Formal, public education is deeply rooted in the democratic ideals of a newly formed nation. This new nation of the 1800’s was a nation of immigrants having little in common culturally, and no particular allegiance to the nation that had become their home. There was a need to unite these people as Americans. In addition to these factors, another major influence would arise with a great transition. American society was rapidly becoming more urban and more industrial as the 19th century progressed. The democratic ideal, nationalism, and transitions in society continue to be major influences on education today.
As John Dewy (1937) wrote, “Our public school system was founded in the name of equity of opportunity for all, independent of birth, economic status, race, creed, or color” (p. 340). Equal opportunity and access are at the heart of the educational system. This tradition runs through the system as strongly as it did a century ago. The concept of each person bearing his or her own fair share for the cost of education as well as having a vote on the amount that fair share represents are examples of this democratic ideal. The concept of equity also comes to mind when thinking of education reform here in the State of Vermont in the 1990’s. The law, Act 60, was designed to create an equal education experience for students in communities around the state through a complex funding formula. Although the aim of equity of opportunity is democratic in nature, many have criticized the resulting property tax increases that have come to many communities.
Throughout history schools have served as centers of communities hosting civic events and promoting the sharing of ideas. This sharing of ideas is a centerpiece shared by both education and democracy. As Dewy (1937) wrote, “democracy means voluntary choice, based on an intelligence that is the outcome of free association and communication with others”(p. 341). Ideally the classroom is a place where the ideas of all individuals are shared and discussed so that students learn to form opinions and make well-reasoned decisions.
Yet another major influence on American public education comes from factors associated with nationalism. It is said we are a nation of immigrants and as Noah Webster observed in 1783, that people were not born with a loyalty to their new country, there would need to be a uniting force to accomplish national identity in the minds of citizens (The District School, p. 68). The tool that would be used to inspire nationalism was language. Webster’s Blue Back Speller was put into use within countless schools to teach this new American Language (The District School, p. 68). Much of the common American speech today was impacted by the work of Noah Webster who recognized, “A national language is a band of national union” (p 73).
The influence of nationalism is still alive and well in American schools today. On a very basic level, saying the Pledge of Allegiance is done in most every school each day. In my situation as a classroom teacher, I am required to lead this activity. Because I teach social studies, I have made a point of teaching students what it means. Beyond the pledge, nationalism is embedded in the curriculum in countless ways, from a “Constitution Day” required by federal law to language found in writing prompts and educational materials. I do feel nationalism is positive in many ways, but believe it is important for all students to have free and open access to information representing all points of view.
The early 1800’s brought major changes to the United States. The transformation was from a nation of rural, agricultural areas to urban, industrial areas. This rise of industry required workers and citizens to have new and different skills than before. In the push to create common schools a century ago Mann encountered resistance from people who favored local control of schools. “Mann softened their opposition by convincing these people that a common school would provide all children with the knowledge and skills necessary for success in this new industrialized world of the 19th century United States” (Horace Mann, p.80).
Today similar arguments are made regarding a technology revolution in our society. Even as I write this reflective essay, President Bush as well as his Democratic rivals speak of education reform, which will lead to students of today being ready to fill the high tech jobs of tomorrow (Bush 2006, January 31).
My experience teaching in public schools leads me to believe that mathematics and language arts are given the highest priority. Government mandated testing in these subjects has led schools to limit funding, classroom time and human resources in other areas. In my school first through sixth grade students only have half a year of social studies and only 8 weeks of computer. At the same time teachers of all grade levels are required to teach math for an hour each day. President Bush and others have suggested that technology is the key to the skilled labor of the future. Perhaps the strong push of mathematics in the last several years is a result of the technology revolution. I have not yet seen the same emphasis placed on technology or integration programs in K-12 schools.
Although more than 200 years have passed since the formative years of public education many of the same influences remain today. The democratic ideal, forces of nationalism, and changes in society continue to drive the education system. Many of these influences have manifested themselves throughout the years through the actions of our government.
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Education and Democratic Ideals
Technology & The Mess at Coventry
“There can be no doubt that in our civilisation poetry is by far the most discredited of the arts, the only art, indeed, in which the average man refuses to discern any value.” (Orwell, 1968, p.3)
As poetry, besides Pink Floyd, Grateful Dead, jazz, and classical music fans, twenty-minute songs without lyrics were not enjoyed by the everyman. Phish had a very specific kind of sound that echoed those four and in the beginning was only able to reach their audiences through word of mouth. Even with that, they had an impressive following in the early nineties for a band without a hit single.Their sound was for a more intelligent crowd. The commercial radio stations never played Phish (even after they released a few MTV-type songs), but they kept filling larger and larger venues due to the increasing popularity of technology.
