Reflection #8

The three waves of educational reform are very important in Americas education system today. Together these three waves build up a successful school system that ensures results from the teachers and students. The first wave, is based more on economics. It began in 1982. It began after the report “a Nation at risk” which stated that Americas education system was falling behind. There were too many illiterate adults and unsatisfactory test scores from students. They wanted higher expectations from the students in the five basic topics; English, Math, Science, Social science, and Computer science. Many companies complained about uneducated employees and the hassle of having to teach employees basics. This wave was mainly about raising standards. The nation wanted to raise test scores and the effectiveness of teachers and students. They wanted the quality of education to increase. The second wave focused more on the quality of the education. This wave was led by Theodore Sizer, John Goodlad, and Ernest Boyer. They stressed that teachers focused more on the depth of the curriculum rather than trying to cover more topics at once. They wanted to make sure that students had a full understanding of the topics in the curriculum. These educators noticed the lack of interest coming from teachers and the low academic results coming from students. They wanted to make sure that teachers grasped a more professional and higher position in their job. They wanted teachers to feel powerful and enthusiastic about their job. The greater the enthusiasm, the greater the academic results from the students. They focused making sure teachers played a big role in the decisions being made. The third wave, which happens to be my favorite, focused on seeing schools as more than just “educational facilities”. This wave was all about making students and parents feel comfortable around the school system. It created “Full Service Schools” which is basically a program that provides social services, nutrition,transportation, health care and parent education. It makes sure that students and parents are on top of the priority list. It wants schools to be a place where children and parents can visit at other times other than the time classes are being held. It conducts extracurricular activities and clubs in order to keep students busy and out of trouble. It is responsible for the needs of students. It provides health care and counseling. This wave, in my opinion was the one that stood out the most for me. It seems like a very important wave. Growing up I was always at school and so were my parents. They had great communication with all my teachers and my mom attended all of the activities at the school. I participated in clubs and took advantage of all the things my school had to offer. I believe that having all of these great benefits were essential growing up. They helped me stay focused in my education and always kept me out of trouble. For example, in order to participate in clubs, you had to have certain grades. This was definitely a motivation booster to always keep my grades up throughout school. The third wave benefits many students and parents that are struggling and are not financially stable. I think that is very important seeing as many parents get caught up in their financial situations and sometimes loose focus on their child's education. 

Reflection #7

Just how we learn from our parents today, children in Ancient Egypt learned from their elders. Even though today we learn a great deal of our information and knowledge from school systems, we still acquire a great load from our parents. However, children in Ancient Egypt learned pretty much everything by the simple process of imitating what they grew up around. Parents made sure to engrave their thoughts, opinions, and beliefs about what was wrong and right in their children. Books of instruction were create to insure that children understood the moral code of conduct and the norms for an everyday life. The only education girls would mostly receive was what they would pick up at home from their parents. Boys would receive a more formal education and training. On the job training was also very important back then. There were many tasks that did not require any formal education in order to complete. Parents or group members trained others directly face to face how to complete several tasks. On the job training did not require anyone to know how to read or write. Most of these tasks were “hands on” kind of tasks, such as farming or making crafts. The code of Hammurabi covered Apprenticeship which was also a crucial approach to education. It was the learning of something from a skilled employer. In the Hammurabi book, an apprentice was considered an adopted son. The great pyramids and temples created back in the ancient days show signs of successful apprenticeship. Those creations took a lot of training and determination. An apprentice lived at the house of the the one that taught the skill. He received food and clothe but almost never did he receive money. He was educated in the skill he was trying to obtain and at the end of the journey he received a suit of clothe and money. They were also tested in order to make sure they had understood the skill completely. They were now considered “journeymen”. Children also attended Temple schools. In these schools they were taught Cuneiform. Children used a clap tablet as a textbook and followed the instructions their teachers gave them. After mastering cuneiform, children were given a textbook to copy. They also learned arithmetic. Sumerians used the number 10 as a divisible of everything. They also used the division of a circle to master a clock using hours, minutes and seconds. Children also learned about the standard measurements of weight. Cuneiform was the most important skill that had to be acquired by the students. It was used for everything just like we use writing for everything today. Overall, the education system in ancient civilizations of egypt were pretty similar to the one we have today. They learned through the imitation of parental figures, through “on the job” training and apprenticeship, and through temple schools which are very similar to the schools we have today. 

