Everlasting Curriculum
Let us replace the contents of our nation’s education vault by throwing in our bubble sheets and test scores and pulling out the Great Books of the world. This belief is the cornerstone of my educational philosophy. As a teacher, I hope to develop a perennialist classroom, where the enduring truths take priority over grades and tests. The term “perennial,” which comes from the Latin word for “everlasting,” fits my curriculum perfectly, for the Great Books contain ideas and concepts that have always been and forever will be essential to understanding our world.
As an instructor of secondary English, my task to promote the Great Books will be simple. I can choose novels from a list of hundreds of classics that have persisted over time. I am very exciting about sharing books that I love, like The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Voltaire’s Candide, with my students. My mathematics and science colleagues will have more difficulty, though. They will be forced to reeducate students who have learned by example into a curriculum that focuses on theory. Here lies another reason that I champion the Great Books philosophy: students learn from an epistemological standpoint, and therefore see for themselves how concepts originated. I believe that knowledge is absolute, and perennialism gives a basis for my claim. The Great Books have provided us with the answers to our questions, we only need to discover the truths for ourselves.
I do not agree with the ideas proposed in A Nation at Risk. This document puts too much emphasis on tests and competition. Its principles establish the basis for essentialism, the “back-to-basics” approach to education. This me...
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...ipline methods dependent on each case.
In sum, I am very excited about beginning my teaching career. I cannot wait until I am given a classroom of my own. I love perennialism and will base my classes around it; the Great Books philosophy encompasses all the reasons I have ever had for wanting to become a teacher. I also love games, riddles, and word puzzles which I will use to make my lessons more interesting. Sadly, many of today’s young people do not recognize the names Milton, Defoe, and Twain. This is a problem I want to fix. The Great Books curriculum is forever changing. I predict that, within the next twenty years, the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien will be added to the Great Books list. This list is so impeccable that its content have been deemed everlasting, just like the knowledge I hope to instill in my students.
Education should have helped students; however, Derrick Jensen considers current educational system as inefficiency. Schooling offers students tools to live in “the real world”, but then, he questions “what sorts of beings we are creating by the process of schooling” (3). In Walking on Water, Jensen states that “we are told that standardized testing must be imposed to make sure students meet a set of standardized criteria so they will later be able to fit into a world that is itself increasingly standardized” (5). School gives out standardized tests among different subjects to examine how well each student knows about facts and information, and then, uses test scores to evaluate students’ abilities; also, this is how society estimates each
It’s no surprise that there are faults within our schools in today’s society. As both authors’ point out if our educational system is
Have you ever wondered if our education system has flaws? Well in the article “Against School” written by John Taylor Gatto, Gatto once a teacher explains how public education weakens the youth. He starts off the paper by saying how he taught for 30 years, went through a termination, and personally witnessed almost all of the schooling flaws. In Gatto’s article he lists very noticeable names, such as George W. Bush, George Washington, James Bryant Conant, and H.L Mencken to name a few. Having taught children for so long Gatto believes he has the expert rule in this subject. He proposes that to bring out the best qualities in a child you have to let them make decision and let them take their own risks. Gatto’s mission in this article is to make you consider, if school is actually important.
The report that was produced was titled A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform. A Nation at Risk’s findings were extremely disheartening to the American people. America’s school system was failing. The statistics indicated that American children were not meeting global standards, the curriculum was outdated and lacked rigor and relevance.
Throughout many years, education has played an important role in improving our minds and society. However, what many people tend to forget is that our education is not at the best it can be. Education is defined as receiving or giving systematic instruction, especially at a school or university. Many people today questions whether or not our education depends on the people teaching it or if it’s the student’s responsibility to want to learn. "To what extent do our schools serve the goals of a true education?" Education helps people learn new things, but it can be changed. Although education helps students learn and plan for the future, it can be improved to help benefit students ahead of time.
I disagree with Hutchins belief, who is he to define Great books? I don’t think reading the books he describes in his essay will help our generation do better or worse. I think it’s up to our generation to define Great books. Our generation s is diverse. Everyone learning style and taste is different. However I do belief education is the key to our success, but the reading the books he describes in his essay will not do the trick. Our generation and society isn’t lacking because we aren’t reading these so-called Great books, it’s lacking for varies individual reasons. Knowledge is gained through several daily activities. Reading these Great books is essential. I would consider the works of Terry McMillan, Alex Walker and Maya Angelou to be Great books.
Education is one of the cornerstones and pillars to the establishment and preservation of democracy. In history, countless scores of philosophers and political thinkers believed that only an educated citizenry can take on the quintessential task of upholding democracy. Thomas Jefferson, the primary writer of the Declaration of Independence, stated that “an informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.” A renowned defender of public education, Jefferson proposed plans for an education system that included grammar schools in his presidency. As a result of these relentless policies for education, the United States expanded on the concept of public instruction through the establishment and upkeep of a practical education system. The United States continued this tradition and established a reputation as one of the best education in the world. Currently, this is no longer valid as other countries such as Finland, China, and South Korea are competing for the dominant position through rigorous reforms that aim to boost student performances (“Best Education”). Meanwhile, the American system is inefficient, inhibited by political obstacles and gridlock while Finland, the top ranked country in terms of schooling, is continuing to improve. According to the PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) examinations that tested pupils across a variety of subjects such as reading, mathematics, and science of 2009, Finland’s students were ranked among the top (“PISA 2009”). The American students were ranked below average for industrialized countries in the world, revealing the reality of the educational crisis in the country. Finland’s education system, compared to the Americans, offers major differences that greatly ...
