Public teachers should be allowed to go on strike. Going on strike is standing up for your rights and what you believe is necessary. “... teachers were feeling the effect of their flat, relatively meager salaries being subjected to a rising federal income tax, which was used to offset wartime debts. As the nation moved into postwar hiring conditions, teachers increasingly began to vent their frustrations by engaging in strikes or similar job actions” (Urban 276). Teachers knew they were not receiving the pay they earned and deserved and wanted to take action for the problem to be changed. “In September 2012 the Chicago Teachers Union went on strike after negotiations with city officials failed to win them the contract they wanted” (Fraser 366). Teacher strikes shouldn’t have to be so common because they aren’t receiving the pay they deserve.
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Select either the Nieto or the Schlesinger perspective. What is your critique of the other document?11/19/2021 I choose the perspective of Nieto. She believes that "multicultural education can have a substantive and positive impact on the educational experience of most students'' (Fraser 344). Growing up she had the experience of being influenced based on the poverty, discrimination, and the perception of ones culture and language. Since she knew Spanish and English was her second language many teachers would pick on those who knew another language. She believed that they should focus on two primary concern " Raising the achievement of all students and thus providing them with an equal and equitable education and Giving students the opportunity to become critical and productive members of a democratic society"(Fraser 348). Multiculturalism was becoming something that was common which meant "making a commitment to respect and teach about many cultural backgrounds that children bring into schools"(Urban 340).They focused on giving every race an opportunity to learn, meaning different minority groups such as Asian American, Hispanics etc. Schlesinger believed that "multiculturalism can quickly lead to division and separation; he wanted none of it"(Fraser 349). He wanted to lead newcomers to an acceptance of the language, the institutions, and the political ideals that hold the nation together because many immigrants and different types of minorities were coming.
Throughout time there has always been the issue of poverty, and during 1965 things were no different. President Lyndon Johnson wanted to end poverty and he saw one of the biggest reasons for poverty was lack of economic opportunity and therefore wanted to reform the school system. “The goal of his economic Opportunity Act of 1964 was direct economic improvement for the poor” (Urban 297). I agree with President Johnson that education is the key to ending poverty. I agree with Johnson that education creates economic opportunity for youth because I have seen it in society. Attending college has become an expected staple in American culture. “...’schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged’” (Fraser 281). Students are now expected to attend college after high school. Job employers are helping make this expectation become a norm, by only hiring college graduates. Therefore those who do not get the economic opportunity to attend college are going to have a harder time finding jobs and therefore falling into poverty. This example of how education creates economic opportunity proves that Johnson is right that education is the key to fixing poverty.
Jonathan Kozol’s critique of the schools was to spread equity and help the poor. Kozol believed that everyone should get an education no matter what the color of their skin is or how much money they have. He wrote books that focused on poor children and education. “...innocent schoolchildren were the victims of teacher bias and gross educational malpractice… The racial and social class differences between children and teachers were a significant cause of teachers’ lack of affinity for their students” (Urban 302). Kozol and others had the same critique view and thought the same about how teachers needed to change their thought and judgement upon children that want to get educated, money and race should have no say. “For they told me of many instanes in which they had commplained that a teacher whipped their child black and blue or called him a nigger openly, and yet the teacher had no been released… A complaint from a white police offier carries more weight in the Boston school system than the complaint of the mother of a Negro child” (Fraser 269). The voices of colored people were not being heard, their children were being abused mentally and physically in the classroom and the white police officers would go along his day as if he heard nothing. Kozol wanted to make a change in the education system but his voice wasn’t heard by many due to the amount of the population that still believed in discrimination of the color of someones skin or their wage.
In John Holt's “How Children Fail”, he talks about his experience as a teacher and the role teachers have on education. His description of why children fail, or should really be why schools fail children, discusses what needs to change in the American education system. Kohl talked about how it was ultimately the adults or educators that can hinder a child's education in the classroom. I can say without a doubt that Holt represents the next generation as his thoughts and beliefs are almost spot on to what current teachers and educators think and believe today. In the early 1900's, Holt talked about how the adults in this matter are not honest with children. The adults try to feed lies to the children and say that school is a happy and cheerful place. "We require them to take part in the fiction that school is a wonderful place and that they love every minute of it" (Fraser 266). This was not the case because not every child enjoyed attending school. The main point Holt was trying to get across is that if the adults are not honest with children, they won't be honest with them either. He states, "The law says you have to go to school; it does not say you have to like it, and it doesn't say you have to like me either" (Fraser 266). By treating school for how it is will actually make school more bearable for many children. Multiple of schools during the time had the idea that "it is the duty of schools, to get as much of this essential knowledge as possible into the minds of the children" (Fraser 266). These ideas are absurd and nonsense because this will make the child uninterested and he or she will throw this information away in the future. Holt states, "This is why children quickly forget. If it is no use or interest to them; they do not want it, or expect to remember it. The only difference between bad and good students in this respect is the bad students forget right away, while the good students are careful to wait until after the exam" (Fraser 266). Schools should be a place where children learn what they want to learn the most, instead of being the adults deciding what they should ought to know.
