This is a very philosophical statement about the Western myth of the individual and the striving for an independence and autonomy which is an important metaphor but not the nature of reality. What I mean is that, yes, as human beings in a modern (democratic) world we have the wonderful "opportunity" (14) to develop in our own unique ways and create our own paths. At the same time, we are always embedded in a larger shared reality/world and we can never be truly, literally autonomous or independent. We are always interconnected with others. Although we have been conditioned to see dependence as a negative state, we are interdependent and that is also a source of joy and happiness in our lives. We thrive through our relationships and we exist and are seen as unique individuals because we are in the world with others. When we attain the material symbols of success ($ and the things [consumption that make our economy tick!]) we are often still left with a void that we try to fill with the next bigger, better thing.
Rose touches on more by-products of the myth of individualism in the intro when he writes, "There is a lot of confusion in our society about the role of individual effort in achievement." He acknowledges that although "a person's motivation. . . are hugely important" we tend to create confusion "when we generalize from this fact to an overall model of human development and achievement. This is the individualistic, self-reliant, pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps way of viewing the world. According to this model, it is you alone. . . who are responsible for your success" (9-10).
As a student of mine commented last semester, what happens if you never had boots much less bootstraps to pull oneself up by? To mix my metaphors: When the playing field is so not flat that huge segments of our population are tilted right off it, how can we expect that everyone is still able to play the game?
Rose goes on to write that no one actually develops on their own, in a bubble, so to speak. We are all shaped by certain conditions that are well beyond our individual control.
I think that it is very important to start this class by acknowledging our collective responsibility to each other.
A huge catalyst for me to deepen my work with (so-called) "at-risk" youth arose out of a project that I did to gather local youth perception regarding access to higher education and other educational opportunities. What I saw was that the most marginalized youth, many of those at Marin County Community School, said, "it's up to me if I succeed or not." It struck me that they were willing to accept all the responsibility for failure but unable to acknowledge the ways in which society, their community may have failed to help them succeed or the institutions and organizations that exist to help them succeed. I realized that these youth do not feel that they belong to a larger community that is also responsible to them. This realization was a turning point for me and my commitment to the issues faced by disenfranchised youth, the organizations/schools that serve them.
So creating an expanded and more inclusive community with others is one thing that really matters to me. I wonder what this reading sparks in you about what matters to you and how your education either helps or hinders that?
Find places in the reading that speak to these questions. Make connections between the text and your experience. Ideally you can also connect to the ideas and images you are gathering for your Waking Up self-portrait. Why do you get up in the morning? What matters? How has education been a powerful awakening for you or if it hasn't why not? Support or illustrate with quotes from the book.
And/or you could take this quote and unpack it by linking to other points in the reading and in your own experience:
"Education gave me the competence and confidence to independently seek out information and make decisions, to advocate for myself and my parents and those I taught, to probe political issues, to resist simple answers to mess social problems, to assume that I could figure things out and act on what I learned. In this sense, this was the best training I could have gotten for vocation and citizenship" (38).What does he mean by this and why do these things matter? How is he making the link between education and citizenship? Use other points in the text to explore this statement and link to your own experience.
Brittany Philpot
ReplyDelete30 August 2001
Why School?
While reading, “Why School?” by Mike Rose, he describes the education system and how the society and government effects how we teach students. Questioning our methods we already have in place is a beneficial thing because we can improve the system we already have. He states, “It matters a great deal how we collectively talk about education, for that discussion both reflects and, in turn, effects policy decisions about what gets taught and tested, about funding, about what we expect schooling to contribute to our lives” (5). Nowadays schools focus on the best test score or comparing other students to one another. Not every person is the same and should not be tested as such. Learning does not mean acing all your tests, it is about applying what you know to the world and, that cannot be measured by a test score. In order to improve learning one must improve how we teach. By incorporating real life into the classroom we can give a hand on reality to how education is used and why it is important. This could help make school more exciting to students.
For me, education has been important to me because I know it is vital for my success in the future. The more education I have will allow me to be a well rounded person in a democratic society. Accomplishing the task of furthering my education is my biggest goal and doing so will allow me to feel like I can accomplish anything.
Faatuaiitaua Tunai
ReplyDeleteWhy School?
"Education gave me the competence and confidence to independently seek out information and make decisions, to advocate for myself and my parents and those I taught, to probe political issues, to resist simple answers to mess social problems, to assume that I could figure things out and act on what I learned. In this sense, this was the best training I could have gotten for vocation and citizenship" (38).
My interpretation of this quote is that Rose is trying to say that education gave him the courage to be curious and explore on his own. He is also stating that he learned to make his own decisions based on his explorations and his knowledge instead of going along with what he has been taught. “These tools of inquiry debated and developed over time, carry with them principles of implementation, an ethics of practice, a right and wrong way to do things. They provided me with the means to probe the world and to push back on others’ interpretation of it.”(36) Throughout the years Rose has empowered himself and has established his own beliefs and values rather than abiding by the rules that he has been told.
