John Dewey=Genius

Education is Life Itself ~John Dewey

John Dewey is a man who I would love to have lunch with if he were still living. His views on education are similar to how I wish things were. If more inspirational, intelligent people like himself were in charge, education would be drastically different.

John Dewey was born in the mid 1800's and passed away in the early 1950's. He was a philosopher and psychologist who was deeply interested in educational reform. Even in the early 1900's he knew there was an issue with the system. It's funny how some things never change as far as technique and motivation go. He developed education ideas that would spawn experimental education and work toward a "progressive education" movement. (wilderdom.com)

His main ideas express hands on activities as a way of learning. In his book "Democracy and Education" he expresses the importance of formal education in society, but stresses communication.

One of my main ideals in education is how important it is to relate what is done in the classroom to how it applies to the students life. Students don't care how it will help them in thirty years...they often don't care if it will help them in thirty days. They want to know how it will help them today and I feel every teacher in every subject should be able to answer that. Dewey believes the methods of teaching should show this hands on. I believe that experience is a necessity when it comes to education. When someone gets a job...there's some reading, but there's always hands-on training as well. It makes no sense to constantly read and be lectured to in the classroom. Experience in the classroom will give students a chance to experience what they read and further understand it. It will enhance their understanding and also prove their knowledge as the teacher will have an easier time watching them learn. Some examples would be history..imagine having students wear similar clothes to time periods or in math using banking to arrange checking books or calculating their own grades. In music class performing pieces using even the simplest of instruments and in science performing more experiments out in the environment. Too many schools are in fear of letting the students reach beyond the classroom, even if it means enhancing the learning process. Obviously there are boundaries, but there must be a better way to reach students and I feel, like Dewey, hands on experience is the way to go. Applying similar techniques as vocational schools to the subjects that are distributed throughout public high schools could prove motivational to students who don't yet know what they want to do. All they know is they want to be with their friends and they want to talk, so let's get them talking. We can change their topic from gossip to subject...if they're interested.

They call Dewey's ideas "informal education" and this was from back in the 1930's....where is the progress and why haven't we embraced at least SOME of the experimental education ways?

With drop out rates at their highest and funding based on standardized testing hiding our flaws, the least we can do is try in memory for those who will never see it.

Helpful Websites

Informal Education

Philosophy of Education

Democracy and Education

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Opportunity....True Inspiration

Upon reading a chapter within Educational Foundations by Alan Canestrari about Inclusion, the first school that came to my mind was Opportunity. Opportunity is a charter school out of Harlem in New York City. I found this school to be inspiring and share a same unique issue with inclusion as found within the book. I particularly became interested within the topic of inclusion at Opportunity, because I plan on teaching in NYC and Opportunity seemed an interesting example of inclusion and the challenges a charter school can face. My question is "Is a charter school the answer to special education?"

Opportunity is an inspiring school on 113th street in New York City. The school has been open since 2004 and services grades 6 to 12. There are roughly 3.5 students to every teacher and out of the total number of teachers there are nine clinical teachers and nine behavioral teachers integrated throughout the school. Within their website, Opportunity boasts a strong statement

"We welcome students in grades 6 through 12, regardless of their previous academic success: students who are yearning to learn, students who have fallen behind, students who have been told their aspirations are beyond reach. Through a positive belief in every student's promise, we are committed to bringing their potential to life." (Opportunitycharter.org)

This should be the basis of education to begin with. The idea of harnessing potential, but recent articles by The New York Post and Gotham Schools have portrayed the issues that Opportunity faces. The New York Post article written by Leonard Goldberg on August 8th, 2009 portrays the strengths of Opportunity Charter School and seems inspirational and optimistic. He explains that the city of New York had officially decided to foot the bill for special education students to attend charter schools avoiding costs of up to 50,000 dollars per student. Goldberg manages to convince the public that the taxpayers money is well spent due to their success in education the learning disabled by creating and following IEP's and constantly monitoring progress through evaluation. Goldberg pleads for taxpayers to support lifting the charter cap and agreeing to spend money investing in the charter school with the promise that it will not cost extra tax paying money. The reasoning being that less money will be spent in taxes to private special education institutions. Goldberg is the CEO and head of the Opportunity Charter School and hence he creates an impressive argument, but is the school going smoothly?

