Edu 6. I’VE COME TO TAKE STOCK ON WHAT THIS PROJECT MIGHT ENTAIL
Everything that you may study, have interest in, take concern over, talk about, think of improving, “No-Matter-What” – COMES OUT OF THE SCHOOLS - {Have you thought about this foundation?}
EDUCATION THEORY HAS ISSUES. Take a look at these two visions of what is needed in our society:
OR HOW ABOUT THIS ONE?
NO COMMENT. I’ll leave you with your own opinion.
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First of all, some acknowledgements: This site, urge2evolve, is for me. It is a way that I have visualized some of my own writing and editing, and it is a way that I formulate what is (or decide what will be), important for me. Therefore, I have never thought of growing the subscriber base or building the readership. Succinctly put: there are no subscribers, or so very few, and that basically don’t open anything. Yet I am still moved to keep building this structure.
Second: I found this material on education and downloaded it in 2017. I have toyed with several ideas of how to use it and how to make it a part of me, but never done anything with it (that worked). In fact, everything posted so far Edu 1 through Edu 5 are attempts that I made before. (Actually Edu 1 is from a different source last year, stunning in itself.)
Third: I found this material after reading much from Robert S. Griffin, a professor of education at the University of Vermont. He has good insight into a lot of subjects besides education, but he is also a controversial figure. He wrote about reverse racism, so they vilified him as a white-supremist. That colored his whole life. I wasn’t interested in any of that and never looked at those 3 books.
I wrote to him back then and we corresponded once or twice. When you search him on the web, you only find what sensationalizes him. Now I can’t even find out if he is alive or dead, all that comes up is racism, for and against. I think he was in his 80’s in 2017 when if found him, and he was quite sick for a long time. He would be about 90 by now. Did he make it?
THIS WAS HIS COURSE Edu 203 from spring 2012. the GOALS were:
To provides students the opportunity to:
--Extend their insight into two contrasting approaches to schooling: the progressive (neo-Deweyian, constructivist, developmentalist); and the non-progressive (traditionalist, classical, essentialist).
--Extend their insight into the historical underpinnings of American elementary and secondary schooling.
--Gain increased understanding of central contemporary issues in American education.
--Become better students of the field of education.
This is not really a course on how to educate yourself, nor your children or others. It doesn't address how you think, and the mechanisms of attention and retention. (All that would also be very interesting for me.) It is an overview of education in America. There are some successes, and of course some failures. Overall, I think education in America is falling, so there must be more failures. If not, we wouldn't be having this discussion. Reading these discussions and about these experiences, it might also become clear how to learn, what worked. If you have kids in school, I think you really owe it to yourself (and to them) to look into it.
OVERVIEW
So now I have opened all of the reading material files to see the page counts. It does look like a big deal. Students do it in 14 weeks, and they have 2-3 other courses that they are completing at the same time. Admittedly, a reading course takes more time than laboratories or other kinds of college introduction material.
If I do get something done here, I suggest to stretch it out much longer than 14 weeks. maybe budgeting about 25 pages of reading per week, with some time to take a few notes, as I read. (As of now, I don’t plan to link to the book chapters. I would have to upload them somewhere.) I have to type most of the notes. Some can copy/paste. How to stay interested for a longer period of time? I will just count on the interest of this week's reading, to look forward to next week.
With students it is different. They pay for the course, so for the most part they complete it. And/or they need these course credits to get to their objective, the degree. Here there is not that monetary inducement. Besides, things come up in the long time-frame. At least with this particular post, and an honest evaluation of the time commitment, we will know beforehand what we’re are getting into, (if you choose to follow along).
I think it will change our understanding and ultimately change our life.
ALL THESE TEXTS ARE PHOTOCOPIES compiled into a Pdf. That means you cannot copy/paste text, but must retype it. Whew! Or I can make screen-shots of paragraphs, and paste them onto Substack. I’ll try it, but I don’t guarantee anything.
Here is a list of the readings with the page counts: I’m trying not to get scared off. We can approach it week by week. If we get discussion and people with opinions, it will be great fun. (203 is the course number. The next number is the week, but not for us. We can’t go that fast.)
Pgs. Reading Text
16 . 203-1Kohn7.pdf
27 . 203-1Kohn8.pdf
39 . 203-1Rochester3.pdf
34 . 203-1Rochester5.pdf
14 . 203-2HirschAchieveFair.pdf
4 ... 203-2HirshTheory.pdf
21 . 203-2HirshWhyDef.pdf
67 . 203-2RoseBerea.pdf
23 . 203-2RosePossLives.pdf
38 . 203-2School-20-60.pdf
38 . 203-3GattoDumb.pdf
32 . 203-3ImportanceMiddle.pdf
48 . 203-3MurrayReal1&5.pdf
53 . 203-3Weissberg1&2.pdf
38 . 203-4Darling-Hammond-Anatomy Inequality.pdf
32 . 203-4GriffinConservative.pdf
47 . 203-4School-72-119.pdf
13 . 203-5GriffinCritical.pdf
35 . 203-5Libertarian.pdf
8 ... 203-5RavitchEssay-School.pdf
8 ... 203-6GriffinAutotelic.pdf
5 ... 203-6GriffinHenri.pdf
48 . 203-6KohlSetttingOut.pdf
40 . 203-6School-130-170.pdf
48 . 203-7GriffinParadigm.pdf
32 . 203-7KohlGraduating.pdf
8 ... 203-7TaylorBrown.pdf
28 . 203-8GriffinAcadThink.pdf
60 . 203-8KohlFresh.pdf
28 . 203-8School-184-212.pdf
8 ... 203-9FinnArti.pdf
10 . 203-9GriffinLessons 3.pdf
46 . 203-9MurrayEthnic.pdf
16 . 203-10Noll-Charter.pdf
15 . 203-10Noll-Federal.pdf
17 . 203-10Noll-SupCt.pdf
15 . 203-11Noll-Deficit.pdf
14 . 203-11Noll-Inclusion.pdf
20 . 203-11Noll-Preschool.pdf
22 . 203-12Noll-21st cent.pdf
18 . 203-12Noll-Computers.pdf
20 . 203-12Noll-IntellDes.pdf
16 . 203-12Noll-SingleSex.pdf
14 . 203-13Noll-MeritPay.pdf
23 . 203-13Noll-Time.pdf
19 . 203-14GriffinAuthentic.pdf
13 . 203-14Kohl-325-337.pdf
1238 Total pages
47 texts
50 Probable weeks
24.76 Pages per week
Within the last section it seems like we are accepting too many thoughts of Noll. Noll is not an author but an editor. These are 12 programs for improving schools, where he presents one author that argues for it and one which argues against it. So really that is 24 additional authors.
NOW YOU KNOW WHAT I AM UP AGAINST.