Blog #5 1980-Present - The Bottom Line Reflection

     

Ronald Regan presenting 'A Nation At Risk'.

    In this section, we went over the increasing involvement of business-minded attitudes in public education. During the 1980s, America was undergoing an educational crisis. To combat this, free-market ideals of the time we're introduced to the system. This is a really massive change in the direction of the public education system. The participation of private businesses and alternate schools is a more recent phenom than I initially thought. I'll go over some of the main ideas which resonated with me.

Students using Samsung-powered Chromebooks.

    Private businesses are heavily involving themselves in the education of children. This involvement ranges from simple funding aids to having complete control over the management of public schools. A particular form of involvement I found very interesting is how businesses view schools as an avenue for advertising. The section mentioned how children were forced to watch Channel One in exchange for free media equipment. Nowadays, large tech corporations are showing their presence in schools. When I was in elementary and high school, Apple, Google, and Samsung proudly gave high-tech equipment featuring their logos everywhere. When I first received a laptop from Google, it wasn't just a laptop; it was an exclusive "Chromebook™." This feeling was reflected by the fact that everyone in the school always referred to them as Chromebooks; It was blatant advertising. The young impressionability of children in schools was initially used to instill nationalism; now, corporate brands have found a new use of it.

    

Success Acadamy, Charter School

    

    Charter schools, in particular, are a very major and interesting topic mentioned in both the section and the documentary. From everything we learned on public schooling, Charter schools have changed the fundamental way of how parents interact with publically funded schools since their inception. The local bureaucracies that have been developed for decades will be cast aside in favor of the efficiency of entrepreneurs. In the charter school system, parents will lose the influence and control they have over the schools. It will be interesting to see what happens to public schools if the charter school movement gets better. 

    I never expected that the favoritism of traditional education came from the crisis of the '80s. I've personally seen this occur at my high school. Initially, there was a whole portion of the school dedicated to vocational training. Carpentry and Plumbing were prominent jobs there. But as the years went by, it was replaced with more advanced academic classes. These courses were moved off to a separate school. I only know this from older relatives who went to my high school. More focus has been put on traditional classes that can bring higher standardized test scores.

PARCC standardized test, which was supposed to replace NJ ASK. 

    I have seen the rise of standardized testing and the increased pressure on schools mentioned in the section. Teachers would always mention having to worry about keeping scores high for standardized state tests. If we did terrible on these exams, they warned that the school would receive less funding. This was especially prevalent when PARCC was introduced suddenly with a way higher standard than previous exams. Both teachers and students became overwhelming stressed over the exam. Failing the exam meant being immediately left-back despite class scores. Often the teachers' plans were derailed to focus on the PARCC. It caused a lot of controversies, but now it is slated to be replaced with another exam. Another example of this increasing priority on scores was in AP classes. When I took AP Calculus, we were suddenly threatened that the exams would no longer be free if not enough students passed with high scores. This was quite unfair for poorer students. All of this competitive testing now makes whole communities have to worry about the funding of public schools.

    The group work for this week was pretty simple. We've all grown accustomed to the workflow of doing a project together. This section, in particular, didn't really have as many controversial topics, so we all agreed on the same issues very rapidly. The tricky part was trying to represent the varying topics of the section through a visual presentation. In the end, I believe we came up with an excellent theme to unite all the subjects. 

Blog #4 1950-1980- Separate and Unequal Reflection

    This section went into the gritty aspects of desegregation during and after the civil rights era. I've learned of this era in elementary school like many other students, but various deeper details were never mentioned before. My knowledge of desegregation for education only really extended to Brown v. Board of Education. In this section, I really noted the number of groups desegregation actually encompassed, the extent of federal intervention, and segregation's lingering effects.

    Desegregation was a combined effort of multiple oppressed groups fighting for their fair share of high-quality education. Before desegregation, top-tier education was limited to white students. Everyone else was given lower-quality lessons and facilities, which significantly restricted these children into their preconceived roles in society. As education got better, but mainly only for whites males, this gap grew further and further until it was too much to ignore. African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanics, women, and the disabled all par-took in this era but differently. From Brown v. Board of Education to Crystal city to Title IX, these groups fought for more funding and resources. 

101st Airborne Division escorting Black students into Little Rock school.

