Winners and losers in education

A detailed Summary of Winners and losers in education

The common thread apparent in all of my readings thus far is the notion of 'win/lose' in many areas of the education system. Not easily identifiable do we see the win/lose theme in educational structures of the laboratory school, traditional school, open school, public school, private school, progressive, charter, desegregated, child-centered, and even the Highlander school. We cannot escape the hierarchy of means to win or lose even in education. Let's propose that the educations' mission includes that the means to an education would be to expose the student towards self-actualization, not to expose the student to acquiring/not acquiring, gaining/not gaining, or winning/losing.

In all of the topics of reform in public schooling, Adler held close to his beliefs that the educational system be designed to improve opportunities for growth in our youth. No doubt Dewey, Ravisch, Kliebard, Horton, and the others would have all agreed. The means to the end however is always in debate and education becomes qualified by what is believed to be good, best, optimum, equitable, democratic, and yes, even by what is believed to be gained or won.

In The Schooling of a People, Adler's Paideia Proposal advocates for all student

s, no matter what culture, gender, or how economically advantaged. This is very nice to read about, however, the un-morphed challenges of the need for teachers to learn as they teach, or cultivating civic virtues as Adler states, or the challenge of aspiring personal growth, or even the challenge of deciding what is valuable learning (history, science, literature, etc..), all affect the success of such a proposal. Adler, like Dewey, Ravisch, Herndon, and other progressive 'idealists' have not been able to escape the fact that their philosophies alone sort students, thus creating a win/lose situation. This sorting process is identified in 'structures' proposed by these educators. The tracking structure for instance sets up an aim for more difficult accomplishments. We find out in Ravisch's statistics, that 45 percent of the students in the 1980's were in the general track where typing, homemaking, and clothing were the courses and minorities were given the understanding that little was expected of them. These minorities lost out on higher civic opportunities as a result. The Free School, Laboratory School, and the Highlander School created winners and losers just by creating the exclusiveness of the institution. In these institutions there was a predetermined class of students. These institutions by creating this class of students catered to winners and left out the losers. An example I will mention is the Edward Murrow High School that I see created a 'lose' situation for those who could not make the entrance, and a 'win' situation was adopted simply by not allowing challenging behaviors or non-achievers into the structure. Another example is Herndon's symposium on the American Institution where he challenges the meaning of the word institution and remarks that one must be careful not to invent the purpose of the institution to suite the need of the political or social movement of the time. Herndon's sarcasm in describing the educational institution sets the reader up for true failure or 'loss' if the reader believes the description of an institution is a 'place to do things where those things will not be done.' Yes, I agree it is necessary and refreshing for Herndon to challenge education and dis' the institution, but he in fact created an institution of sorts by providing his 'form' of education that ultimately excluded that certain type of student that would have benefited from structure, slower or faster learning, repetition, and remediation.

So

Some common words found in the essay are:
American Institution, , Ravisch Herndon, Paideia Proposal, Highlander School, Murrow School, Kliebard Horton, educational system, winning losing, real world, Dewey Ravisch, placed bell curve, highlander school, laboratory school, bell curve, dewey ravisch, class students, system power, win lose,

Approximate Word count = 1680
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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