On Sep 17, 2004, at 9:51 AM, Michael Atherton wrote:
You answer the survey and I'll answer your questions. I think that's fair.
1. Literacy 2. Critical Thinking 3. Math 4. Science 5. Arts
Assume that this is a forced choice survey and you cannot rank topics on the same level. Please feel free to send your response to me offline. The ordering above is obviously my own ranking.
Since answering Michael's survey will apparently produce answers to the Mpls specific questions I posed to him to back up his claims regarding math, science, and arts education, here goes:
First, it would depend upon on the age of my child, the interests of my child, the capabilities of my child, the access to educational choices for my child, the resources available at the schools that are accessible for my child, the faculty strengths at at the school(s) of choice, the learning relationships and environments that would exist with my child in certain classrooms with certain teachers, and, perhaps, what I, as a parent, thought was appropriate input to make regarding curricular input.
Meaning, that the boxes we are forced to fit into for schooling are typically inappropriate to serve all students at all times. This is due, in large part, to our era of scientism that nurtures an environment where people believe there are rational methods and models that we can implement to organize the institutions we create and social relations we engage in. So, second, it would depend upon my beliefs about certain social institutions (at the time of enrolling my child), how my school of choice was administered (meaning the values and priorities of staff and administration), and how the school interacts with the communities outside of school (business community, arts community, political community, neighborhood, etc.).
Third, how about the pedagogical and philosophical beliefs that predominate at a certain school (if that can ever be said to occur): do they believe that the role of the school is to produce a well-trained employable worker, a good democratic citizen, a student capable of ingesting the Traditionalist's cannon (a la Bloom and Adler) with the assumption that more schooling ought to follow P-12, or a progressivist or reconstructionist that believe social change ought to be the function of the school, arts based education for self-expression and self-knowledge, a phenomenological or existentialist approach, etc.
If my child with Downs Syndrome is not likely to find an environment that treats his presence in the classroom as appropriate for him, or other students - what then?
For myself, as my interests currently exist, my list would be*:
1. Critical Thinking** 2. Literacy*** 3. Arts**** 4. Math***** 5. Science******
*Only because I "have to" make a list. The notion that curriculum ought to be segregated is another one of the problems I see with schooling, there is a current trend to "integrate" the curriculum, which I believe ought to exist as a choice.
**I think critical thinking is always in order, and that there is always room for a more critical approach than previously engaged - really, think socratic method.
***There are always new literacies to engage and speak. Currently, there is increased interest and study of 'visual literacy', look to James Gee's work (among others) with children's use of video games for learning and picking up critical thinking skills as well as different ways to read and communicate environments.
****I have recently been feeling like I need more art in my life, art consumption, not so much creation, though this is also true. Arts education not only offers informational posts for historical knowledge, but can be great for expressive and communicative functions (see Elliot Eisner and Tom Barone for thoughts on arts education).
*****I have always been interested in the study of logic, and thus the rhetorics of mathematics.
******My current interest in science is from a more humanistic perspective: the ethical considerations of science, the economics of science, that without science there would not have been a eugenics movement, and likely no Jim Crow South, Nazi Germany, Apartheid South Africa, etc. It is a pity that all of these fine areas of inquiry are not seen as complimentary and forced into a ranking scheme, as if they do not inform one another, and that their methodologies cannot transcend their subjects. (What were the historical forces that began pushing for distinct areas of inquiry? Whose interests did they serve? Whose interests do they serve? Critical thinking.)
jon. kelland chicago formerly bryant
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