Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Reading Reaction for April 14, 2009
I would like to start off by saying that I enjoy learning the history of schooling in America. Yes, it is very interesting to know how and why something happened in our schools. But there is one thing that keeps popping up that bothers me. This is how important school decisions are made. Tyack and Cuban continually point out that important educational reforms are either made by corporate business people or intellectuals at the higher levels of academia. You can see this phenomenon even at the local level with school boards. Every year people run for a spot on the school board, get elected, and make important policy decisions, some without any experience in the teaching field. This trend continues up the chain to state and national positions. Why have we as Americans continued to accept this manner of policy making. We should have learned by now that this does not work in our public schools. If these policies really worked our children would be more successful in schools than they currently are. It seems that every time someone who has direct experience in the lower levels of schooling decides to introduce a reform, it fails. I understand that we want our children to grow up to go to college or to have a successful career but that is not a reason to structure schools the way they are. We need more people that have experience working with children and adolescents in the school setting to make important decision about how to structure our school. I feel that our schools need decision makers that are educated and experienced in the teaching field to really improve.
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2 comments:
I agree that decisions made about education are made by people outside of education. More productive educational reform could take place and benefit our students if we encourage and promote our strongest education advocates to take an active role on our school boards and state legislatures to ensure that our voices will be heard.
I agree that teachers bring valued information as to what works in the classroom. Unfortunately, teachers seem to have an inability to see things outside of their classroom. If we are the professionals that truly understand the local student, their learning needs and the resource challenges of the local school, we should be bringing this information to the policy makers. At the same time, we have to educate ourselves on the broader needs and concerns of the community. Too often the teachers seem to have a tunnel vision that keeps them from being an active team player at the policy level.
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