as pulling teeth to have them help with the project.  So for that to translate to education it poses an opportunity for me to try to motivate students in a new way that will make them want to learn and be excited about school.  I think that this course has the opportunity to teach me a lot about not only the history of education, but also how to be a great teacher.  Class discussions over readings are one of the best ways that I learn since it forces me to read the assignment with a more critical view.  I would prefer it if the class avoided big group projects since it is always extremely difficult to coordinate schedules as well as designate work.