Day 1, New Blog, Rethinking Thinking

So this is the same blog that I used for the ed tech class, and I figure it is a good idea to just continue as it will be a good documentation of my progress and thinking through different parts of this credential program. I began reading today the book, “Rethinking High School,” which is something that I do on a daily basis. I wonder often if the ideas that I have are just some utopian dream, or if there is reality stashed away in there somewhere. What I immediately took away from this chapter is that I am not the only one that feels this way the authors do too. And that some schools are failing, while others are in reform mode, and there is really no one-way to get to perfection.

From student’s perspective, schools are “badly out of tune with the time,” and they “are usually boring, frequently a waste of time—and sometimes a danger.” From a reformers perspective, the keys to successful change are keeping the feeling of the school small and personal, allowing students to feel connected, making it much more individualized, focused interdisciplinary curriculum, mentor like teaching practice, and interaction with the community at large.

These are broad strokes of the painting, how one particular school actually gets there is left to experimentation, trial, and error. I completely agree that schools for the most part are totally outdated. In fact, in clinical practice one, I happened to be a part of a classroom environment that was well structured, but stuck very closely to the practices of 30 years prior. In comparing educational reform to geology, the authors illustrate nicely what it feels like in public education. I feel like with each batch of graduating teacher candidates, reform is seeping ever so quietly into the system. It may no longer take an earthquake, but rather little tremors along the way.