My grandmother introduced me to reading before I’d even entered school. She babysat me while my parents were at work, and spent hours reading to me from picture books as my wide eyes drank in the colorful illustrations. As a result, I entered my first year of school with an early passion for reading. Throughout elementary and middle school, I was captivated by tales of fire-breathing dragons, mystical wizards, and spirited foreign gods. A book accompanied me nearly everywhere I went, smuggled into my backpack or tucked safely under my arm. I was often the child who sat alone at lunch, not because she didn’t have friends, but because she was more interested in a wizards’ duel than the petty dramas of middle school girls. I was the child who passed every history test because she was the only kid who didn’t mind reading the textbook in her spare time, and the child who the school librarian knew by name. Reading provided a
The ability for all children from varying walks of life to receive a well-rounded education in America has become nothing more than a myth. In excerpt “The Essentials of a Good Education”, Diane Ravitch argues the government’s fanatical obsession with data based on test scores has ruined the education system across the country (107). In their eyes, students have faded from their eyes as individual hopefully, creative and full of spirit, and have become statistics on a data sheet, percentages on a pie chart, and numbers calculated to show the intelligence they have from filling out bubbles in a booklet. In order for schools to be able to provide a liberal education, they need the proper funding, which comes from the testing.
It is likely for one to assume that a classic piece of literature set in a fantasy oriented stage will have no merits to the youths of today. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, however, with its crafty of usage symbolism, displays its relevance to issues that often trouble teens. As the story progresses from a children’s tale to an epic, the main character Bilbo undergoes a series of development, his experiences often overlapping with ordinary people. Reading the Hobbit will provide teens with opportunities of exploring the importance of several common but serious topics. People may encounter many of the themes presented in the book elsewhere repeatedly, but it’s possible that they never appreciated the applications it might have on themselves. When teens read the Hobbit, they perceive it as a simple fiction of adventure. Under proper guiding, they will be able to recognize and utilize the lessons of the Hobbit, and improve their attitudes and ideas about life.
From reading Alice in Wonderland to now, I have grown to appreciate literature much more. At the beginning of the year, I read purely because it was assigned for me to read, and I only read for important events and story plots. When reading Alice in Wonderland for the first time, I missed everything that Lewis Carroll was trying to convey to the reader. I had no idea that he had written Alice in Wonderland with the intention of preparing children for the real world. I thought it was just a story full of random events and nonsense, but after my realization of a deeper meaning, I grew to appreciate his efforts. From then on from Beowulf to the Fairie Queene, I have learned to see literary works as more than just stories but a...
As a result, instructors are now told to teach to the test and the amount of material presented to students in class is lessened to emphasize the key points on exams that will improve test scores. This lack of curricular diversity affects students more than any other party involved; students are held back from their ultimate potentials due to the mediocrity of information they are presented at school. No longer are schools attempting to produce brighter and higher achieving students, but rather, students who are good test takers. Although this seems to be against the purpose of education, schools must unfortunately consider these options in order to attempt their state receiving more federal funding due to higher test scores. Standardized assessments prevent educators from exercising their role as instructors of all subjects, schools from attempting to build educated and successful students, and students from constructing thoughts abstractly, rather than to the answer of a
The solutions to improve our educational system is one, stop using students for international competition. Instead of competing against other countries, we should learn from each other and help each other improve. Two, our standardized testing scores should also not be depended on for funding, which can stop the process of “Teaching the Test”. Our educational system can improve if the system stops focusing on numbers and more about our education.
When analyzing contemporary issues in education, it is very important to ask why and how the issues arise. Some of these problems are obvious to the mass public, and some require a more in-depth analysis. One of the less obvious issues in education is the current philosophy in the classrooms. One may ask the questions, “Why is the philosophy of education important? And, why does it matter to me?” To put it simply, the philosophy imbedded in the goals of education and teaching methods in a classroom affects the students’ futures. This topic was chosen because the philosophy in schools is often overlooked as the absolute core of educational issues. Many students understandably struggle with sitting in a classroom, uninterested. In addition to the constant stress and pressure of having good grades, students often ask why the given curriculum must be learned.
In his book The Element, Sir Ken Robinson argues that the current education system is flawed in how it does not help us to find our “element”. His four main points identify the flaws in: the main focus of schools, the order of subjects, the assessments, and the curriculums. First, he talks about the specific focus on the student’s ability to perform academically. He goes into detail about how schools mainly value the success of students through their academic skill and their other aspects are overlooked. Next, he describes the order of subjects and its inequalities. Robinson explains how only a handful of subjects are emphasized at the top of the order, while others are undervalued. Then, he brings up the assessments given by schools. He explains how standardized testing does not aid the discovery process of the element. Finally, he talks about the curriculums set by many schools. Robinson explains how the curriculums are not personalized for every student's’ interest and needs. Overall, he is very critical of the education system and makes it clear how the