Teachers' Cost of Living Matters More

I was reading the article “Teachers Cost of Living Matters More” and was intrigued and interested in the self-explanatory title. Apparently, before reading this article, I used to be persuaded to be an educator in the areas where the dollar signs were very high without realizing how the cost of living could affect my salary. This cost of living versus salary can have a major effect on recruiting and retention of teachers, especially when it comes to teachers deciding whether the job will adequately provide for their family or not.  Looking at the charts made me realize that four situations could occur concerning salary versus cost of living: high salary, high cost of living; high salary, low cost of living; low salary, high cost of living; and low salary, low cost of living. Any of these combinations could produce a potentially negative or positive result for teachers, especially for the ones who did not do all of their “homework” prior to making a decision about accepting a job in a particular area. The information in this particular article has directly affected my school when it comes to deciding the salaries of educators based upon a set budget managed by the school board.  These salaries are important in encouraging teachers to stay and teach to the best of their abilities, while also maintaining the ability to replace good teachers, when they leave for whatever reason, with ones of the same caliber or better.  Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide information on how this information would impact my teaching and students since I will be in the administrative field and do not currently teach.  

Reference:

Georgiou, Danielle, Villarreal, Pamela, & Moore, Matt. (2005, October 24). “ Teachers Cost of Living Matters More” .  Retrieved November 09, 2011, from https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133317

Curriculum

Multiculturalism is one of the most important concepts need to be taught in schools today because it provides student with information from and about different cultures and perspectives. For the most part, multicultural elements will be taught in literature and history classes. From what I have read in the “Multiculturalism in School Curriculum” article, Adam Waxler wants to keep the traditional curriculum by using various perspectives from different cultures and viewpoints. If he had to change anything, he would change the books.  I definitely agree with his concept because it can be much faster to implement than trying to revamp a total curriculum. The only disagreement I had with his idea was that some major events in the past that may not have had many different, documented perspectives to get an idea from.   Dr. Hirsch, author of “Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School”, on the other hand, wants to change the curriculum. I believe that his idea of a curriculum is fair since “1.) It encourages knowledge of and sympathy towards the diverse cultures of the world. 2.) It fosters respect for every child’s home culture as well as for the cosmopolitan school based culture.” I think his idea is fair because it is important for a child to know his or her local and national culture, while learning about different world cultures at the same time.  My only problem with Dr. Hirsch’s concept was that it may take a long time to implement in many schools and to teach even more history on an already large and rich history of the United States.  Overall I think the articles were fair for arguing their view of multiculturalism and its relationship to the curriculum. In my opinion, I would use a blend of both views and their ideas to make an impression on the students.

References:

Waxler, Adam. (n.d.).  “Multiculturalism in School Curriculum”.

Hirsch,Jr., E.D. (1992). “ Toward a Centrist Curriculum: Two Kinds of Multiculturalism in Elementary School”.

MultiCulturalism

According to the Institute for Historical Review. "For many non-whites, however, multicultural history is merely a step on the way to .....Their goal is separation rather than inclusion.” “It is impossible to write a single American history that satisfies, white, black, Indian, hispanic, and Asian.” I disagree with these statements because there is a way to have a book, it would have to be a really huge book though! I believe the point of going to college is to explain these different histories. It would take too much time to teach in school. Think about it. You only get a certain amount of time to teach in the high school.

First, “Why Multiculturalism is Wrong” is a title I disagree with entirely. For my generation, we have traveled to and lived in various places around the world and learned to immerse into other cultures. When we learn two opposing cultures, we can form a third “middle” culture as a result and learn how to communicate both cultures to each other. We act as a sort of cultural bridge for others to understand each other. This is multiculturalism in practice. I wanted to ask if the author of this article had anything to say about the United States’ view of multiculturalism. I noticed in the article how he talks about European nations and their multiculturalist views and not ours.

“Pithissippi Burning: Race, White Nationalism and American Culture” revealed to me how pleased I was to know about how much bigger multicultural television entertainment is getting. I think it is sad that many white supremacists believe in monoculturalism and scared of the changes that were evidenced in the grey box of the article, such as Dora the Explorer being of Spanish decent and Tiger Woods breaking the race barrier in golf. I say this because this nation was founded where all men and women were supposed to be equal in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.  One would think that when more people got comfortable with each other, despite their differences, multiculturalism would automatically expand due to people learning from and influencing each other. But when people choose to be with only people of a like mindset and physical trait, monoculturalism will always have a chance to exist.

