Saturday, September 3, 2011
JR: "Women are Heros" video to enjoy AND prompt for Why School? Reflection part 2
JR - EXTRAIT "WOMEN ARE HEROES", Kibera, Kenya by JR
Lynn and I (Julia) really want to make sure that we are all are making connections between Wed/Fri classes and the readings. So this week the prompt comes from Lynn who writes/asks:
In the final chapter- I am struck by Rose's simple, yet poignant statement, "How we think about the voice or purpose of school matters" (pg 168). There's the "we" in that, which puts the issue in our hands as individuals, students and teachers in the classroom, and communities as a whole. Looking then back through the other chapters, I invite students to relate the Wake Up! assignment to some of the following ideas that Rose writes about:
(Chpt 6) "hand work" vs "brain work" (pg 76), and how our schools often have thought about intelligence in a very narrow way. The common person should learn and think independently and decide thoughtfully, and he questions whether the education system is actually valuing and enabling this.
(Chpt 8) standards of education, which are often seen and enforced in a rigid way, verses an approach to teaching that Dewey asserts should be "the relationship between a subject and human development with teaching as a mediating force." (pg 115) Rose illustrates how literature can provide an imaginative entry to human experience.
The "Wake Up! assignment can be linked to both of these topics. Students can debate whether this initial experience of thinking visually and with their hands, exploring multiple possibilities as opposed to a right or wrong answer, as well as incorporating personal goals and hopes into an assignment, is important to human development.
In light of this, students can perhaps weigh in on whether it is important if individuals have access to educational opportunities that bring this kind of learning experience into the classroom; or as Rose questions, "the number of opportunities we provide young people for them to develop behaviors and values that have personal and social benefit" (pg.96).
If these seem too specific, there are other questions that Rose asserts "How should we think about intelligence in a democratic society?" (pg 85) --and of course there are many other points that he raises. As you reflect please use other quotes from the text and any specific examples from your Wake Up! project that illustrate your ideas about these issues.
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Robin Goldschmidt
ReplyDeleteSeptember 7, 2011
CLQ: Thinking for Change
Blog Response 2
I found it very interesting when the author, Mike Rose, made the statement about “hand work” vs. “brain work”. Mainly because when one does or takes part in “hand work” usually, “brain work” is involved. An example of this would be when we are creating the collages in our Friday class taught by Mrs. Sondag. In order to create the collages we need to use our brain to think about what we want our final product to look like, while using our hands to do so. Even though, one would think that the collage would mainly be hand work because it is considered art most of it would be considered brain work. This is because before the collage can be created there has to be a lot of thinking done about what types of images should be included and where the images would be placed in order to have the most profound effect. The placement of the images or words on the collage is mostly brain work as the placement is done where the pictures would have the greatest impact on the audience and where it best exemplifies the creator’s personality. Another part of the assignment is to create a center of focus and to use different forms to emphasize this point, which needs to be thought about and again, is a mental function.
Now in school it seems like most of the learning is done involving only brain work and less and less of actual hand work. I found it very interesting when Rose made the point of all the jobs that require hand work also require a large amount of brain work. The example he took about the carpenter trying to assemble the sliding French doors, as Rose stated, “ He was imagining the pieces as he will assemble them, thinking how the threshold will have to angle down, so the rain will run off it, and picturing the sliding panels moving…”(79). These workers require the brain work skills even when they are not attributed to them. Now, the distinction is usually made that, if you go to college and receive a degree, you are considered smart and able to do brain work. However, if you do not go to college and only graduate from high school you are seen as uneducated and only able to perform jobs require hand work. At this point I would say that the current education system is not valuing or enabling hand work, while it is valuing brain work very highly. The current education system does not see that there is a lot of brain work that is behind the hand work that is being done. Rose has another example of a foreman, “Who supervises the assembly line is the consummate multitasker, facing some new demand every minute or two: supplying tools and materials, demonstrating procedures, handling personnel frictions, and anticipating problems on the line” (78). In current standards this would only be considered a hand work type of job, while it is mostly brain work, but does not receive the credit of brain work. Now it is said that the good jobs to have are the ones focusing on brain work in one specific area, ie. economics. Hopefully people other than Mike Rose will see this and maybe there will be some changes to the current education system.