When he says, “to advocate for myself and my parents and those I taught”, my understanding of it is that he is a representative of his family and the people he has taught. He wants others to be influenced by his actions and beliefs. Rose wants people to question the system and to not settle for anything less. To this he makes a link between education and citizenship. “We also get a glimpse as to why else he’s here. To be able to better guide his daughter. To be more proficient in reading about the events swirling around him-to add reading along with radio and television to his means of examining the world. To create a new life for himself, nurture this emerging sense of who he can become.” (4) As citizens and as people we have the responsibility of not only educating ourselves for our own benefit but also for the benefit of others including our families and every human being we come in contact with. It is through each other where we can learn by spreading knowledge to one another.
I can definitely relate to this quote because one of the many reasons why I wake up in the morning and go to school is for my family, friends, church and community. I know there are many individuals rooting for me to finish school and get a degree. Their expectations can be overwhelming but at the same time they are my inspiration to keep going. They are the reason why I am who I am today. I see myself as a representative of my family and community, so that I can set positive footsteps for my little cousins and also for the little girls and boys in my neighborhood. As cliché as it sounds, I want them to be inspired by my successes and to see that they can also have a chance for greater opportunities
Robin Goldschmidt
ReplyDelete8/31/11
CLQ: Thinking for Change
Why School? is an interesting book that really made me reflect on the education I have received and how it fit with the aspects stated in the book. The author, Mike Rose, has stated several points throughout the first four chapters about education and great affect it can have on individuals. While reading chapter three, many aspects of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 really resonated with me, as it stated, “One of the contemporary forces shaping the way we think and talk about school has been the proliferation of high-stakes, standardized testing…”(43). The idea of having standardized testing is basically to make everyone uniform and punish the individuals for thinking in a different light. This can be seen as everything depends on what grades you receive on the test and nothing else. A person’s entire future is depended on how well they score on the tests, as they are needed to graduate from high school, then in order to enter a university, once again to graduate from college and finally to get a job in the workforce. However, I’m not saying that standardized testings are all bad as they can play a very important role. When a person graduates from high school or even goes to school they need to learn the basics in order to do well in society. A key component that needs to be tested and understood is basic language arts, reading, writing, and math, so in that accord the No Child Left Behind Act is very important. Throughout my schooling I have never felt the full force of the standardized testing except for the STAR test, ACT and SAT tests. All throughout elementary school the big talk was about the STAR test. I remember that the teachers always told us to try our hardest, but at the end of the day it did not count. With that being said, we just kind of took the tests and enjoyed the time off from normal school, but when they received the results they placed us in classes according to those results, which did not make much sense. A negative aspect of taking the tests so early in school is that it conforms all the individuals to thinking in the same way instead of fostering creativity and the difference in every student. We were already being judged and placed into programs according to the test and not how the teachers saw us perform on a daily basis. However, education is vital; as it has helped me reach the level I am at now and will help me advance in the future. All throughout my schooling, I’ve been taught that education is the most important aspect in your life as it will help you achieve what you want to achieve. I hear the importance of education now more than ever, “For a long time now, our public talk about education has been shaped by a concern about economic readiness and competitiveness” (25). Many of my teachers tell me to prepare and to try and become as knowledgeable as possible as we try and enter the job world to be able to deal with the competitiveness of the current situation. Teachers also link the college education and other preparations to long term economic stability and success. We’ll see where the educational road will lead us.
John Sansone
ReplyDeleteThinking For Change
August 31, 2011
Why School?
While reading Why School written by Mike Rose, it made me truly examine my educational career and how it has led me to where I am today. I am sophomore who is majoring in international business at Dominican University of California. Every student thinks differently, therefore each of us has had both good and bad experiences in our educational journey. I believe that by going to school one is giving a better opportunity to decide what they want to do with their life. By getting an education one is only giving them a better chance to succeed in the real world as an independent individual. “A good education helps make sense of the world and find our way in it” (31). Of course there are certain situations where school is unfortunately the last thing on our minds due to severe circumstances for survival. Keeping this in mind children in third world countries still are driven to find out their purpose in this world and their way in it. This feeling is instinct and comes natural to anyone that believes in thinking for change. In my own personal experience I believe that the humanities and social sciences can be neglected and forgotten. I’ve realized that these two areas of study can serve as one of the most valuable tools a student can learn while in school because they teach teenagers how to be women and men for others. This phrase simply means that just because we are get an education does not mean that we are any better than those who have not. Instead, it means it is our duty to go out and teach others what we have learned in hopes that they will do the same in the future. “Reading and writing gave me skills to create with and act on the world” (36). I am a complete believer of this claim because education allows people to create a brighter picture for those who are less fortunate than us. However, even though school is the primary place to learn and gain an education there are still other options. We can learn from our parents, personal experiences, strangers, symbols, and through inspiration from people that we look up to. Keeping all of this in mind one is left with the same question “Why School?” I believe that there are certain steps that almost guarantee a better life for us and one of those things is school. Going to school teaches us fundamental practices that can last us a lifetime such as the humanities and social sciences. An education alone can change not only our life but also someone else’s because teaching and learning are two actions that have an instrumental impact in daily life. Going to school taught me how to deal with adversity and become a problem solver for those around me as well as myself. School teaches our youth responsibility, honesty, hard work, morality, and how to see the world and find our way in it.
