So where does all of this leave you with regard to how you think about schooling, education, and their purposes? Note: I am particularly interested in how/whether this course has helped you to think about where your ideas about school and education come from.
Angela Mitchel
ReplyDeleteI have always known that the U.S. Education system was unfair and broken, however taking this course allowed me the time to really dive into what specifically is wrong. The thing that stuck the most with me throughout this course was the student agency. I have always thought that nobody would listen to an individual person or small group of people, however learning about true events of student agency working has opened my eyes to new possibilities for me. I am a bit more jealous of European schools, just simply because of the interactiveness and real life applications they are exposed to. I had the amazon opportunity to attend a career/technical school, and that really changed everything for me. I believe all students should have the opportunity/be required to have more hands-on experience as I believe it is essential for education. Afterall, a doctor can’t be a doctor just because they’re intelligent, they have to be “people smart” too and you can’t learn that from a book. I believe the same principle applies to general education and more diverse learning. The more diverse the learning, the more prepared students will be for the real world, because surprise surprise, the real world is very diverse. If you only know one specific area, then you are set up for failure.
Lauren Jefferson - Before this course, I hadn't considered that media played a big part in how we view school and education. I enjoyed analyzing different forms of media to learn what they're saying about the purpose of school. It was also interesting watching The Smartest Kids in the World and reading New Kid to discuss the issues of the U.S. education system. I've always known to some extent that the U.S. education system is in need of repair, but hearing people's personal stories and comparing the U.S. education system to education systems in other countries was even more eye opening. After this course, I think that the purpose of education in the U.S. is to prepare kids for jobs, but the system is very outdated and unfair to students in marginalized groups. I think that a good education should be fair and accessible to everyone, and that schooling should focus on student autonomy and prepare kids to be critical thinkers.
ReplyDeleteI can't say that I thought too hard about what a piece of media had to say about the purpose of education. I let movies and books wash over me without a second thought. Now I can look a little deeper and see past what is simply being presented to me. Our country's education system is flawed, something I've always known, but never taken the time to truly look at the reasons why. Analyzing films, learning people's stories through documentaries, and reading books has really opened my eyes. I think the intentions of American schools is to educate students in preparation of being integrated into society; however, the system is biased and simply unfair. I now believe that successful schooling has a balanced amount of student agency and equal opportunities for everyone.
ReplyDeleteThis course has made me think about the purpose of school/ education. What seemed like a simple answer has been evaluated and tested. In the beginning, I had written that the purpose of education is to educate students n various subjects and let students interact with their peers. While I still believe this to be true. I think the way that education is being done needs adjustments. My idea of the purpose of school is to expose students to new ideas, cultures, and places. The variety in the curriculum allows students to develop their very own ideas. In turn, this lets them become more open-minded and have a better concept of self and identity.
ReplyDeleteJesslyn
ReplyDeleteThis course has definitely impacted the way I think about the purposes of education. Having an open discussion in class every day about education has been extremely beneficial. I have learned so much from my classmates and from you as a professor about what I admire about school and what I don't agree with about the American school system. Discussing differences between American schools and other countries was extremely eye opening, it made me realize how school can be and what works/doesn't work for different societies. I really like the discussions we had about the amount of agency students are given and how teachers can give them more. This is my favorite thing about our class- the amount of agency we are given. This semester has been so fun and we have all learned a lot together!
This class has also made me aware of how American schools are depicted in media and how that impacts how we view certain students/areas/schools. I have realized that it is very important to keep an open mind and understand the media we are consuming is not always an accurate representation of how education really happens in this country. This really applies to any kind of reading/film/media, etc. I appreciate this class's emphasis on us always having an open mind to what we can learn from what we consume but not taking everything as fact, not being afraid to criticize/question.
I think what I took away from this class the most, is that there is no one purpose of education. And that there shouldn’t be. People seek different things from education and all of those purposes are equally important. Or maybe that’s the actual purpose – to make sure different individuals get different things out of it. Whatever the case may be, I didn’t really sit down and think about this before. Sure, I could tell you I don’t like our education system, I could have also given you reasons as to why, but I don’t think I ever thought of what the root of that is. I also never really connected pop culture to education like this before. I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to consume any media, as fictional as it may be, about school without thinking about this class now. I don’t know, through this course I was nodding along to things because when they’re said aloud they’re obvious, but I’ve never really said or heard them aloud. Midhat Ansar
ReplyDeleteBefore this course I honestly didn't pay much mind to the quality or structure of the U.S.'s public school system & now I have done a lot of thinking about my own k-12 education experience and have sort of uncovered a lot of grievances I have with it that I was completely blind to while I was going through school. I also never understood what people's gripes with standardized testing were until now where I am able to understand both the purposes of schooling that matter and the incredibly varying quality of education within different schools. This course also made me think more critically and realize the necessity of instilling critical thinking skills in k-12 education, and I think that kinda broke my heart to realize that isn't something that is really prioritized.
ReplyDeleteI learned from this class how much subliminal messaging there is about school in our media. There are always the classic tropes of which I was aware but in comparing the portrayals of different types of schools it became really clear how intentional the differences were. There is the grittiness and intense tones of movies about lower class public and more diverse schools compared with the fun and lightheartedness of movies about upper class and private schools. I realized that the biased and discriminatory views of our cultural norms are bolstered and supported by pretty much all media. Another aspect of media that I had truly never thought of was what we learned about documentaries. Taking a critical view of the documentaries we watched taught me that although these are factual and sometimes educational films, they cannot be completely unbiased and real since they have to be cut down and strategically edited to become successful.