    Government intervention had a very prominent force that isn't really mentioned outside the elementary teachings of Brown's case. Besides the court ruling, the government had to do a lot more to actually make states abide. Little Rock Nine is one of the few historical instances where the government called upon the federal army to enforce a law. I found it very interesting how national funding school was used as an indirect measure of making states comply. For the States, it meant complying and getting more funding or disobeying and going broke. This intervention made me realize the political importance of bussing. I always thought of bussing as a simple transportation method rather than a tool for desegregation. Government intervention was a significant component in making these reforms actually go through. Despite all of these actions, it can be argued that the government hasn't done enough to really enforce desegregation. 

The proposed City of St.George, as seen in the documentary

    The most major takeaway I had with this section was the lingering effects of segregation. It was mentioned in the book, the documentary, and the TED Talk. The gerrymandering of school districts led to minority communities being resegregated and losing much-needed funds. Not enough was done to stop the unofficial segregation that's formed out of tricky policy decisions. The issue itself is tragic due to how much more complex the problem is. The documentary showed how there were motivations outside of race that promoted these policy decisions. Some people simply were just selfish and wanted all their funds to make their child the best. Sadly, this issue is still seen today. 

    As a group, we came to the same conclusions quite quickly. We wanted to highlight the struggle for desegregation. Creating the poster was a fun but challenging way of trying to represent this era of reform. 

Blog #3 1900-1950 As American as Public School Refection

    Part two of the text goes over some of the finer details of the development of education. There are many exciting details in this chapter, so much so that I didn't notice them all in my first reading. It'll be challenging to reflect on the many nuances I saw in the section, but I'll go over some of the main ones. This section shows how the purpose of education is heavily debated, how it handled diverse students, and how IQ testing was made prevalent.

    At the beginning of the 20th century, the skill of teaching was still in its infancy. Schooling was usually was only for five to eight years. Most schools were still in poor condition and had simplistic curriculum; as a result, most children preferred working in factories. Initiatives like the "Gary Plan" significantly changed this format; it introduced moving classrooms, diverse subjects, hygiene standards, and home manners. The idea was to focus on the "whole child" and their development as people; it went against the traditional focus on curriculum and teachers. This would mark the beginning of the debate between making students into well-rounded citizens or specialized workers. I find this debate interesting because it's still a contentious issue. "Does a bricklayer really need to know Shakespear" is a quote that some might easily say today. In my experience, I've seen students in high school completely ignore their learnings so they can focus on other activities such as a job or helping with their family. It's the same exact issues mentioned in the text. These issues seem to be inherently come from what our education is. 

Students Doing the Pledge of Allegiance

    "Americanization" has been a big topic so far, and it's prevalent in this chapter. It's both a unifying force and a destructive one. It's evident that many of those who inforced it had malicious intentions to wipe the cultures of those that seemed undesirable or even barbaric. But, it was still a unifying force that brought together every nationality in the world to be able to peacefully talk to each other. I understand some of my group's hostility towards it. I think this hatred of it comes from how one interprets the meaning of being American. I relate to the author having sympathetic feelings over it, as stated at the beginning of the chapter. As a Chinese, Puerto Rican, American (that's a handful to say), I don't think I'd exist in any other country in the world. In a way, I consider myself to be a part of the infamous "melting pot".

    I found the education system's tendency to categorize students in this section to be very enlightening. There's merit in getting every student onto their own track, but it has also been very destructive. Such a view attempts to stop students from being left out, but it generates another issue. What happens if you put the student on the wrong path. There is no definitive science of what a person can be; this often prevents students from seeing their potential. All it does is form a way of indirectly segregating students. This is seen in the text in IQ testing, causing flawed assumptions for Mexicans, Native Americans, and African Americans. I related heavily to Julian Nava's story of having to fight your way to better education. In high school, I was heavily barred away from AP classes because I didn't have the best SAT scores. I had both advisors and teachers discourage me, but I still went for it. I ended up doing better than some of the honors students who took it. I despise the idea of categorizing students on very illogical merits. 

    To end off this discussion, I had a very interesting group discussion this time. We had similar opinions, but the slight differences between us made me look at the section differently. 

Blog #2 Part 1 Refection

    Part one of the book introduced so many intriguing details of the origins of the US education system. I've taken our current education system for granted. I knew education had its troubles when learning about desegregation in elementary school, but I never thought about what it took to establish a basic school system. The text showcases how many important aspects we hold dear now were first introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. We wouldn't have the diverse and accessible education we have right now without the work of education reformers. These ideas have taken many decades of turbulent troubles and development to fully take root. 