Manuel M.
ReplyDeleteThinking For Change
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Why School?
The importance of education and its link to citizenship is a substantial theme in Mike Rose's Why School? this is evident when he declares , "Education gave me the competence and confidence to independently seek out information and make decisions, to advocate for myself and my parents and those I taught, to probe political issues, to resist simple answers to mess social problems, to assume that I could figure things out and act on what I learned. In this sense, this was the best training I could have gotten for vocation and citizenship." This illustrates a dramatic belief that identifies personal action in developing habits for political duties in order to facilitate the success of his community via education. Additionally, Rose embodies a twenty-first century initiative about civic virtue, which has been an essential apprehension of political philosophy for an immense period of time predating the classical culture of western civilization. "There is a lot of confusion in our society about the role of individual effort in achievement," in exclaiming this thought, Rose supplies the reader with more justification of his idea of civic virtue. The aforementioned statement elucidates that society, as a whole, lacks the perspicaciousness on how to work together to thrive towards what he explains for the community as, "achievement;" as a result, he romanticizes that his contemporaries are morally obligated to perceive the lack of civic virtue and become more engaged. Although Rose makes a suitable argument, his belief has its blemishes. For exemplification, if society were to conform to his idealistic views of serving the state as a whole defined by law and allow personal issues to fall by the wayside, there would undoubtedly be a loss of liberties, and one may argue that it would be the foundation of making strides away from the United States' current political tradition. People need more than to fall in line for one way of being civically active with the community, and for that matter society needs more than individual effort or collaborating in political duties. There should be freedom and choice when it comes to exercising a person's own citizenship. Nonetheless, his articulation of civic virtue through education is appealing.
Christian Cruz
ReplyDeleteThinking For Change
8/31/11
In the book, Mike Rose talks about knowledge saying, “Acquiring knowledge brings about its own pleasures.” (37) I find that this quote is true because knowing more just makes a person feel better, for the feeling of accomplishment and more understanding of what this life has to offer to us. We feel more confident about that subject and would want to learn more. We should keep on learning and strive for more knowledge in order to find out what exactly we are interested in. Not everybody is going to like everything that they learn; we keep on learning to find those subjects that we are interested in. A general sense of accomplishment happens when we learn something new. Mike Rose also stated that, “Knowledge of something, heightens your appreciation of it.” (37) I find this quote to be really relatable because we do appreciate something more if we do have knowledge of it. That is why as we grow older we gain more knowledge and appreciate more things because we have gained knowledge of that. As a child I never really liked vegetables as is common amongst many children, but when I got older I began to appreciate the benefits that vegetables has to offer. Knowing information about those vegetables made me appreciate them and made me eat them more. It is only through the knowledge and understanding that I finally began to appreciate.
Many people say that one does not to begin to appreciate something until that thing is lost, but that is the problem because we are constantly gaining knowledge and we do not appreciate that. Another statement Mike Rose says is that “Tests embody definitions of knowledge, learning, and teaching.” (46) This statement should not be the case. A person’s of understanding of the subject should embody the definition of knowledge, learning, and teaching. Getting an answer correct on a test does not really say if a person understands that material or not.
Jessica McKean
ReplyDeleteThinking for Change
Professor Julia
August 30, 2011
Why School?
In the preface, Rose writes, “We rush to embrace the new–--in work, in goods, in the language we use to describe our problems---yet we long for tradition, for craft, for the touch of earth, wood, another hand” (x). I believe this statement to be so true about our society that it hurts my heart. We see it everyday, usually in technology, and we try to make things easier by creating instruments that do things for us. We are making things that may be useful but are not necessary, while we are also killing the ideas of hard work, craftsmanship, and tradition. People may always be curious if they can make things easier, but why, sometimes we need hard work to show us that we need to appreciate the things we do have. There are so many people that do not have all the toys and trinkets we do and they get along just fine; they are thankful for what they have and sometimes they are even happy than we are. They may not have an extravagant life but they have people they love and that love and support them; which is even better and in some cases considered successful in life.
One of my experiences, or portion of my education, was when I went to Africa. I went with a church group to visit several churches, orphanages and a hospital. It was a very emotional trip as well as eye opening to something I have never seen before. The one that had the most impact was when were at the hospital. After spending the day praying for families in the hospital we came together to discuss out experiences for the day. While talking a man with many purses came over to our group to see if we want to buy some. He explained his need for money, which was that he had cancer, and asked us to pray for him. We had him kneel in the middle as our group surrounded him and laid a hand on him; then we prayed for him to get better and for his cancer to leave his body and have a longer life. When he left our group was very emotional, we talked about the experience for a while then went to our rooms to process the most recent event. Most of us left in tears and my friend and I were in silence crying for a good while. This experience touched all of our hearts and we all remember it even two years after. Africa as whole was a learning experience; I knew that the world was in poverty but seeing it first hand brought it to reality and made me appreciate what I had and want to help more. I hope that in the future I can assist more people around the world.