Since I'm an education major this unit and both these readings are something I can relate to. While I was reading these selections I was constantly thinking this sounds just like our school system now. We are dealing with problems that were around more than one hundred years ago and then showed up again fifty years ago. This proves what my education professor was talking about in class, education always comes back full circle. Meaning that one day we will go back to teaching the basics and then sometime after that we will back to teaching to standards. It all depends on our goal at the time and what we believe is best for our students.
That is one things that has never changed. We have always wanted what is best for our students. At times the decisions we have made aren't working anymore which is why we keep changing and striving for the best. We make students take different languages because even back then we knew it was valuable. In the committee of ten it talks about how math and science are seen as the most important subjects and till this day they still are. Then it continues to talk about how the other subjects feel as though they don't get as much attention. This reminded me of the constant struggle that the arts and music programs have in public schools. They are always the first ones to get a budget cut, if only people knew how important it is to be a well rounded person. As an education major we do field work and I am placed at a middle school. The kids are so talented when it comes to music and art but they aren't encouraged. I was telling my mom this and she told me when Benjamin Franklin made education free he did its so that we could become better contributing members of the community. It wasn't just so that we could all be braniacs and super good at math.
"Creating a Comprehensive High School," talked about a lot of the problems we have now a days. Dealing with different learning styles and levels of intelligence. They then also had some good ideas, like not always grouping children and having a structured homeroom. While I was reading the requirements they needed to graduate from high school I felt as though I was reading my high school's requirements. Not much has changed which I believe is good. High school is all about learning the basics so that when you get into college you will have a foundation where you can then build your future on it. My favorite part by far was when they talked about their homeroom. I absolutely saw no importance in my homeroom especially since it was only like seven minutes and all we did was take attendance. I wish I had a homeroom like theirs, they had a purpose. Since students were grouped for all of their academic classes they wanted to students to learn how to socialize outside if their group and that what homeroom was for. Luckily my mom taught me at a young age to get along and make friends with everyone because everyone has their purpose in this world. That is what the homeroom was trying to show children.
It always blows my mind when it comes to learning about education and how we can make it better for other generations to come. As an education major I can't wait to be working with my coworkers on building a curriculum and voicing my opinion on what I think is important for students to learn.
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