University of Virginia: Founded By Thomas Jefferson

    Education initially was incredibly sparse and heavily tied to religion; only the most privileged of Americans had access to advanced schooling. After the American Revolution, education would finally start getting the attention it needed. Thomas Jefferson would be one the first to promote a common school system. Jefferson believed that "public education was essential for democracy." I found it interesting that from the start, education was viewed as the key to democratic liberty. This idea would be echoed by other reformers. His colleagues would mostly ignore him, but Horace Mann would make tremendous progress a few decades later.

Horace Mann

    According to E. D. Hirsch, "Horace Mann is rightly the patron saint of public education..." Based on the readings in the text, I agree with this statement. Despite the terrible backward ideals of the time, he wanted a public school system that would give boys and girls an excellent education with no distinction between rich and poor. He also importantly wanted the school system to have set standards and be funded by tax dollars. We have to note how radical his ideas were considered for the time. Such a stance was a great starting point for educating America. His influence jump-started the building of common schools. Despite his ambition, not all his ideas were perfect. It would soon be evident that religion and race would cause great divides.

African Free School: One of the few schools opened for blacks.

    Religion and racial divides would prove to be a cumbersome obstacle for progress. Religion would divide Catholics and Protestants because they wanted to enforce their own religious ideologies upon their children. This would cause separate schools to be opened on the basis of religion. Race relations in the country were obviously not great. A majority of African Americans were still enslaved during the time period. The African Americans that did get access to education were divided into their own schools and given subpar facilities. An interesting quote from the text states, "African Americans began to tie the quest for freedom and the quest for education and excellence together." Education was viewed as a way of liberation even if it didn't give them better job opportunities. These troubles would be the next big challenge.

  Doing the group project was an interesting undertaking. The different perspectives I saw were intriguing, but I still firmly hold to my original observations. I believe education and freedom are greatly intermingled, and it's fascinating seeing reformers from decades ago have this viewpoint. The steps they made were a grand accomplishment and lead the US to "providing more schooling to more children than any other nation on earth..." Such a grand leap in progress was made. Education has been on a large dynamic journey, and we've only learned the beginnings of it.

Blog #1 Autobigoraphy

    

Picture of ME

    My name is Christopher Torres. It is currently my Junior year at NJCU, and I'm majoring in Computer Science. My hobbies are playing video games and learning about history. As a kid, I played soccer, and in high school, I was on the fencing team. I completed all of the general education requirements besides my capstone course. I decided to choose this class in particular because this one interested me the most out of all the available courses. I know very little of the history of the public education system, so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to learn something new.

    My memory of the beginning of my literacy is generally fuzzy. The earliest memory I have was with my parents as a small kid. Every night, we would read children's stories and take turns reading lines in the book. I remember practicing writing letters with tracing sheets. My parents promoted my literacy learning very heavily in my early childhood, but they would eventually stop. The most significant moment for my literacy learning was the development of a speech impediment. I had a lot of difficulties pronouncing certain letters. This forced me to have speech lessons every week in school. I vividly remember crying because I couldn't correctly say "yellow" during one of the speech sessions. Luckily I wasn't in this speech class for long, and in a few years, I completed the class. I still had some speech issues for a while, but I ironed all my problems out by the time I was in high school.

    Besides my speech issues, I considered my literacy skills average when I was growing up, but I still had problems. A particular challenge with my literacy learning was learning to write. My penmanship and writing skills were awful. I dreaded every single time I had to write any sort of essay. I think I was fully literate by the time I was a junior in high school because that was the time I became comfortable with writing and had decent speech skills.

    When I was growing up, I actually hated the formal idea of reading fictional stories. This almost hampered me from doing any sort of reading. Luckily I grew a deep interest in history, which I think I got from my gaming hobby. Seeing such exciting stories inspired by actual events made me really inspired to read about them. This eventually blossomed into my pursuit of learning history. My literacy development heavily contrasts with my sisters. Both of my sisters enjoyed reading long, complex fictional books at an early age. I looked up to their skills when I was growing up.

    Literacy is very important for communicating with others efficiently. I'd argue that literacy is more important than ever with the proliferation of the internet. As our lives get more digital, we need to read and write efficiently to take advantage of technology. Even though I'm a stem major, literacy still has a big part in my career path. There's a reason why programming languages are called languages, even though it's a bit different from learning a spoken language. Nowadays, programming and history reading tends to be my primary way of gaining literacy.