It seems with an academic layout of courses ranging from music and arts to standard English, Math, History, etc. curriculum that this school is something worth backing. It STRONGLY depends on inclusion and qualified teachers to produce results from their special education students. How well is it working? The school seems to come upon some scrutiny from the city and state expectations. An article by Anna Phillips titled "A School has a year to prove it can do the (almost) impossible." show issues that the school has faced more recently. This article was written only two short months after Goldberg's convincing plea.

Phillips examines the school and labels it as roughly half special education students and half general education students. She finds that the school has the outcome of some of the lowest test scores in the city. Phillips finds that in an interview with Mr. Fazio, Vice Principal of Opportunity, “Lowest achieving kids in New York City. Bottom 10 percent,” is all he could respond. The city has given the school an ultimatum, improve the test scores in one year or lose it's charter. Phillips finds teachers still optomsitic, doing their best for the students, but Opportunity is definatly under some pressure. Why would Goldberg go through all this effort at a charter school instead of teach at a regular school?

“I felt marginalized as a teacher,” he said. “The schools’ attitude was: ‘Why bother with your kids?’” According to Goldberg, Opportunity is on its way to meeting its charter goals, which include having the majority of students score Levels 3 or 4 on the state tests by the time they enter high school, seeing that all eighth graders are promoted to high school, and ensuring that all high school seniors have the ability to go to college." (Phillips)

The school is making some improvements in test scores, but having issues with students reaching a plateau at a certain level without improvement. The improvements the school sees with their students are ones that are impossible to measure by city and state standards.

“I don’t think they [the city and state] understand that you can’t measure students who are four or five years behind on one state standardized test and expect the school to be accountable for a system that has failed them for six or seven years,” Fazio said. “I think that’s a very unfair judgment, but it is a judgment we have to work with.” (Phillips)

With all of these issues fighting against Opportunity, the staff, administration, and principal remain hopeful that their charter will be renewed. However, this seems like an issue that faces many charter schools. Opportunity is willing to take on any students with any conditions. There is no limit to the potential of a student and although inspiring, the city and state seem hesitant to be fully supportive.

Is a charter school the answer to special education? No, but it can't hurt.

Helpful Links:

Opportunity Charter School

New York Post Article- Goldberg

Gotham Schools Article-Phillips

Sexual Health In The School

Where do we draw the line between school and the personal sexual health of a student?

So many schools have issues with the topic of sexual health. Some have programs to educate students of sexual protection, others go into details of intercourse. Some schools even give out sexual protection, but where is the line? With some students having sex with teachers, I believe that schools have gotten out of control. There has to be a line drawn where sexual health is left in the hands of the parents and their children. Permission slips or none, why is this the educators job?

A lot of the sexual conterversy has come from King Middle School in Portland, ME circa 2007. They had voted 10 to 2 to supply birth control pills and patches to students. Only 5 out of 134 students said they were sexually active so why is this school accomodating to them?(Education portal.com) I remember in 6th grade we were offered a sexual health course under parental permission. This class was very vague and tip toed around the subject. The teacher was nervous and untrained and left several answers fromm students unanswered. I recall specifically a student asking "What is masturbation?" The teacher was baffled that a student would even know the word at such a young age. Her response? "Ask your parents, i'm not sure." Of course she was sure, she was at least in her late 40's, but to have the school force her into this awkward position? Unspeakable.

By the time I hit high school we were all required to take a sex ed course with parental permission (even if we were 18.) In this course we learned details on oral sex, pregnency prevention, and the day after pill. It seemed like an open invitation for all students to have sex. Those who weren't mocked it, and those who were took it as an "easy" course because of course they already knew everything. Did anyone really LEARN anything though?

"According to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care, nearly 30 percent of the 1,700 school-based health centers in the country currently provide birth control to students. "(Education Portal)

I mean it'd be silly to assume students aren't having sex with 46.8 percent reporting they have (SADD), but when did it become the schools responsibility? It is the job to keep kids healthy, but they are practically giving students a hotel room and free reign. It seems the line is being pushed further and further toward letting students have sex at the school. I know this seems drastic....but their was a day when giving condoms out to teenagers was drastic. To inform students and educate them is a job of the school, but to supply them with the materials to have sex when there are public health systems that will do it is a little bit out of line. I know this is only an opinion, but I don't understand how it's came to this.

