Being asked how to define education is essentially a trick question. Education does not have one set definition. It is a blend of theories, thoughts and concepts that have radically changed over time. We can look at different parts of education in attempt to define education, but in reality this will never come to be. The history of education can be looked at socially, economically and politically to gain different perspectives on what education is. Historical and contemporary criticisms can be studied as different viewpoints on what flaws the public education system holds. We can talk about what school in reality is actually teaching our children. Finally we can discuss the future of educations history in hopes to allow neoliberalism and globalization to minimalize our wide range of information that needs to be taken into consideration in the attempt of making a definition of what education truly is.
History plays an interesting role in the nature of education, for time has certainly been a controlling in the changes of our education system socially, economically and politically. It all begins in the 1800’s. The 1800’s introduced the first set of three R’s, reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic where the teacher knows best and politically a better adult with a better job meant a productive society (Betts, 2011a). By the 1960’s education had changed. The three R’s were transformed into rules, regulations and rituals, which were discovered in the hidden curriculum and meant that children were gaining more then just education in school (Betts, 2011a). By 1980 and in today’s education, we see a whole new system with transformation beyond belief. The school resembles a miniature workplace that is much more powerful then it has ever been...
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...tory of education through yet another lens.
Works Cited
Betts, A. (2011a). EDUC 1F95 Lecture 3, September 30, 2011. St. Catharines, ON: Brock
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Betts, A. (2011b). EDUC 1F95 Lecture 5, October 6, 2011. St. Catharines, ON: Brock
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McNamara, J. (2011). CHYS 1F90 [Lecture Notes]. St. Catharines, ON: Brock University,
Department of Child and Youth Studies.
Neil, A. S. (1960). The Idea of Summerhill: A radical approach to child rearing. New York: Hart
Publishing Company, pp. 3-12. Total expected pages: 10. Total book pages: 392.
Waldorf School Association of Ontario. (2011). Waldorf Education. Introducing a truly holistic education. Retrieved from http://www.waldorf.ca/
Labaree discusses how the United State’s education is in a school syndrome, as people in America want schools to teach society’s ideals as well as let people express their individuality. These two demands are polar opposites that cannot be achieved. As the focus goes towards balancing these in hopes of improving society as a whole, the bettering of actual student learning is put on pause. Labaree talks about the beginning of education reform, in the 19th century, being the most successful in developing society; however, as education reform continued throughout time, its effectiveness wore off. He then addresses how the desire for education reform is more about improving society than it is about learning. He finishes his argument by providing possible solutions to fixing this problem, but states that fixing this problem will never happen because no one is willing to give up both demands. Overall, Labaree goes in wonderful detail explaining the problems of education reform. What made me choose this article was that he addressed the desire that people have on school systems in promoting both society normality and individuality. This correlates well with my topic in whether public school systems promote conformist ideals or individuality.
In the article “Against School”, John Taylor Gatto urges Americans to see the school system as it really is: testing facilities for young minds, with teachers who are pounding into student 's brains what society wants. Gatto first explains that he taught for 30 years at the best and worst schools in Manhattan. He claims to have firsthand experience of the boredom that students and teachers struggle with. Gatto believes that schooling is not necessary, and there are many successful people that were self-educated. He then explains the history and importance of mandatory schooling.
John Taylor Gatto, who was a teacher at the public school for twenty-six years, and the writer of the essay “Against School” that first appeared in Harper’s magazine in 2001, censures and blames the American public school’s educational system in his argumentative essay with various convincible supporting ideas. Gatto argues that the demands of public education system’s schooling are essential problems in “Against School”. Gatto shows some positive examples of the educating without forced schooling and shows models of the ‘success without forced modern schooling’. Indeed, the writer insists that historically forced schooling is not related to intellectual and financial success in American history. James Bryant Conant, who was the twenty-third
It’s no surprise that there are faults within our schools in today’s society. As both authors’ point out if our educational system is
The essay will commence by focusing on the1944 Education Act, as it was "the most important piece of educational legislation since 1902" (Gosden, 1983:3). There was a great need for this Act, because the Second World War caused considerable disruption to the educational system. As Dunford and Sharp point out, "evacuation, staff shortages and suspension of building programmes all created their own problems. War also brought important changes in social attitudes, and [...] there was a determination for a better future" (Dunford and Sharp, 1990:17). Therefore there was a need to remodel the current education system "in order to ensure that every child would go to a secondary school" (Gosden, 1983:1). Planning for reconstruction of education culminated in the Education Act of 1944, which is also known as the Butler Act.