ReplyDeleteThis class has taught me just how important a good school system is in the development of the youth in the world. A good education can either make or break a child's future. Not just in terms of education, but in how the child views life itself. So, in other words, the purpose of education is to develop and foster a new generation of youth to be productive both as people and as members of society.
ReplyDelete-Killian
DeleteBefore this course I had never given much thought to the in depth and implied purposes of school and the effect they have on students and the country as a whole. Therefore, I have found this course extremely eye opening to just how much school is able to affect children beyond just the typical curriculum. I particularly enjoyed the critique we were encouraged to provide on the sources and pop culture pieces we were given. This was not something that was encouraged in my high school. From this course I feel I am a better-rounded individual who is able to think critically about seemingly simple pieces of society and school.
ReplyDeletePrior to this course, I haven’t paid much attention to the purpose of schooling while progressing through middle school and high school. I thought it was just mundane and tedious work that was being assigned to me and thus I never took the time to truly sit down and reflect on my experience until this class. My original thought on schooling was a very surface-level ideology of just simply transferring knowledge into the future generation. However, like most things in life, there is more to this subject that can be revealed by digging past the surface information. This class gave me the tools to dive deeper into all the different aspects of schooling. In turn, this changed my perception of schooling as a whole as I am now more aware of things like culture and Socioeconomic status in regards to schooling. These two topics in particular are something I didn’t initially consider a part of schooling but have an enormous impact on schooling as a whole. In the future, I will definitely keep these topics in mind as I think it is important to not repeat the mistakes in education that we learned about in this class for future generations to come.
ReplyDelete~Matt Embretsen
Isra Smith-
ReplyDeleteBefore this class I wasn't consciously wondering about the purposes of education, but I realize that a lot of the problems I had with the way the world is eventually came back to the poor public education system in the United States. I find it fascinating that everything seems to be connected on some level, and that a lot of systemic oppression can stem from schools. I'd say that this class has helped me become more aware of how crucial a good education can be.
When I think about schooling and education I think about the school system preparing us for the "real world". Preparing kids to go to college and teaching us what they think is important for us in order to succeed. However, after everything I have learned in this course, I relaized how much the media; movies, documantaries, books play apart in demonstarting real world issues in the school system. The main issue that stood up to me was rasicm. Although I knew rasicm was an issue in the school system it made me really sad seeing how often it happens and what I hope that these media outlets let us do is, spread awarness so that more and more people see all the unfairness that goes on. The more informed people are and the more it reaches uneducated or racist people, hopefully the faster and the more these issues can end.
ReplyDeleteThis course has really opened my eyes to the issues with our education system. I never really thought too much about it before, and I just thought that everyone everywhere hated school and that's just how it is. But watching "The Smartest Kids in the World" opened my eyes and made me realize that education is not supposed to be so draining and undesirable. It makes me angry that our education system is so exhausting when it should be enlightening and make kids want to learn and do things with their lives.
ReplyDelete^Abby Jegels^
DeleteLydia Haynes
ReplyDeleteThis course has opened my eyes to just how much public education and education in general has been represented in the media. However, to be honest the way I previously thought about the purposes of school has not drastically changed. I have enjoyed discussing with classmates and hearing your input about those purposes, but my opinions stay unchanged. This course has forced my to think about the issues of public education much more frequently and to a greater extent. I think the one thing that really opened my eyes to a different type of issue in the education system was watching the documentary 'Fear and Learning', about Proposition 187 that became an issue in the 90s in California. Watching that documentary made me realize that there was more discrimination within the public education system than I previously thought. Regarding my beliefs that I came into this class with and leave with, I still think that the purposes of school are to prepare us to be a functioning member of society, teach us how to learn, teach us how to be an obedient member of society, and to ensure the continuance of democracy.
I feel that at the end of this course my views on the problems within the education system have not changed but my understanding of them has. This course made me really look at where these issues stem from and who helps to influence them. Before I would just blame immediate faces such as teachers, principals, or local school board members but I have learned a lot of issues are much more systematic than that. We are influenced by everything around us from high up members of the government to low grade instagram accounts. While learning that are issues within the school system are so deeply rooted can be discouraging this course also taught me a lot of ways to create a more progressive school environment.
ReplyDeleteThis course has made me look at education with a more critical lens. I now understand how small aspects of schools can say a lot about their ideals and their "purposes of schooling". I also have more of an idea of how society can influence what goes on within schools (with examples). Personally, I enjoyed the opportunity to see how this dynamic of purpose and influence play out in other countries. I see now how many of the stereotypes we associate with school have been reinforced in media. By the end of this class, I felt more motivated to challenge and question common educational practices and/or attitudes.
ReplyDeleteJones Boyer - The course forced me to think critically about the purposes of schooling and the sources they come from. In particular, the most enlightening unit for me was the documentary unit. The documentaries gave a solid view into some of the different perspectives that influence schooling, positively or negatively, and this helped to contextualize the reasoning behind some of school's purposes.
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