What are we working to prepare our students for? Are we forcing them into a mold based on their economic status? Finn made me take a look at my own teaching. Am I, as he says, "schooling these children, not to take charge of their lives, but to take orders"? Some of the structure of school does indeed lead kids to take orders, but I think that is part of life in the real world. There is always someone in charge, an authority. That does not mean, however, that students in our classrooms should be taught to just spit back facts and "tell me what I want to hear". I find that more and more students are asking me "to just tell them whats on the test" so that they know exactly what to study, instead of being able to draw conclusions on their own. In so many ways, creativity is being taken out of schools. I know that last week Mary linked a Ken Robinson video in her blog about creativity in education, and I have used that video with graduating seniors to see if they agree with Robinson or not. It is sad that they agree that most of their creativity is gone as a result of their education. At this conference, the keynote asked us to think about the "seeds" that we are sowing in our students and to list the top ten. What are the top ten things that are most important to me that I want my students to walk out and have experienced/learned? Is the content really the important part, or is it more important that my students felt respected, that they know that someone cares about them? Finn would say that many schools would completely reject anything not content driven, and how can they not, because they are driven by state tests. Unfortunately there is no section of the test that asks about life experience, and how students learn to respect each other, or about the time they finally felt that their voice was heard. I feel lucky that I have so much wiggle room in my curriculum that it was fine for me for example, to take a whole class period and discuss the N word, other negative slang words and their implications and how its disrespectful to speak to each other in that way. Will I ever test on that? No, but was it a valuable lesson, nonetheless? I think, yes. I try and make real world connections with my students everyday. I think this is important teaching Theology because they do not all believe in the faith that I am teaching them about.
I love so much of what Finn writes about empowering our students to rise above the lot they have been given. Society, and people who are not in the classroom teaching are afraid of what would happen if there were people rising up from the bottom. Finn writes "What would happen if working-class students had political motives for acquiring literacy"?It is my job, I believe, to teach students to have motives, and not settle.
First of all Allie, I'm looking forward to hearing about your conference! I thought about the AP class issue and how elite schools offer more of them and at an earlier age. Those types of classes are indeed geared toward Finn's definition of elite students - those who are expected to perform at high levels and who are self motivated to get the job done. I think the best model is the upper middle class one wherein creativity and inquiry is the main focus - I see problems, of course, with the working class model, but also with the elite one. Both of them - at extremes - caste students into roles they may not want. Elite students may not have the stamina for the types of pressure AP classes demand - and especially at 10th grade. I'm also jealous that you have leeway in your curriculum. Teaching theology, and therefore, values and morals, seems to be a perfect fit with what we are learning in this class.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time believing that the reason for not having more AP classes is socio-economic status. I believe what we have is a values problem in this country whereas parents are not valuing education and creating high standards at home. One of the determining factors in determining AP classes is student test scores however; another is the number of teachers who have the ability to teach AP classes. What I find hard to know is that students are denied access to AP classes when there is not enough room. Students should not be denied access and that to me is a problem.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you that students who are focusing on problems at home (family troubles) do not come ready to learn the next day. There focus is elsewhere and with good reason. Also, after reading Finn I focused on where the teachers come from in the study on the elementary schools. That could explain why there are not enough AP teachers to go around. For example, working class teachers usually come from local places however; they usually come from a better area and are not connected to the students (where they live).