A key part in the history of America’s schools involves clashes over culture and religion, as well as racial and ethnic conflicts. The struggle for power between different aspects in our educational history has shaped the way we learn today.
Education both influences and reflects the values and aspirations of a society. It is therefore important to recognise a set of common aims, values and purposes that underpin a school curriculum and the work of schools in a range of countries (DfE, 2008). This comparative study will explore the curricula of England and Finland - discussing the history, structure and contents; and consider which of the above are more useful in preparing young adults for life in the modern society. With reference to the modern society, it is important to understand that what makes a society modern is entirely a subjective ideology. This takes into consideration that the views and expectations of one modern society may differ from the views and expectations of another.
This rhetorical analysis is on a speech given by Sir Ken Robinson called “Changing Educational Paradigms.” Robinson is a former educator, who shifted his focus towards education reform, and has given many speeches on the subject. In this speech, Robinson shares with us his views and concerns on the current condition of our Western system of education.
The assumptions that everyone can learn, and that schools have the potential to transform a country with a tradition of hatred and an unequal distribution of wealth, extend from the vision of education as a democratic practice where there is "a struggle for both change and the freedom to change" (Irwin, p. 51, 1991). The change is about transforming an exclusive, often oppressive and disempowering system into a more inclusive, equal, and equitable one that is accessible to children from ...
John Taylor Gatto, in his essay “Against School: How Public Education Cripples our Kids, and why”, argues that the contemporary purpose of education in public schools is to produce “harmless electorate,” “a servile labor force,” and “mindless consumers” (28). According to Gatto, he is blaming public schools by explain that the purpose of education is to shape students to certain expectations and habits without their interests. He argues that students “want to be doing something real” (Gatto 23). Also, He explains that they produce a manageable working class and “mindless consumers” (27-28). His point is that students want to learn something new that help them in their life better than actual books from school which don’t apply their interests and their experience (23). So he recommends home-schooling as option to schools (24). Gatto claims that contemporary schools “adopted one of the very worst aspect...
This book, Dare The School Build a New Social Order by George Counts, is an examination of teachers, the Progressive Education Movement, democracy and his idea on how to reform the American economy. The book is divided into 5 different sections. The first section is all about the Progressive Education Movement. Through this, George Counts points out many downsides and weaknesses of this ideal. He also talks about how he wants teachers to lead society instead of following it. In the second section, he examines 10 widespread fallacies. These fallacies were that man is born free, that children are born free, they live in a separate world of their own, education remains unchanged, education should have no bias, the object of education is to produce professors, school is an all-powerful educational agency, ignorance rather than knowledge is the way of wisdom, and education is made to prepare an individual for social change.
middle of paper ... ... When we see these statistics all around our societies, in such masses, it makes using common sense assumptions or subjective claims to give valid reasons or explanations for such large scale differences in society’s educational achievement impossible. If we instead use (Mills 1959) sociological imagination, we can construct a far better argument for explanation built on research and reliable findings to answer questions not only about our education system but ourselves in our society from our past, present and possibly to begin to predict or understand our future structure and place in society.
Gamoran, Adam. "American Schooling and Educational Inequality: A Forecast for the 21st Century." American Sociological Assocation. JSTOR, 2001. Web. 11 Dec. 2013.
Doing the weekly readings and watching the videos, my mind exploded with possibilities for change - not unlike Raphael’s “brain popp[ing] open” (Senge, 2012, p. 64). Senge brings to our attention that schools were organised due to the necessity of the industrial age. However he also states that it’s time to move on from this out-dated mode, as i...