Improving Education through Continuous Development and Renewal
A fundamental question that pervades the minds of many is how to improve the educational system so that the curriculum is relevant and continuously adaptive to societal needs. Throughout this century, change has taken place in the educational arena; yet the "ideal" education never seemingly results. Through each thread in time, curriculum is viewed as an entity with both institutional and technical form—an idea or concept embedded within the political and social structures that currently exist (Reid & Walker 1975). The role of schools to impart knowledge and to enrich each individual’s sense of well being brings about an integral question: what should the curriculum include?
Although the United States’ educational system is still evolving, it reflects the results of legislators addressing various social inequities that were previously ignored. As industrialization forged the United States into a new era, schools took on the ultimate responsibility of producing the workers needed to lead the nation. However, with the vast majority of wealth being accumulated in the urban centers by a minority of the population, the rural folk were left to suffer economically and socially. Thus, schools were called upon to aid the socialization process by providing and eventually requiring equal access to educational opportunities. For example, in the early 1940’s, racial unrest was stimulated in numerous cities like Detroit; as a result, both teachers and curriculum developers attempted to determine what role schools could play in relieving the racial tensions. In September 1945, a racial strike broke out within the schools of Gary, Indiana (Reid & Walker 1975). One response was...
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...ploring the means that will permit this nation to effect reform within the social system through continuous development, renewal, and responsibility.
Works Cited
Eisner, Elliot W. (1979). The Educational Imagination. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.
Reid, W. & Walker, D. (1975). Case Studies in Curriculum Change. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
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The Golding Sisters lobbied for women’s rights to equal pay and employment. Annie Mackenzie (1855-1934) and Isabella Therese (1864-1940) began their careers teaching in both public and catholic schools (Kingston, 2013). Annie worked with infants and girls and later shifted to teaching at the Asylum for Destitute Children (Kingston, 2013). She was also a member on the State Children Relief Board. Belle left teaching early to pursue a career as the first female government inspector in 1900 (Lemon, 2008). With their sister Kate Dwyer (1861-1949), Labour leader and school teacher, the sister’s began the Womanhood Suffrage League in 1893 and the Woman’s Progressive Foundation in 1901 which aimed to combat the inability for women to work in certain industries and sit on juries (The Sunday Morning Herald, 1933). Belle’s research skills assisted in preparing the sister’s persuasive speeches and statements (Fawkner & Kelly, 1995). In 1921 Kate became a female Justice of Peace (Gallego, 2013). Kate also wrote extensively about politics, industries and women’s questions.
It has often been suggested that some southwestern literature is based on the experiences of others. With this suggestion, it has been demonstrated that these experiences are incorporated with the intention of portraying the experiences of others as a learning tool; for both the reader and the writer. Some may also imply that literature, therefore, may impose a learning opportunity in itself. In correspondence with this belief, it must be suggested that the classic novel, The Bean Trees, could be considered a learning experience for the audience as well as Barbara Kingsolver in relation to the catalyzing character Marietta "Missy"/Taylor Greer along with additional inspirational characters that effect her and are likewise effected along the way.
The issue of equality in education is not a new problem. In 1787, our federal government required all territories petitioning for statehood to provide free education for all citizens. As part of this requirement, every state constitution included, “an education clause, which typically called for a “thorough and efficient” or “uniform” system of public schools” (School Funding 6). Despite this requirement, a “uniform” system of schools has yet to be achieved in this country for a variety of reasons, many of which I will discuss later on. During the early part of th...
Most housewives that live in the suburbs find themselves bored, isolated, and alone when their husbands are off at work. In the film, Joyce mentions how housewives get lonely in their homes to the repairman who is fixing her dishwasher. This shows how she feels unfulfilled in her marriage as well because her husband is gone all the time and she is seen flirting with the repairman. Women could only focus on cleaning the house, making dinner when the husband came home and it was an ongoing routine in the film. Most families only owned one car which would be used mainly for the man of the family because he had to work and bring money so that the family may function and prosper. The housewives normally did not own a car, so they often felt trapped. In the reading “The Problem of Place in America” by Ray Oldenburg he poses similar examples of living in suburbia “By the 1960s, a picture had emerged of the suburban housewife as bored, isolated, and preoccupied with material things. The suburban wife without a car to escape in epitomized the experience of being alone ...
In the novel The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Hawthorne portrays a society filled with betrayel, secrecie, and sinners. The people of society do not show their true colors and hide their true intentions. Dimmsdale, Chillingsworth and Hester all have fallen to sin, however they all believe they are not the worse sinner and try to seek justice for themselves.
In the early 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement brought many accusations and complaints towards the Chicago Board of Education. Due to this pressure, the Board allowed three major studies of the Chicago public schools which clearly denoted the segregation problems of the school system, over a decade after the Supreme Court’s decision of the famous Brown v Board of Education case. The Hauser Report and the Havighurst Report, both published in 1964, described the “gross racial imbalance” in Chicago public schools, where “Negro schools” tended to be more overcrowded and experience more drop-outs and lower average scores than predominantly white schools (Coons 85). In 1967 the recently appointed Superintendent of the Chicago schools, James Redmond, created a committee that published the other major report on the public schools of Chicago in 1967, entitled Increasing Desegregation of Faculties, Students, and Vocational Education Programs. This report focused on the teaching climate of Chicago schools, the boundaries of schools districts, vocational education programs, and public understanding of current issues, “aimed at reversing a pervasive social condition that has become deeply rooted in our society” (Chicago Board 2).