John Sansone
ReplyDeleteThinking For Change
Reflection #2
September 7, 2011
“Standards are criteria used to judge competence, and we rely on them every day” (97). Rose makes a valid point because standards are guidelines for us to follow in order to meet the “status quo” of society. However everyone seems to question the so-called status quo of our society because standards are subjective and can be viewed differently by every individual. Today we see how the standards of our education system are being challenged more than ever. This goes hand in hand with John Dewey’s point about the “relationship between a subject and human development with teaching as a meditative force” (115). The rigid way in which standards are required to be met today are punishing because in the meantime some students are being neglected. This brought about the movement for No Child Left Behind, which makes sure that no student is neglected simply because it takes him or her longer to grasp a subject than his or her classmates. The problem with high-pressure standards for students is that they are being judged on an objective level through multiple choice testing. Using this type judgment steers away from foster learning as well as back and forth analysis with classmates. The question becomes how well are teachings instructing students about these rigorous standards. Not good enough because we are almost force feeding students to memorize instead of absorbing material and subject matter that brings about self-interest, which intern makes it easier for students to grasp the concepts. Through force feeding information to our students it becomes a vomit affect, which means that they will only take so much of the material before they just forget it all after the exam. This is case because there is no self-interest instead teachers and just teaching and there is no interactive learning involved, which is fundamental for students. Are the higher members in our nation’s education system open to accept change for these standards? In my opinion we are too confined to tradition and we do not understand that some change can be a good especially in educating our younger generations. Students should be more involved in their classroom studies because by doing so when it comes to outside the classroom there is more inspiration and self-interest to continue learning on their own. Through literature students can trigger their own understanding, which is far more important than just been feed the information through their teacher. The bank model of teaching where the teacher is simply depositing information to their students without any real interactions taking place is one reason why some students get left behind in the classroom. I believe that through reading literature students like me can compose their own theories and assumptions about the material. This process initiates discussion, which is a vital step before actually absorbing a piece of information and to eventually turn it into knowledge. This is the case because by discussing our individual assumptions and assessments of a subject material we can compare and contrast with one another. Back and forth analysis with classmates and more importantly with a teacher gives students a better way to truly grasp a concept because they were involved in a discussion that was driven by their own self interest, which means emotion and feeling is involved. Literature can provide an imaginative entry to human experience because it has the power to inspire students in a way that a teacher is unable to do. Reading requires students to take a stand and determine for themselves whether their comprehension of the material falls in accordance with the standards education has placed upon them in the classroom.
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ReplyDeleteFaatuaiitaua Tunai
ReplyDeleteWhy School?
Reflection #2
I definitely agree that the initial experience of thinking visually (hands-on), exploring multiple possibilities, as well as incorporating personal goals/hopes into an assignment and in life in general is important to human experience. We as human beings are told we have 5 senses and we are different types of learners for example visual, auditory, read-write, and kinesthetic learners. But not only are we learning these 5 different ways, we also learn from our experiences, experimenting and from each other.
Unfortunately starting from a young age in school only a few of the learners types are addressed. In typical classrooms, teachers are to stand in front of white boards and lecture while students struggle to sit still and pay attention. What about the kinesthetic learners? What about the students itching to get their hands on interesting insects and bugs out in the playground? I think the school system disrupts human development by restricting the mind body and soul to think and act freely.
Like Rose, this makes me question the education system. How can we think independently and freely if we are forced to learn in a very systematic and routine way? Society including the school system has narrowed the idea of intelligence. Today most people view intelligence as going to college and getting a degree. I think this is absurd because intelligence comes in different shapes and forms. Just because a person goes to college does not mean they are intelligent. There are a number of people who have displayed their intelligence in areas such as performing arts, useful inventions, and in everyday life.
Rose nails it when he says "I want to think about the interaction of subject matter, teaching, and learning in a way that honors the standards impulse, but comes at in it different way, that methodically considers the broader questions of the purpose of teaching a particular subject ( in this case, literature), why and how we teach it, its connection to intellectual development and human experience, our beliefs about intelligence and about teaching, and what our goals might be, our expectations." (109) For instance when he had to read "Araby" in college he totally missed the point. There was no stimulation of intellectual development because it lacked human (his) experience and familiarity. I think in schools students are given numerous assignments/literature to read without an encouragement of free thinking, imaginative guidance, or a sense of engagement between the subject and subject matter. I also think the education system is so focused at setting "standards" and curriculum for students it lacks the involvement of ethical values. Society has turned us into self motivating individuals who have been taught to step over each other to be the best and be the first.
I was interested in doing the Wake up assignment because it had to do with me. It involved my mind, body, culture, identity as well as human development in general. I think in order to do hand work you need to do brain work and vice versa. While working on the Wake up assignment there was a cooperative team work between the two. The brain told the hand what to do and the hand did what the brain couldn‘t do. In a way they coincide and must agree with each other in order to work.
