Project Classroom Makeover Swot Analysis

1586 Words4 Pages

There are many ways in which people learn, some people learn more individually while others learn in more of a collaborative environment. While people learn in more personal ways the brain works in two main ways; top-down and bottom-up. In top-down learning scenarios, people know that there is something that they are working for to complete the mission at hand. In bottom-up learning scenarios, where there is some stimulus which helps people influence what they are looking at. Education systems across the United States still do not understand how people learn in different ways because for most schools in the United States still teach in standard ways. Cathy Davidson discusses this point in her essay, “Project Classroom Makeover,” of how school …show more content…

Davidson’s essay discusses another tool that education systems abuse is the use of hierarchies but is discussed with more depth in Susan Faludi’s essay “The Naked Citadel.” In Faludi’s essay, she discusses how schools with more concealed rituals over utilize hierarchies because of the false sense of power the people in power feel. The presence of hierarchies can be found throughout Steven Johnson’s essay, “The Myth of the Queen Ant.” In Johnson’s essay, he examines how different populations ranging from ants to cities and even different computer programs work with each other and how most of the time hierarchies are not the solution because people learn in different ways where order sometime doesn’t matter. It is impossible for bottom up processing to be brought into hierarchies because in hierarchies’ people who are at the bottom of the order do not have any say and cannot change the perception the group has. The only way that people at the bottom of the ladder can help push new ideas forward is by getting together as a group to change the ruling …show more content…

Hierarchies can be seen well throughout the past and have not worked as well as they have been believed they would work. These hierarchies are still seen the world today in Faludi’s essay she discusses how the hierarchies in the Citadel have been powerful and still have some power. There are many hierarchies that are seen throughout the Citadel, which are only present because of the sense of power that the members believe they have and the closed security of the Citadel itself. Per one former knob (freshmen), “the upper classmen, ‘would go out and get drunk and they would come home and haze, and you just hoped they didn’t come into your room’” (Faludi 85). While these upperclassmen would haze the “knobs” they had no real right to abuse them. In the Citadel, there are only a few ways that the people lower parts of the hierarchy. People on the bottom of the order at the Citadel can only gain a say in the system as they get older or it they stand up for themselves (however standing up for yourself can usually lead towards more hazing). While these hierarchies are seen in a limited place there are still slight hierarches seen throughout the education system, which is seen throughout Davidson’s essay. In Davison’s essay, we see that the main use of hierarchies in the education is set forth by standardization. Davidson even states, “The formal education most of us experienced- and which

Open Document