Reflection #6

Writing had definitely been the door opener to history and to the establishment of some of the worlds greatest ancient civilizations. Writing first began with the drawing of pictures about 40,000 years ago. It is believed that writing was invented in various places separately from one another, in Sumeria, in ancient Mexico, and possibly in North China. Pictures were soon drawn with the intention of sounding out syllables rather than just meaning. Writing first began to establish civilizations in Southwest Asia because of economic reasons. Humans marked tokens with pictures to label different farm products. The pictures became more complex with the growing of the cities and centers and now they labeled manufactured goods also. The first use of pictures for the use of making sounds was found in about 3100BC. For instance, the picture symbol for arrow was used to symbolize the word “life”. If you read both words, (til,ti) in the Sumerian language they both have similar sounds “t” sounds in the beginning. Pictures soon began to be used as sound symbols. Eventually when the shift of picture symbol to sound symbol was finished and it was possible to symbolize every sound of the Sumerian language, it was said that writing was born. In Egypt, they had pictographs to stand for the first sound of the word they were trying to communicate. This was called acrophony and it made a huge leap to the creation of the alphabet. Thanks to writing the people of the civilizations were able to communicate their needs in other ways other than speech. They were also able to create history and memory. Without writing it was assumed that everyone remembered things, and if they were forgotten there was no way to bring them back. Writing also expanded story telling and myths. Now there were stories written down and available to be passed down throughout generations. Writing helped farmers and hunters to count their livestock and property. It became necessary in the use of economic transfers. Overall writing had created most of the societies we have today. If we think about it, how hard would it be to communicate with one another is writing was never established? How would we read signs while driving or make any type of important contract or business? 

Reflection #5

What do I think of when I hear the words Initiation and rites of passage? I think of the step into belonging somewhere or growing into a bigger and better person, a leap into another stage of life. Initiation rites are common everywhere. Whether is be in cultures, societies, or even in school, they are a part of the human life. Even though in Sambia cultures their initiation rites are quite different to any of those we have in American societies today, they have one thing in common; they are the passage to maturation. In Sambia, boys are forced to go away to a mens house in the village for several years. In that house they learn the process of becoming men through different initiations and activities. They even engage in homosexual activity as a passage to become “men”, pretty ironic huh? The younger boys are forced to conduct Regular fellatio, where they must swallow the semen of an older boy. That house that these men enter is like a school system now a days. We attend it for several years of our lives for the purpose of gaining knowledge towards life and getting a basic understanding of what society accepts and expects of us. We enter school as a five year old with no knowledge of the world around us. About 12 years later we walk out of high school as a new and mature person. We come out with a different personality and mind set of society. We learn from the experiences we face throughout those years. Education is the key to that passage of childhood to adulthood. Our graduation ceremonies would be our initiations as the Matuumo ceremony is to the girls from Gikuyu. These girls have a huge ceremony with dancing and several initiation procedures to introduce them into womanhood. We have huge celebrations and festivities to celebrate our graduation. We are taught through these 12 years of school everything that is going to prepare us for that “real world” we hear so much about. After graduating high school we are portrayed as different people and others have a new expectation of us and what we can and cannot do. We learn what society decides is necessary to be valued. That is why education is so fundamental. To some families, a member not graduating high school is an extreme let down and disappointment. I have met parents that have kicked their children out for dropping out of high school. Some parents take it as offensive as having a gay or lesbian child. It is all based on culture and belief systems. Just like the circumcision is so crucial to the people of Gikuyu, graduation and education is a very important rite of passage to the american society.

Reflection #4

I would have to say honestly, that before reading any of these articles, evolution seemed like something absurd. The idea that us humans come from monkeys sounded like something out of a comic book or some kind of joke. After reading these articles they somewhat expanded my thoughts and made me a little bit more open minded to new ideas and theories of just how we came upon this planet. Even though the theory of evolution does in some senses go against my religious beliefs, it makes sense. There is a lot of scientific-al data and research to back up the idea that humans evolved from monkeys. Reading these articles such as “Lucy” and “African Eve” and looking through the large database of pictures, I found out many things. Lucy, the Australopithicus afarensis, was found in 1874. Even though Lucy was only about 3 feet and 8 inches tall, and she was classified as an “ape”, Lucy had human characteristics. Lucy walked upright just like us humans. Her bi-pedalism lead to what we would consider human beings and human intelligence. The first humans which were Homo Habillis were small in height and had longer arms than legs, more like an ape. Afterwards, there was the Homo Erectus, which had a much bigger brain than Homo Habillis. This species had long, straight legs and walked. Just by looking at the skull of this species, scientist estimated it had a brain of about 1000 cubic centimeters. Homo Erectus was also much taller than Homo Habillis. It is also known that this species knew how to talk. An example of the Homo Erectus is the “Turkana Boy” which is an almost complete skeleton of a young boy. The boy was only 11 or 12 and he was already 5’2. He also had a large brain like us humans today. Finally, we are introduced into the Homo Sapiens which first existed 600,000 years ago. This species was short, thick and strong. They’re skulls were thick and they actually had brains larger than those of humans today. Studies conducted in 1987, show that mitochondrial DNA from humans in places all over the world indicate that we all originated from a Homo Sapien ancestor in Africa. I find it pretty amazing how over the years the structure and mental capacities of these species have transformed. Evolution transformed this species from short monkeys to the humans we are today. Over the years, the species gained skills such as talking, walking upright, and having larger brains. Even though I still do not fully agree 100% with the idea of evolution, I think it is quite interesting.

