"The introduction of Skinnerian approaches, which are commonly employed in penal institutions and drug-rehabilitation programs, as a way of altering the attitudes and learning styles of black and Hispanic children is provocative and it has stirred some outcries from respected scholars. To actually go into a school in which you know some of the children very, very well.... is even more provocative." (Kozol, p. 64-65)
After this selection, Kozol goes on to talk about some schools instituting silent lunches or recesses. It is this practice that I saw when my daughter started Kindergarten in my hometown of Middletown. You hear about these practices and it is chilling. Maybe you can shake your head and think it sad that they treat these children like mindless pets. It is hard to stop at shaking your head when your child is the recipient of these practices. I had heard rumors the year before my daughter started school that the new principal had instituted silent lunches. On my daughter's first "bring a friend" to lunch day, I saw the table tents on a side table that had the picture of a stop sign and said, "No Talking!" I asked my daughter and her friends about it, they said that the teachers don't put the signs out when visitors are there. That is fishy to begin with. Lunch and recess are times where the kids should be able to be themselves. To relax, enjoy their peers and be a child. I really wonder how much school is altered when visitors are present. I wonder what these schools are like when CMT's are coming up.
Quote #2
"Did you ever stop to thing that these robots will never burglarize your home? ... Will never snatch your pocket books... These robots are going to be producing taxes..." (Kozol, p. 97-98)
I don't find this supposition to be accurate. It seems to me that teaching kids in such a cold, generic manner - devoid of creativity or imagination - is going to have the opposite effect. How will these kids ever learn to think for themselves if they are just taught programmed responses. How are they going to flourish in life and have opportunities if they are, at best, learning to be qualified to be a shift manager at a McDonald's? Not to mention the obvious, degrading language used to describe someone's son, daughter...etc. in this quote. How much more productive will a child be that grew up feeling valued?
Quote #3
"...the United States may be spending too much on students given the current organization of educational production." (Spring, p. 90)
I think this is a true statement. I think that we need to re-examine how we are spending the money and how we are set up. I think it lends to the conversation we had in class one day about giving money to a community in Sudan and giving the same amount per child to a community in France... will it produce the same outcome? I don't believe that more money would fix the issues. We have to examine the methods in which we educate and the communities where the students are from.
Becky i completely agree with you in all your responses, but the one that i enjoyed the most is the 2nd quote. i still can not believe that the school system is still insisting in treating school as if it were a military training camp. the kids need a chance to learn how to use the own skills. school should be a place where all students are giving an equal opportunity to succeed. i also agree that the more valued a child feels the more likely they are to succeed.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think that kids are more likely to want to succeed if someone believes in them, if they are inspired and if they have someone that they look up to that they feel they have to be accountable to. Taking real connection out of education and removing the mentoring piece is a recipe for disaster, in my opinion.
ReplyDeletei completely agree. and a major problem in the school system today is that many kids do not have a "role model" to look up to in their homes or in their society. many of these kids come from neighborhoods that are run by drug dealers and pimps with prostitutes. so i believe that as teachers we need to do our best to be a role model for these kids. not just through our teachings but also through our living. because kids watch very closely what adults are doing, if they see an adult in which they look up to doing something wrong they wont think twice before doing it. that is why we need to teach through our actions as well.
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