When I first got into their music there was a fairly new message board online at rec.music.phish Through this media, the band got exposure to people who otherwise would not have heard. Spring (1997) asserted, the “Amercian broadcasting system [claimed] it was democratic because it was based on listener selection” (p.319). How can a listener select something they have never been exposed to? It is lonely to be the only one you know to like a particular band. In the past, adolescents who felt this way might run off to the city, San Francisco most notably,to be with like-minded people.
Without leaving home, the internet expanded the circle of people you could know.I did not have a car, but I conversed frequently with people who lived across the country and felt that I was part of a community. The same tool that enabled Phish’s fan base to grow led to the mess at Coventry. When I was a sophomore in college Phish played at the tiny Greek Theatre in Los Angeles and did not sell all of the tickets available. The next year they played the massive Irvine Meadows and almost sold out. The following year people were ready to sell their brother to get to that show.
The counter-culture that had developed in the mid-nineties as a peace loving community who looked down upon those on drugs at the shows had a new younger following who did not really get it. Due to news reports that focused on the few overdoses or arrests and not the thousands who avoided both, new fans were coming to the shows socialized to think that these were common. They were drinking and doing drugs irresponsibly and disturbing the people who were there for the music. What once was the exception was now the rule because of technology and mass media. In the beginning, the audio resources were scant; there was precise taping etiquette that if you failed follow you did not get any tapes of shows. There were, however, plenty of seats at shows and shows to go to. As the technology became more accessible, more information about the band and its music became available.
As these resources grew the fan base grew. In 1999, the most crucial of the resources started to run out, seats at shows and shows to attend. At a festival called Big Cypress we waited in twelve hours of traffic because there were more people than tickets available. Fall Tour 2000 was the first time I have ever not been able to buy a ticket through Phish, but my friend and I were still able to go to all of the shows. During the two year hiatus they took there were no shows, afterwards there were no seats. To get to their next festival, IT, we waited in fourteen hours of traffic. The population of the fan base became so large that the fan’s standard of living decreased. The culmination of increased demand with limited resources was Coventry.
References
Lenski, G. E. (2005). Ecological-evolutionary theory: Principles and applications.Boulder, Colo.: Paradigm Publishers.
Orwell, G., Orwell, S., & Angus, I. (1968). The collected essays, journalism and letters of george orwell.London: Secker & Warburg.
Spring, J. H., & Spring, J. H. (1997). The american school, 1642-1996 (4th ed.). New York: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Effective Citizens
posted for smm
Noah Webster made a unique contribution to America’s educational system. According to Johnson (2002), it was Webster’s belief that our newly independent nation needed a distinctive language and government (p. 75). With its publication in 1783 and its use nationwide, Webster’s Blue Back Speller standardized American spelling, thus creating the distinctive language he advocated for. Soon after the introduction of the Blue Back Speller, spelling bees, enjoyed by youth and adults alike, became standard practice throughout the nation. Webster also “recognized the importance of education for promoting nationalism” (p. 69), and his role in standardizing our language played a significant role in helping all American students to become effective citizens who now felt connected to each other through the common bond of language.
If we jump ahead to the next century, we see the influence of persons such as Horace Mann and other crusaders for the common (public) school. According to Johnson (2002), Mann was discouraged by what he saw as a “moral decline of U.S. society,” and he felt that, in addition to ensuring that all students practice and learn the three R’s, the purpose of the public school was to provide the best education possible in order to “provide moral guidance to the masses” (p. 79). I would agree that it is important for schools to provide an environment that promotes high moral character. But what exactly are our responsibilities? Do we teach sex education in our health classes, or do we avoid this controversy and leave the teaching of this subject to the parents? Do we teach Internet safety, or do we simply ban access to certain technologies? In a letter to his sister, Mann stated his desire for every child to become “a noble citizen” (p. 84). The challenge is determining the public educational system’s role in helping our students to become noble (or effective) citizens.
The 20th century brought us John Dewey, another icon in the educational community who is known for his stand on the role of democracy in education. Dewey (1937) maintained that the democratic process isn’t just something to be discussed in schools; it must be practiced (p. 340). We often talk about democracy, and we may model it ourselves, but unless students have the opportunity to practice it in a meaningful way, they are less likely to become truly effective citizens.