A conversation between these three men, James Jackson Sorrow, John Dewey and Lewis M. Terman would be about how school systems should be improved and how they could be. Clearly, a normal conversation wouldn’t occur between the three men. There would be a lot of disagreements among them. Each men all had abstract ways that they believed schools should teach children. James Jackson Storrow wanted the best for the school boards and administration. He wanted to change how they ran and went through a lot to figure out the perfect school board. "In order to find out what was the best type of school board, he applied to professor Paul Hanus of the Division of Education at Harvard, and thus obtained the assistance of Henry W. Holmes ....... Who made a careful study of the different methods of school administration in American cities and gave Sorrow a report with recommendations" (Fraser 207). Terman focuses a lot on Intelligence testing. These tests consist of memory, language comprehension, size of vocabulary, etc. Students took these tests to see which students were worth staying in school and continuing their learning. If they did badly on these tests they would usually quit school and become a laborer. Intelligence testing started with Alfred Binet, but Lewis Terman liked the idea of it and thought it would be great in schools in the Progressive era (Urban). "During World War I, however, the army accepted the offer of the American Psychological Association to develop group intelligence tests" (Urban 213).
In Urban on page 204 and 205, it explains how intelligence testing was used. Bagley wrote Determinism in Education, “...he attacked the intelligence test as unduly restrictive of educational opportunity. For Bagley, the tests were appropriate for diagnosing the readiness level of individual children but were inappropriate when used to restrict the educational services offered to any child” (Urban 205). I would use this in my class to help my students succeed. This allows the parents, child, and I, the teacher, to know where the child stands academically while still providing the same privileges as any other academic level student has. It allows me, the teacher, to know what I need to improve in and work more with the child, same with the parent. In Fraser on page 171, it explains the assignment to regular classes and the teacher judgement. “...should include results of observation… in all aspects of school living… readiness to take his place in a regular class with students of his own age group… ability routine… ability to use reading as a tool for further learning and ability to participate in committee work” (Fraser 171). I would also use this method in my classroom to help my students succeed. This allows me, the teacher, to know about the students and what they already know and understand while understanding that even if they’re behind, they can still learn with other children their age, they don’t have to be held back and that will help them feel more included and cared for.
I believe that film has replaced a lot of texts, but I strongly believe that we can’t learn everything we need to know by watching videos from the internet. Interacting with the text and coming up with your own visions are more effective sometimes. “‘...I think motion pictures have just started and it is my opinion that in 20 years children will be taught through pictures and not through textbooks…’” (Fraser 135). Edison believed that children wouldn’t learn through text anymore which is false, but he wasn’t wrong, children and basically everyone else also learn through movies and videos online. “...which offered technical subjects together with forgein languages and the sciences, all as preparation for study at the Georgia School of Technology '' (Urban 178). Technology changed a lot about the Common School system and the change scared some, although it still has an effect and is still changing, text has not gone away and I don’t think it’d be effective if it were to be.
Charlotte Forten was born in Philadelphia as a freed African American. Forten had many plans and worked her way into accomplishing them. Charlotte had every intention in helping others, especially freed slaves. Forten was a very kind and respectful lady. She would teach freed slaves to help them get a head start in the world. While enslaved, the freed slaves didn’t have the opportunity to learn, Forten wanted to fix that and teach them now. Charlotte overcame many obstacles to go south; the Civil War was in play during this time era. Although it wasn’t safe, Charlotte Forten was determined to go, so she did. “She was literally teaching on the edge of the Civil War” (Fraser 105). Forten wanted something to start, she wanted to see a change so she made the change. “In what became a ‘rehearsal for Reconstruction,’ the first extensive schools for former slaves were established on the Sea Islands and the assault on illiteracy began in earnest” (Urban 123). Charlotte Forten was determined to make a change and teach freed slaves, so she did exactly that.
The McGuffey’s Reader has been described as the ideal textbook for the schools of nineteenth-century America because at least 120 million copies of the book were sold from 1836 up until 1960, while about 1300000 copies have been published since then and continue to be used. “...the books continue to be used by some, mostly conservative, Protestant private schools and homeschoolers” (Urban 84). I personally wouldn’t agree with McGuffey’s Reader being the ideal textbook for schools because it still is a basis on religion and unless it is specifically a school for religion I don’t think forcing religion on people is fair or necessary. McGuffey’s Reader definitely needed work and lesson 15 in the Freedman’s Reader did that, “...a popular publication that was modeled on the McGuffey Reader but with far greater emphasis on African American history and on teaching basic morality and a strong work ethic to newly freed African Americans in search of literacy” (Fraser 87).
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AuthorI am a Freshman at Bradley University majoring in Early Childhood Education.
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