Religion and Schools

The issue of religion in schools is considered a hot topic among debaters. Religion can be defined as “a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects”, according to Dictionary.com.   Religious issues arise when dealing with the practicing and teaching of religion.  When dealing with religion in practice, “In Illinois, a federal judge ruled against a state law requiring public school students to observe a moment of silence meant for prayer or personal reflection at the start of each school day.  District Judge Robert Gettleman said the law was an unconstitutional breach of the separation of church and state.”  (Calefati, 2009).  I agree with this whole statement completely. I say this because it is crucial to see the word “prayer” being used in the law.  Prayer is usually associated with religious practices, especially in churches. When an atheist saw this particular word, this person knew they had a chance to take down and get rid of the law.  However, I believe the atheist may not have so much luck in trying to bring down the law if “prayer” was not mentioned within it.  A moment of silence is neutral to everyone, including atheists.

When dealing with religion in teaching, “For the past 20 years, Texas’s science curriculum has required students to explore and critique “the strengths and weaknesses” of all scientific theories.” (et al.).  This practice was neutral and fair concerning any old or new theory that came into existence. However, opposition has developed to change the curriculum. Both sides have great arguments to support their claims in keeping or changing the twenty year practice. “Scientists testified before the board that the “strengths and weaknesses” language is unacceptable because there are no scientifically verifiable weaknesses to Darwin’s theory of evolution.”  “Some parents who spoke before the board said that their children had been intimidated and ridiculed by biology teachers when they questioned evolution and that there is nothing wrong with debating a theory that is not proven fact.” (et al.)  It seems that both sides are almost evenly matched.  I believe one of the only routes to satisfy both sides is to make a compromise between the two. In Christian thought, I know I could possibly create a story that would say Noah definitely had an ark, and the animals in it were the evolutionary ancestors of today’s animals just to pacify both sides who utilize creationism and evolutionism.

Whether people want to accept this or not, religion will always have a place in schools. Religion seeks to explain the universe, according to Dictionary.com, which means this one word can encompass many types of educational disciplines, including science.  I sometimes wonder if people would realize that modern education could be considered religion, especially according to the definition mentioned earlier in the essay. Modern education is based on a set of beliefs and practices agreed upon by a number of people, right?

References:

Dictionary.com (n.d). Retrieved September 30, 2011, from http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

Calefati, Jessica. (2009, January 22). “Religion in School Debate Heats Up.”  U.S. News. Retrieved September 30, 2011, from https://elearn.mtsu.edu/d2l/lms/content/viewer/main_frame.d2l?ou=2975445&tId=19133302

Historical Perspectives
Entry #1
September 16, 2011

Innovators and “makers” have made huge impacts on today’s education system.  I chose Horace Mann as my innovator because of his proven leadership skills. “Mann comprehensively surveyed the condition of the state’s schools, established training institutes for teachers, increased the length of the school year to six months, and gathered support for more funding for teacher salaries, books and school construction.”  One of the most important parts of this statement dealt with increasing the length of the school year for children. Increasing the amount of time spent in school meant that children would spend less time in activities that would not improve their school-based education, such as working manual labor that would not fully be a major investment into the future of society. Also, a self-explanatory statement mentioned “He often argued for public education in economic terms, saying that it would increase the wealth of individuals, communities, the state and the country as a whole, while teaching respect for private property.”

Mann continues to influence schools today because schools still have training institutes for teachers, the current school year is only three months extra than his original six, funding for school buildings, teachers, and supplies are still being sought , and the truth of how education can benefit members of the community and the community itself still holds true today.

I chose Frederick Taylor as my “maker” due to business aspects being applied to education.  “Men like these, and the brilliant efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor, who inspired the entire "social efficiency" movement of the early twentieth century, along with providing the new Soviet Union its operating philosophy and doing the same job for Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany;….” This entire statement is important because it reveals that Taylor is a huge influence on socialism, an idea that “educates” its followers to serve certain corporate based institutions such as governments and even schools such as universities. Frederick continues to influence schools today because most schools from different education levels do educate and encourage their students to have careers involving corporate-based institutions.

Going off of initial impressions, I believe that innovators were molding their students to serve the community as a whole, while “makers” were molding their students to serve corporate-based entities such as governments, for-profit corporations, and universities. It also occurred to me that many of the “makers” came from business backgrounds and were self-made moguls who may have not been fully educated, while many of the innovators graduated from secondary and post-secondary schools, making them understand some of the issues needed to be addressed in the different levels of education.