What is the purpose of education? I believe that the purpose of education is to help our students to become effective citizens. The three educational leaders highlighted above were proponents of different perspectives, but together these viewpoints incorporate a larger picture of how to achieve this goal. Joseph Needleman (2006) quoted these wise words from Walt Whitman:
I say the mission of government, henceforth, in civilized lands, is not repression alone, and not authority alone, not even of law, nor the rule of the best men, but higher than the highest arbitrary rule, to train communities through all their grades, beginning with individuals and ending there again, to rule themselves. . .
This is the purpose of education.
References
Interview with Joseph Needleman.(2006). In Speaking of Faith from American Public Media. The Religious Roots of American Democracy. Retrieved February 3, 2006, from http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/democracy/index.shtml
Dewey, J. (1937). Education and Social Change. In F. Schultz, (Ed.), Sources: Notable Selections in Education (3rd ed., pp. 333-341). Guilford: McGraw-Hill/Duchskin
Johnson, T. W. (2002). The District School and Noah Webster’s United States from Historical Documents in Education (pp. 67-78). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Johnson, T. W. (2002). Horace Man and the Common School Crusade from Historical Documents in Education (pp. 79-86). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
--posted for smm
Missing Homer
posted for Sara
Homer Gilbert was a cranky, grizzled old man that ran the gas station in my hometown. Yup, that’s right, he ran a gas station. No mini-mart attached to it, no delicatessen and certainly, no creemees. You could get one thing there, gas, and maybe, if you were lucky, Homer might even tell you an off-color joke that would be sure to irritate your parents when you told it at the dinner table that evening. He knew all of the kids by name and was known to set a few of us straight about exactly what the speed limits in town were, particularly when we were newly blessed with our driver’s licenses and roared by his station, hair on fire. He was a man of little means, and he was a little mean too, but nonetheless, he was part of our community and his place in our lives was an honored one. If value is judged by the turnout at a funeral, then Homer Gilbert was at the very least, a person of great value and as you can tell from this introduction, in my eyes, he was priceless.
I was reminded of Homer the other day, when the pump was broken at my local Mobil Mini Mart and, annoyed, I stomped into the store and was promptly ignored by a surly teen who was chatting on her cell phone. Now, I won’t bore you with the ever popular lament about the good old days and how teenagers used to be so polite (Homer would set you straight about that, if he were here), but I am willing to say that I am more than a little concerned that my desire for efficiency is surpassing my desire for human contact. The truth was, I was irritated long before I laid eyes on my pierced and pouting cashier. And who can blame her for being surly? Every day I see at least one person, talking on their cell phone, completely ignoring the salesperson behind the counter, barely making eye contact, dismissing them with a wave of the hand, a hurried nod and then out the door they sail, still talking – but never having spoken to the cashier. So, no wonder she is not thrilled to see me . . .
Besides practicing the niceties of life, I am also concerned that a child’s interaction with technology is, at times, at odds with their social adjustment. In addition to being a mother of four, I am also a teacher of six and seven year olds. I have arrived at this conclusion regarding technology and social adjustment, after coming to the difficult decision to ban handheld games at recess. Seeing six year old children hunched over their GameBoys, oblivious to the sunshine and imaginative play around them was just too much for me to bear and so I canned them. I know it is censorship. I’m OK with it.
Of course, gas pump, cell phone and gaming technology are not evil things in and of themselves, but they are indicative of a shift in our culture toward a more faceless, impersonal, multi-tasking interface with the world. But it does bear saying that technology does not have to, by its nature, be impersonal or faceless. In fact, recently, I have been reunited with my cousins in England via Yahoo’s Messenger program, bringing their faces (via webcam) and voices into our living room in a way that makes the world seem a much smaller place. My children hear the lilt of my late mother’s British accent echoed in my cousin’s voices and that, I must say, is very touching and, well, as personal as a voice/sound experience with someone thousands of miles can be. However, with that said, the potential of a child interacting with screens and hand held devices for the majority of their communication/information needs leaves me with the feeling that they will have lost something valuable in that exchange. I don’t want their brains “hard wired” to flashing visual images and to the idea that faster is always better.
But before deciding what to do about it, if anything, I would like to explore this unsettled feeling, because I feel I am not alone. In fact, I am standing in good, historic company. After all, this feeling of technologic disenchantment has been echoed throughout time as each new generation wrestles anew with current advancements. In the early part of the twentieth century, religious leaders and parents were hotly debating with movie studios about the deleterious effects that motion pictures were having on the minds of youth. And, as soon as television sets became commonplace in the American home, educators began to complain that television was negatively impacting the ability of children to learn in the classroom. Of course, there have always been the dissenters. Representing the opposing viewpoint that television could be used to educate children through entertainment was Gerald Lesser, an adviser for the Children’s Television Workshop that produced Sesame Street. He claimed that the benefit of education by television was that “the child learns without fear of a public or a teacher, there is no threat of humiliation and the child can control the learning process by the flip of a switch.” Boy, teachers like me love hearing stuff like that.
