Historical Perspectives Entry #1 Innovators & Makers

Jay Lenno had a section on his talk show where he would ask people

on the street very simple questions that they should know the answer to.

However, the humor was in the fact that they would not know the

answer. I find this very disturbing. As hard as the Innovators and Makers

have tried to fight for our right to be educated, productive citizens, I think

there are many who have been failed, or failed themselves.

Gatto mentioned that schools are standardized products of industrialization

and the government and do not produce free thinkers. The PBS article on

E.D. Hirsch, Jr. stated that critics believe the "Back to the Basics" movement

is also producing people with knowledge of the content but no depth of

understanding. I agree to some extent with both. It seems anymore that all

I am expected to do is teach the information so the students can regurgitate

it back on a test. I am really good at doing this and have had advanced test

scores the last 3 years. So am I enabling my students to be like the Jay Lenno

"dummies"?

My teaching philosophy is to give students the tools they need to be productive
citizens. I think I have fallen into the "industrialization" role that Gatto talks
about. I do not even know I am doing it. I have rules and procedures on how

to do just about everything. What teacher does not? Are we making it so that

the students can not make logical decisions on their own about menial tasks

like where to write their name. John Perricone (2005) mentioned teachers

teach the way they were taught. I had an advanced math teacher in high

school and her favorite saying was, "Don't think about it; just do it." I can not

count how many times I have made that same statement.

On the contrary, in a professional development meeting this summer, I learned

that the new state standards for math are going to mandate higher order

thinking on upcoming standardized tests. There will be essay questions and

students will have to prove (ex. through illustrations) how they derived their

answers. At first, I thought, "How wonderful!" I also began thinking about all

the teachers that will have to be retrained to this way of teaching. How will

students react when there are no bubbles to color in? Will there be a decline

in low wage workers forcing us to send more factory jobs overseas?

Probably not. Education was founded by people standing up for their beliefs,

fighting for what is right, and demanding equality. Education tends to go in

circles, so sometimes we will have free thinkers and sometimes robots.

I think the Innovators laid the ground work and the Makers made it happen.

If the Innovators had not spoken out, fought for, and defended the importance

of education, the Makers would not have had the paved road to run on. But I

think the greatest "Innovator" was Horace Mann. He fought for the education

of teachers, longer school years, and improved schools. I am not a big

proponent of year-round schools, because I live in a rural area where

many students work in the summer with their families, but I am glad

that Mann saw the importance of education and trained teachers. He

knew that students could not learn in cold, drafty buildings, and that

they needed supplies. This is personally important to me today, because

I started out in a room with no windows or heat. As a new
teacher, I did not receive instructional supply money, and I was hired to

teach in a position I had not been trained in. So can only imagine the joy

of the 1800s teachers who were told they would be trained to do their

job, and by the way, here are some pencils.

Perricone, J. (2005). Zen the art of public school teaching. Baltimore: Publish
America.