One attempt made to correct this failure was the permanent desegregation of all public schools across the country. In the celebration of the Brown v. Board of Education all public schools were integrated with both races. Before this integration there were all white and all black schools. This was in favor of the idea of “separate but equal”. But, it was proven by the “woeful and systematic under funding of the black schools” things were separate but rarely equal. (Source 9) As a solution to this,it was decided that a fully integrated society began with the nation’s schools. (Source 9) Two years after one of the first integration of schools at Little Rock, Effie Jones Bowers helped desegregate the nearby school, Hall High School. The students were put into an all white school like at Central High School. According to one of the students, they were faced with vio...
In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, the guilt bestowed upon two passionate lovers committing adultery reveals the corrupt and over-radical beliefs of a strict Puritanical society. Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale face life-changing consequences after submitting to their emotions and committing sin. The narrator’s forgiving tone presents the society as being very strict in living by their social and religious codes. The administrative, or authoritarian, imagery conjured up by various scenarios with the scaffold, magistrates, and the mayor in hid castle supports the tense mood as Hester and Dimmesdale try to mysteriously elude the laws of their community. Hawthorne employs allegory to the names of many characters in the novel to suggest their vulnerable personalities as they, in many cases, become shaped by the Puritanical views. Most importantly, the abundance of symbolism, such as the scarlet letter “A” itself, hammers home the effects of the Puritanical moral values on the characters in the novel.
Uncannily intelligent and devilish at times, Pearl also has a peculiar connection with the scarlet letter. She often asks adults such as Hester questions that catch them off guard. She often acts like a little imp, causing trouble and acting in such ways that are looked down upon. Strangest of all, she has an obsessive connection with the scarlet letter “A”. Although Pearl as major of a character as Hester, it seems as though the whole novel revolves around her. After all, she is as close as one can get to a psychic seven year old.
The issue of desegregation has been a very controversial issue since it was first legally introduced by the Supreme Court in 1954 with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, KS. Favoring or not favoring desegregation has not been the issue; almost everyone says they are for it on the surface. The controversy arises when it comes to how to implement desegregation. Immediately following the Brown decision, which advocated school assignment regardless of race, many school districts adopted a geographic school assignment policy. This plan, especially in the 1950's, did very little to do away with segregated schools even though it was a race-neutral policy for integration. From that rocky beginning to desegregation, to the current battles over how best to implement desegregation through mandatory (or voluntary) busing of minorities and whites, this issue has been in the forefront of discussions about race and education. This paper will attempt to give a brief history of desegregation in the United States, followed by a discussion of the current events which surround this issue (with balance given to the viewpoints of both sides), and then offer advice on solutions which most benefit everyone involved.
At the beginning of the Scarlet Letter Hester Prynne is labeled as the “bad guy”. The townspeople demand the other adulterer’s name, but Hester denies this revelation. She does not reveal it because she knows that the information will crumble the foundation of the Puritan religion and the town itself. “‘But, Hester, the man lives who has wronged us both! Who is he?’ ‘Ask me not!’ replied Hester Prynne, looking firmly into his face. ‘That thou shalt never know!’(Hawthorne 52). Hester knows that finding out that the father of the child, the Minister that is leading the town, will diminish credibility for the church and for Dimmesdale, the Minister. During her punishment, Hester decides to move out near the woods and make a living as a seamstress. Hester is regarded as an outcast from Boston, but she still gives back to the society that shuns her. ‘“Do you see that woman with the embroidered badge?’ they would say to strangers. ‘It is our Hester, —the town's own Hester, —who is so kind to the poor, so helpful to the sick, so comfortable to the afflicted!’”(Hawthorne 111). Her acts of kindness, helping the sick and comforting the afflicted, toward the society that makes her an outcast shows the inner goodness of a person. Throu...
When segregation in schools was abolished in the 1950’s, the African American community surely did not anticipate any outcome that wasn’t positive. This is not to say that American schools should remain segregated, however, the sudden shift in the societal structure caused an imbalance in, what was intended to be, an equal opportunity classroom.
Many of the issues faced in the 20th century are also faced today. In June of 1897 Walter Page wrote, “The Forgotten Man” which addresses the difference of education between the North and the South and even more importantly the misleading separate but equal facade that black education was equal to white education. The fact was education was funded differently in 1900 by racial and gender lines. People were the undeveloped resource and a new education system had to be created in order to tap into this resource (Page,Rose, 140). The new education system that was praised is what we know today as the Public School System.
United States school systems have has a history of segregation. This segregation began with the passing of Jim Crow laws in the south in the late 1800’s. The influence of this practice was at first the slave culture of the southern states, and later was manifest as residential segregation and school choice programs. There were also many Supreme Court rulings which failed to overturn implement segregation which allowed for the practice to continue to flourish. Although we have seen social improvements in our society in the past 50 years we can still see that many citizens of the United States are still placed at a disadvantage due to their class and race. In this paper we will examine the history of segregation practices and
The Scarlet Letter is a fictional novel that begins with an introductory passage titled ‘The Custom-House’. This passage gives a historical background of the novel and conveys the narrator’s purpose for writing about the legend of Hester Prynne even though the narrator envisions his ancestors criticizing him and calling him a “degenerate” because his career was not “glorifying God”, which is very typical of the strict, moralistic Puritans. Also, although Hawthorne is a Romantic writer, he incorporates properties of Realism into his novel by not idealizing the characters and by representing them in a more authentic manner. He does this by using very formal dialogue common to the harsh Puritan society of the seventeenth century and reflecting their ideals through this dialogue. The Puritans held somewhat similar views as the Transcendentalists in that they believed in the unity of God and the world and saw signs and symbols in human events, such as when the citizens related the meteo...