Of course, Lesser’s point is well taken. Children learn best when they are not feeling threatened. But, perhaps contrary to his statement, is my assertion that, at this stage of the technological revolution, teachers are needed more, now than ever. In the mid-sixties, Lesser had no way to even imagine the advances that were brewing and about to explode. In fact, in 1965, few could have imagined the far reaching and dramatic effects that the Internet and wireless communication systems would have, at a national as well as a global level. Gerhard Lenski (2005) states that because of the “systemic nature of societies, there tends to be a multiplier effect in the process of innovation: Each change tends to increase the need for, and the possibility of, further changes” (p.72). This has certainly been the case with current technological advancements and this phenomenon has left many teachers gasping, trying to keep up not only with the technology itself but the diverse and changing ways that it is being utilized by the populations we serve.
So, what is a responsible and responsive teacher and mother of four to do? Other than banning GameBoys that is . . . Should I retreat into a world that ignores current culture? Should I ride the techno-tide and embrace every nuance it has to offer? Isn’t there somewhere else to stand that is not smack dab in the path of the stupid pendulum that is bound to knock me over on its way by?
It comes to mind that when Homer Gilbert was born, in 1906 or so, automobiles were certainly not a common technology in rural Vermont. Vermonters were not even sure that they were a good idea. Horses and carriages had done all right so far, right? Yet Homer ended up running a gas station. At some point, he had decided that cars really were a faster, more efficient way to get around and he jumped on the proverbial bandwagon. Homer was pretty “hip” after all, I guess. Perhaps I should take a few lessons from Homer: to move along with the technology when it makes sense, to complain about it when necessary (I remember Homer had a few colorful words for computerized car systems) and when you have the opportunity to do so, yell “Slow down!” to a kid passing by…it might just make a difference.
References
Lesser, G. S. (1975). Children and Television: Lessons from Sesame Street, New York: Vintage p. 254-255.
Lenski, G. (2005). “Determinants of the Characteristics of Individual Societies: The Independent Variables”. In Ecological-evolutionary theory: Principles and applications (pp. 53-80). Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.
Spring, J. (1994). "Big Bird: Movies, Radio, and Television Join Schools as Public Educators". In The American School: 1642-1996.
Wednesday, May 03, 2006
Mobile Learning Centers
I thought I'd share something I posted this week as part of my VT-CITE participation. The topic was Learning Centers. I wasn't sure how I would be able to keep up going on vacation to a remote island and still meet my committments to my two online courses and to VT-CITE. I had all kinds of angst before I left about how I was going to survive the week. I decided this would be the perfect time to experiment with m-learning (or mobile learning) and emerging tech tools, so I gave in to my longtime desire to buy a pocket PC with an unlimited data plan. I'm sure many of you are probably rolling your eyes at my inability to go "cold turkey", forget my committments, and enjoy the quiet of "off season" on Block Island. I assure you that I did manage to Power Down and enjoy some reclusive time on the beaches, and bike rides around the island to all four lighthouses, but the fact that the library had wifi and I got to experiment with Internet Access through a Pocket PC also added pleasure to the experience. I actually had time to PLAY with this new technology concept, not just try to be efficient with it. Which by the way, is why today's Digital Native probably gravitate towards emerging technology, why we adult's try to 'squeeze' it into our day for functional reasons.
In any case, one of the things I learned is that we are still in the pioneer stages of adapting current technologies to a truly mobile state. Mobile version of Internet Explorer did display the DRUPAL interface that Jon Bellum is creating for VT-CITE, but it didn't like WEB-CT. I had to wait for the library to be open to be able to use WebCT.
------------ here is a post I made to my own blog at Learning With Lucie, and proof that I really did "Power Down" and get away from the technology...
Two months since the last post, doesn't mean I don't have much to say . . . but rather that I've been saying it elsewhere. The two online grad courses I'm taking at UVM have consumed much of my web publishing energy for the past few months, as has the VT-CITE project. But alas, April vacation took me away from much of it and brought me to Block Island, Rhode Island. But I didn't go cold-turkey. I purchased a mobile tech toy right before vacation (Pocket PC) and experimented with mobile computing. But to prove that I did find some respite, I've chosen to experiment with a new technology resource called Film Loop to post some photos from our bike tours around the Island. Enjoy either the pictures or the presentation technology... or both!