My_Ideal_School

My Ideal School I. Mission and Philosophy My ideal school would adhere to the progressive educational philosophy and focus on the child in order to create the subject matter. Progressivism is based on the notion that humans are social animals who excel at learning when it involves performing real-life activities and cooperating with others. Philosopher John Dewey, a spokesman for progressive education, felt that students learn best by evaluating problems in a scientific method approach: awareness of the problem, defining the problem, proposing a hypothesis to solve it, evaluating the consequences of the hypothesis using past experience, and testing the most probable solution. This scientific model will be used throughout our entire curriculum. Our main values would focus on the progressivism principles of emphasis on learning by doing, importance of problem solving and critical thinking, use of group work to develop social skills, creating learning goals of understanding and action as opposed to memorization learning, and that “learners should be active and learn to solve problems by reflecting on their experience.”[1] Our mission statement would state that we exist to address the unique academic, physical, social, and emotional needs of students. Our teachers are committed to creating and maintaining an orderly, trusting, and caring environment where teaching and learning are exciting and students are guided as they learn to ascertain responsibility. All aspects of the school's organization and curricular activities are developed by “basing instruction on the interests of the child”[2] and are designed to accommodate individual learning styles so that all will experience success. We want to improve the education of children and teachers by applying all available knowledge about learning and growth to the educational process and connecting teaching and learning meaningfully to the outside world. In so doing, we seek to strengthen individuals, their family, school, and the larger society in which a great diversity of adults and children cooperate and learn. We see education as the opportunity to build a better society. In order to achieve our stated goals, our teachers have the effective leadership and organizational skills to develop curriculum plans centered around our mission. Our teachers appropriately engage students in meaningful discussions because they understand that “the purpose of the dialogue is to help both the teacher and the student understand the political, economic, and social forces that have shaped their lives.”[3] Our teachers understand the importance of cooperation in all aspects of society and encourage students to solve problems with their classmates. We have eliminated individual desks from the classrooms and have replaced them with tables that provide ample space for group seating. In order to solve the economic and social problems students will face later in life, “the spirit of cooperation [needs] to be developed through group work in the classroom.”[4] Our teachers have an open mind to the viewpoint of all children and encourage everyone to voice their opinions and not be afraid to make mistakes as mistakes are crucial to the learning process. Students are encouraged to share with their teachers suggestions for making the curriculum understandable for diverse groups to ensure equality of opportunity for all students. And most importantly, our teachers know the importance of education and attempt to create an exciting environment where “schooling becomes the central institution through which the young may find reasons for continuing to educate themselves.”[5] II. Educational Issues An important educational issue of public coeducational schools like ours is that “structure in schools and pedagogical ideas of the now are not good enough to give our boys the tools necessary to succeed in school.”[6] The people who argue that there is a crisis in the education of boys believe that boys’ and girls’ brains are wired differently and boys need an alternative style of teaching than the traditional way in order to learn as well as girls. The national gap between the reading and writing abilities of boys and girls is approximated at one and a half years of school. Opponents say that there are biological differences but it’s not enough to warrant a crisis and that boys have actually been steadily improving their testing scores over the last few years. At our school, we do have mixed-gendered classrooms but we strive to provide a variety of learning styles so that every child, male or female, will benefit. We provide ample physical learning space since boys tend to be less organized and we make lessons experiential and kinesthetic, as “such as classroom would allow for more movement and noise than a traditional classroom would.”[7] Both boys and girls benefit from hands-on learning which is why we offer lessons through written and verbal exercises, computer tutorials, activities that involve using spatial and mechanical skills, and group work. We are constantly asking for feedback from students, teachers, and parents on the effectiveness of the classroom lessons and modifying any plans as seen necessary. The zero tolerance policy for school violence is another controversial topic which our school will address. “More and more students do not seem to recognize the legitimacy of the rules governing the school’s operation and therefore violate them frequently.”[8] Critics of the policy say that it’s inflexible and can potentially charge minor incidents as large crimes; however, at our school we feel that a broken rule is the basis for penalty. We strive to maintain a trusting and caring atmosphere where every student should feel safe and comfortable and the zero tolerance policy is required to create the appropriate environment. The policy gives teachers rigid rules of enforcement to eliminate biases and create equal treatment for everyone. We do not want our students to become victims of violence and we do our best to foster healthy relationships and promote the importance of cooperative behavior. We understand that our curriculum, however terrific it is, is meaningless without meeting the basic condition that “you have to have schools that are safe and classrooms where there is sufficient order.”