Reflection #3

I guess I can say growing up in a mostly populated African American neighborhood made me pretty open minded and comfortable with my surroundings, seeing as I am Hispanic. I never really had a problem getting along with children of other races. Even though I was a minority at my school, my Elementary definitely made the efforts to share a multicultural curriculum with the students. All of the African American, White, and Hispanic children got along, for the most part. I believe that had a lot to do with not only the wonderful, diverse teachers that we had, but also with the great curriculum. I remember Hispanic Heritage week. That week we would all dress up in our native outfits. I remember wearing a long white dress with a red flower in my hair , and my lips painted in red. I looked adorable. The funniest thing was seeing everyone else who wasn’t hispanic dressed up. They looked so proud and excited to experience thas day even though they were from other cultures. We also brought in one of our favorite foods from our countries and had a huge class party where everyone got to try each others food. My Elementary school definitely implemented the Contributions and Additive approach to their curriculum. I recall doing projects during African American month. I did a project on Rosa Parks and one on Harriet Tumbman. I still remember a whole lot of information from those projects actually. In third grade we also had a week where we studied Italy. We read several stories from their culture, some fiction and some non-fiction, and then at the end of the week the teacher brought in one of their typical breads, Panettone, for the class to try. Learning about all of these famous heroes and cultural holidays in Elementary was part of the Contributions Approach. Our African American and Hispanic Heritage months were part of the Additive Approach. Even though my school did a great effort to make their curriculum multicultural, they did not reach the Transformation or Social Action approaches. It would have been nice to go a little bit further into culture throughout my school years. Maybe while learning about Columbus and his discovery of America , we could have learned a little bit more about the indigenous peoples perspective. My elementary and secondary education never really emphasized the students to make decisions to try to change anything either. They never used the social action approach to enforce students to try and make a difference in the understanding of multicultural groups. I would have liked to experience the social action approach throughout my school years. This approach is one that I will definitely implement in my curriculum as a future teacher.

Reflection #2

In this section, it discusses paradigms and the way society views life based on their ideal model and the way they are brought up. It states that religion and cultural values shape very much what our paradigms are. Our paradigms decide our attitudes and the way we act and respond to the situations we are faced with in our daily lives. Soon, it moves on to talk about Paradigm Shifts. It discusses the early mankind Homo Habilis and Homo Erectus. In the early stages, Homo Habilis were very uneducated and ignorant animals. They barely had tools and knew nothing of hunting and defending themselves. They had no way of standing up and defending against prey. They ate from the soil and the earth. Later on, the text begins to discuss the Homo Erectus and all of their new discoveries. They begin to create new weapons and discover hunting. They learned the art of killing prey and turning in into food. They stepped up in the creation of tools and now made different tools for different purposes based on survival. All of this lead up to the paradigm of gender roles and parenting. Mothers now had to spend more time with their children and therefore less time in the hunting. Males went out hunting while the female stayed and cooked. According to the author of this text, all of these inventions lead up to major changes in the Homo Erectus species. Small changes such as the creation of better tools and hunting lead up to emotions and feelings coming from these animals. Before, the sexual acts from these species were involuntary and unchosen. Now, these species began to experience pleasure, thought and the ability of choice. They decided whom they wanted to have sexual intercourse with. All of this happening based on the expansions of their brains and intelligence. This species also now began to feel jealousy and feelings of love and lust. The Homo Erectus were also introduced to fire. Something as small as the invention of fire also lead to a new paradigm and way of viewing the world. Fires created more social activities for these animals, seeing as now they could spend more time at night thanks to the vivid lighting. They began to learn communication through the enunciation of different sounds and noises. These fires definitely increased their communication skills and their family bonding time. I believe this time during the early Homo Erectus has really had an impact on mankind. It is incredible how small inventions such as tools, fire, and hunting have impacted society today. These inventions expanded our intellectual capacities. They helped mankind stand up for themselves and survive during harsh conditions. Thanks to these inventions we now eat red meat and have protein in our systems. It has changed all of societies paradigms of how we view the world and live our everyday lives. Communication being one of our most important features was expanded through something so simple as the start of a fire. Imagining life without these changes would be somewhat crazy.