I have recently finished reading Part 2 in School: The Story of American
Public Education. I have a few thoughts about this section. First of
all I find it interesting that not only was Education a tool for increasing
knowledge in children but it was also a tool to “Americanize” the future
generations of Americans. Secondly, not only was it a place to learn reading
and math but also learn social and hygiene skills.
I also found it interesting that there was “track” schooling where the students
were divided into classes that would relate to their future careers. The book
made a point of stating that by pushing students into certain paths it only
increased stereotypes and social prejudices instead of treating all students as
equal. On one hand I can see the benefits of using tracking because some people
do know what they want to do but I don’t think that it is for everybody.
When Sputnik was launched I found that the impact on education was quite
interesting. Suddenly schools had all this funding and schooling was quickly
focused on Math and Science. I think it’s interesting that a lot of what
happened when Sputnik was launched parallels a lot of education today. America
never seems happy that they are the richest country in the world because our
students aren’t as “smart” as other countries. **shrug** It seems kind of silly
to me that we are so focused on knowledge acquisition when our biggest asset is
CREATIVITY and INGENUITY.
Corissa,
ReplyDeleteI enjoy reading your articles. You always make me take a moment and reflect on what we have read. You pick up little bits of information that I sometimes miss. I do certainly agree with you that when they pushed children into certain educational paths, it was done in a very biased way. It lead to huge stereotyping of the students. I found myself almost getting angry at the way they were treated and at the IQ testing that was done. I don't really agree with the SAT testing that is still used today either, but that is another discussion.
I also felt like you on the whole Sputnik business. Why was that funding not available before that? It definitely reminded me of all that is going on in education today! Anyway, great post. I just wanted to let you know that I enjoy reading your posts.