[9] We do not want to punish children, but for the sake of all other students they need to be removed from the school until ready to act in a decent manner in society with the other students. With a school located in California, we have a growing number of immigrant students year after year, most of which do not speak any English. This area of education highlights the concern of having bilingual education programs, which our school has currently decided to adopt. We have chosen to implement a full English-immersion program to “honor the unique cultural perspectives and lenses of non-English speaking students.”[10] We have adopted a structured immersion program which carefully plans classes to focus on building their vocabulary. We also use direct and methodical instruction to help students learn English faster and be able to join the regular classes in the least amount of time possible. It has been shown that “immersing immigrants in an English-language school program has been effective – usually by the third generation.”[11] Bilingual education critics argue that children can lose a sense of individuality by becoming assimilated into public society because it further exacerbates America’s melting pot when we should be reminding students of their heritage differences from others in a mass society. But as Richard Rodriguez describes, there are two kinds of individuality: public and private. Separateness is only required in private individuality, whereas public individuality is fully achieved when students are able to consider themselves members of a crowd. “Only when I was able to think of myself as an American, no longer an alien in gringo society,” Rodriguez explains, “could I seek the rights and opportunities necessary for full public individuality.”[12] Because we developed a school that prides itself on having different educational mediums, we recognize the increasing importance of small class sizes. For a number of years, educators have debated the effects of class size on student learning with the debate centered on “the number of students a teacher can work with effectively in any given class period.”[13] In coming up with our decision, we have performed research on the subject and found that smaller classes can reduce discipline problems, increase the time allowed for lessons and individualization, and provide greater flexibility for learning activities. “With a smaller class size students engage in meaningful discussions and build citizenship skills.”[14] These positive aspects of having reduced class sizes are directly related to our philosophic goals of developing this school. We have decided to have no more than twenty students per class and have planned accordingly by hiring enough teaching staff to manage each of these classes. Our teachers enjoy the flexibility offered with smaller class sizes and enjoy being able to create lesson plans centered around providing individual assistance to students. We are aware of the costs associated with an increased amount of staff and classrooms, but feel that the education of our children is priceless. III. Future Educational Issues With the growing technological advances that will continue to surface over the years, it is important to develop a plan that will not chose technology over good teachers. Some believe that the future of technology in education will allow children of all ages to satisfy their curiosities on any subject matter through turning on the television, or some other form of medium, and receiving interactive tutorials from the world’s best professors. Neil Postman feels that although “new technologies do make new kinds of people,”[15] the majority of our children are not instilled with the innate desire to independently learn about algebra or Japanese history. Our school’s aim is to teach children how to participate in a disciplined way as part of a group to further the ideal democracy. Our teachers will use the benefits of technology by showing movies during class that help to clarify the lectures or by instructing students on computer-related activities, but technology is never the main focus of the classroom. The computer cannot teach children how to behave in groups and we feel that “any problems the schools cannot solve without computers, they cannot solve with them.”[16] In fact, we require that most of our teachers’ lesson plans which include the use of technology also involve group cooperation. Computers can overwhelm students with mountains of information that are only presented as abstract symbols taken out of context and displayed on a screen. We know that children learn best by doing and remember material they can easily recall through experience. “There is a huge qualitative difference between learning about something which requires only information, and learning from something, which requires that the learner enter into a rich and complex relationship with the subject at hand.”[17] Although we realize that computer skills can be beneficial to children at early ages, we will never sacrifice our educational goals to find funding for a high-tech computer lab. And with the fast rate of changing technology as new inventions are discovered, we understand that the computer skills children learn today might not even be relevant to the skills required in their futures. For this reason, we focus on teaching other skills to help children succeed in education and in society. ----------------------- [1] Philosophical Foundations of American Education. Professional Reflection. [2] Joel Spring. Educational Problems in a Democratic State. [3] Joel Spring. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. [4] Joel Spring. Educational Problems in a Democratic State. [5] Neil Postman. The End of Education. [6] Is there a Crisis in the Education of Boys' Presentation [7] James Wm. Noll. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues. [8] Should School Violence Warrant a Zero Tolerance Policy' Presentation [9] James Wm. Noll. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues. [10] Should Bilingual Education Programs be Abolished' Presentation [11] James Wm. Noll. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues. [12] Richard Rodriguez. Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez. [13] James Wm. Noll. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues. [14] Is Size Crucial to School Improvement' Presentation [15] Neil Postman. The End of Education. [16] Neil Postman. The End of Education. [17] James Wm. Noll. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues.