More education necessary

This article helped to reiterate the uncertainty I feel about having to discipline students in the very near future. I believe we take one class in the school of education about behavioral management, but is this really enough? I feel as though throughout my education classes thus far, questions or concerns regarding behavior or discipline have been largely avoided by teachers. I realize the topic is extremely complex and multi-faceted and thus would warrant an extensive discussion which may not fit into teachers' curriculum schedules, but perhaps it would be justified. The article made it clear that behavior management, particularly innefective and destructive ways of doing so, is a real problem in schools. Maybe if we took time, aside from one class, new teachers would feel more comfortable and be more effective at behavior management of diverse student populations. I think much of the issue lies in a lack of information rather than intentional mistreatment of students.

Freedom for Some, Farming for Others

After reading Brown's "Freedom for Some" article, I was really just shocked and appalled at our education system. The fact that these drastic differences exist today is sad, but the message these differences sends to our kids and reiterates for them day after day is really the saddest part. Kids aren't stupid. They know when they are being treated unfairly, or when they have a privilege. Kids travel to other schools for sports, forensics, and various other school activities. They have the opportunity to view schools from an outsider perspective. After reading this article, I began to think about my own school experience from the perspective of this article.

While I am in no way comparing my own education to the very underprivileged schools described in the article, I do now see the shortcomings of my own education because of the working-class town where I was raised. I came from a very small, farming community where, until a couple years before I graduated, the elementary, junior high, and high school all resided in one building.

When choosing classes, we were given a pamphlet prior to the start of each semester. This was not cause for much excitement, as the class options were few and never changed. Cooking and sewing classes for the girls, wood-working and welding for the boys, one or two art classes, and pages and pages of agricultural classes for the future farmers who made up a great deal of the student population. People still don't believe me when I tell them that we built a barn of sorts on to the side of our school so the agricultural classes could better teach about principles of farming.

Now I view farming as a hard-working, honorable profession. But by only offering classes to foster the needs of particular students in any capacity, whether it's farming or something else, just doesn't seem right. It doesn't meet the needs of all students present, and that is ultimately what a school should do. Classes don't need to be fancy, but a rounded education including many aspects of career development and college preparation should be available. My senior year I remember the excitement over talk about including a new Anatomy and Physiology course (which I now recognize as a course to prepare future nurses, something which our community produced a lot of to staff the local convent/retirement home). Students were thrilled! A new class! It was a step in the right direction, but I wonder how much has really changed since I graduated.

No doubt, there needs to be change in the education system. It is difficult to imagine the immense and incalculable changes that need to occur throughout the nation to provide equal opportunity for all students. The Brown article does a good job of identifying the drastic differences that exist, but where do we go from here?