I saw Living Savage Inequalities as an eye-opening story about the democracy of education. Brian D. Schultz’s idea of letting his eleven-year-old students set the curriculum for the class seemed risky, but ended up being nothing short of genius. The students in Schultz’s class were forced to think outside of the textbook norm for the first time, and chose a problem that they all cared deeply about: improving their school.
I think that this is a prime example of how education is an inevitable experience that is most valuable when it isn’t forced upon someone. The students in classroom 405 transformed from unmotivated and unprepared to willing and motivated, and it was because the criteria directly related to them. These underprivileged children all of the sudden were learning how to “prepare documentation including their survey results, photos, and written assessments.” Attendance and discipline were no longer an issue and they were operating above their previous level. I don’t believe that any of this would have happened if Schultz didn’t give them the opportunity take leadership and apply what they were learning to their everyday life.
People obtain an education from different experieces, whether it's from a textbook or a life changing occurence. How much they get out of an education depends on how driven they are about the material. I agree that by applying education to everyday life can open the minds of students so they are able to see that what they are being taught is important and relevant to life. The tricky thing about this is figuring out how to motivate them to use their whole potential, and it is clear that Schultz did just that.
ReplyDeleteYes the students did gain a valuable educational lesson when they tried to change their school but what about the lesson of failure. They didn't succeed at getting their new school they simply learned about how messed up the system is and that the best they can get are "little victories". When the article said attendance was at close to 100% during the time that they were trying to get a new school it doesn't say how many of them got fed up with the fact that they put in the most work they ever had in their lives and still failed to achieve their goals. How many of those students now view failure for people of their socioeconomic background as a way of life. Even their teacher didn't believe in them, he just didn't have the heart to tell them the best they were gonna get was bathroom door stalls and new water fountains. To gauge whether that lesson affected their lives you should see how many of the students from that 5th grade class graduated from highschool and went to college vs. how many fell into the same vicious cycle that gets most low income neighborhood kids.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/01/national/main3985714.shtml