Helpful LINKS:

Education Portal

SADD

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Death In The School

Death in the school system, although a really depressing topic, is one that needs to be touched on. A majority of education programs require a multitude of psychology courses to deal with the way emotions in an adolescent work. However, I don't feel there is enough planning on how to handle death in the school-place. Whether it be death of a teacher or student it is something that many schools have to and sometimes panic dealing with. A friend of mine passed away in high school and the school seemed to panic. There was chaos everywhere and it seemed a plan was not put in place. This is what made me interested in the topic for this particular blog.

Should schools plan for what to do in the event of death of a student/teacher?

The National School Safety and Security Services report that there have been 279 school related deaths from 2000 to 2009. They are broken down like this...

School-Associated Violent Death Summary Data

School Year	Total Deaths
2009-2010 (8/1/09 to present)	6
2008-2009	13
2007-2008	16
2006-2007	32
2005-2006	27
2004-2005	39
2003-2004	49
2002-2003	16
2001-2002	17
2000-2001	31
1999-2000	33
Total:	279

The top 2 reasons for these deaths are school shootings and suicide. The NASP set up a great plan for schools, but many don't have plans at all. It is set up in separate sections including:

Notfication: Get the facts while being involved with the school. No matter students or adults.

Get Help: Use all those around you to assist you in any way possible to contain the situation

Establish a Call List: A list of who to contact in which order including school psychologists and administration. Followed by notifying the teachers with a hand delivered memo stating the facts of the incident to make sure all are well informed.

Isolate those close to the student/teacher: Have those close to the victim brought to the office to be told in person rather than via announcement.

Announcement: Announce the tragedy via the intercom system but choose words and tone carefully.

Contact the Parents: Have the parents know the facts and let them know how to approach the child. Give them ideas of how to handle the situation to take some of the weight off of their shoulders. Avoid unnecessary facts.

Roles should be distributed. It is the job of the principal to be available to assist all involved in handling the situation. It is his job to make sure that appropriate measures are taken and to contact the family of the deceased. Guidance counselors should be there for support for students and teachers should give ACCURATE information, but not release any unneeded details.

These seem to be GREAT ideas, but the issue I have most is the suggestions given by the American Association of Suicidology (AAS). They seem to have some really bad choices within their ideas and I don't agree with a few of their statements.

According to the AAS only 22 percent of school psychologists believe they were prepared enough through graduate training to deal with a student with suicide tendencies.

They also state

• Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for youth ages 10-24
• One in 11 high school students made a suicide attempt in the past 12 months
• 86% of school psychologists surveyed reported that they had counseled a student who had threatened or attempted suicide
• 62% of school psychologists surveyed reported that they have had a student make a nonfatal suicide attempt at school

Although these facts are informative, their recommendations for how to deal with suicide in schools upset me. These are their tips

Don't dismiss school or encourage funeral attendance during school hours
Don't dedicate a memorial to the deceased
Don't have a large school assembly
Do give the facts to the students
Do emphasize prevention and everyone's role
Do provide individual and group counseling
Do emphasize that no one is to blame for the suicide
Do emphasize that help is available and that there are alternatives to suicide
Do contact the family of the deceased

I disagree that students shouldn't be encouraged to attend the funeral. I think in order for a student to honestly come to terms with tragedy, they should be encouraged to do what they feel necessary to recover and understand and support their classmates. I also disagree that a memorial shouldn't be dedicated. If a student made an impact to the school and students; that student should be remembered within the school for students to feel comfort in. Just because a student commits suicide means their any less then a student who dies a different way.

I agree an assembly is a bad way to go abou

t talking about the situation, but perhaps offer a meeting in a cl

assroom where students could b

e better informed about suicide prevention. I agr

ee with all the DO's offered by

the AAS, but I don't quite understand the don'ts.

I feel that schools

NEED to think of a plan to ta

ckle crisis if and when it occurs.

A plan to keep all departments, administration, and counselo

rs prepared and free of panic. With many unsure on how to

handle the issue, proper

training should be implemented

for ALL employees within the school. The answer to the

question of whether or not schools should have a plan is absolutely YES.

Websites that assisted in my facts:

National School Safety and Security Services

AAS

NASP Resources

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