Jessica McKean
ReplyDeleteThinking for Change
September 7, 2011
Second response: Why School?
In the second half of Why School? Rose talks quite a bit about work. He says there is a “separation of ‘hard work’ and ‘brain work,’ as though work of the hand were mindless”(76). This jumped at me when I read it and made me think what the difference was. The truth is that there is no difference; they go hand in hand. A craftsman plans. He plans out his design and makes decisions on colors, materials, and the techniques he wants to use to get his desired effects. In the case of an artist, he has to consider where the piece is going, so materials, size, color, the client and more. Some artists have schooling and some don’t, but they all have to think about these things before they start. They use their brain and go through many thoughts before the piece is finished. Also, there are times when a piece has problems, like materials need to be changed, its going somewhere else, or pieces just don’t fit together as well as they were supposed to. Rose gives one example of this on page 92 with Christians bookcase, “Wood inevitably warps, and, as Christian explains it, he placed his finishing nails ‘too high on the strip,’ thus not correcting for a small irregularity in the oak strip.” So Christian decided that he would fill the gap with putty. Christian encountered a problem and found a way to fix it. Now, even though it was an easy fix that sounds like “brain work” to me.
I was also thinking about school systems and where their focus is on education. As many of us know, the first things to get cut from a curriculum are art, music, and PE. These are not only times in the day for a person to have fun and relax a bit from all the thinking school makes them do, but it is a time for different types of thinking. PE lets you get out energy and helps build your tactical skills while playing the sports. Music lets you work with your hand, thus getting coordination, and understand the sounds you hear, like the notes, pitches, and types. Art lets you plan and think broadly about how to interpret a project and if adventurous you may choose to push the limits of the requirements.
In Lynn’s class we are doing a project about what we wake up for. It’s a very broad topic and every student will have a very different portrait based on his or her likes and passions. It can also be challenging to put a like or passion into an image. As students we have to think about how to portray things, like if we get up for music, we could put a music not, an instrument, a CD cover, an artist we like. The image choices are endless; anything can mean anything as long as the creator understands what it represents, that’s all the matters. The realm of art is one of many choices, discoveries, and many meanings. Therefore the amount of “brain work” put into this project could be significant. Hopefully we will all just work as hard as Nancy, Carlos, Christian, and Peter (some of Rose’s student examples) to make our projects the best we can.
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ReplyDeleteVictoria Escalada
ReplyDeleteCLQ2142.1
Ms. Julia van der Ryn
7 September 2011
Why School? By Mike Rose Reflection #2:
Hand Work vs. Brain Work
Although I did not read directly from Why School? By Mike Rose about hard work versus brain work, I have been reading his blog posts about the relationship between the individual and his or her own learning. One thing that struck to me that he stated about an individual’s learning was that “The…fact is…[s]ome students of all economic backgrounds are not drawn to the kinds of activities that make up the traditional academic course of study, no matter how well executed.” Having different economic backgrounds in the past, I understand where Rose is coming from. Some people, even without consideration of their economic backgrounds, can work hard while learning but are very apt to protest and evidently not willing to do the brain work if it involves having to sit down in a classroom for an hour, listening to another teacher lecture students about a subject everyone has to learn.
I recently was able to talk to my friend, Darina, about the difference between brain work (thinking) vs. hand work (action) in the business world. Although the business world and education world may seem different; they both are interconnected with each other. In order to learn more about businesses, you must be self-aware, aware of other people surrounding you and have the ability to understand how people perceive information and retain knowledge. One statement that my friend told me that related to the Rose reading was if people were given the option to do service learning outside of the classroom, not only will they be gaining knowledge but also the opportunity to learn how to be self-aware, aware of the outside world and gain a new personal enrichment Rose also makes a great point stating that it is more stimulating to do hands-on work outside of the classroom opposed to sitting down in a classroom which to me is similar to service learning and gaining personal enrichment in business and outside of the classroom.
The Wake Up! assignment that the class has been working on recently will, in Rose’s words, “provide [to ourselves the opportunity]... to develop behaviors and values that have personal and social benefit" (Rose, 96). Although we have to do “brain work” (traditionally thinking about the knowledge we have attained and gaining a new type of knowledge), this project that is important will allow us to become more self-aware of ourselves and what affects us which will soon benefit us when we go the Marin Community School through our service learning.