Progressivism Within Twenty First Century Learning

Getting an education is an important part of every child and teenager’s life, but not all get the same type of education. In Jean Anyon’s essay “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work”, she explains and talks about the four levels of education. According to Jean Anyon, the four levels of education are the Working-Class School, Middle-Class School, Affluent Professional School, and Executive Elite School. From my experience, I attended a working-class school named Santa Ana High School located in a low income and high crime neighborhood of the city of Santa Ana, CA. In the author’s words, a working-class school is, “A school for students with parents with low income jobs, and with an income at or below $12,000”(Anyon 138). I believe got a working-class education because we rarely used the textbooks in class, learned through common core, and taught an education from average standard courses. Also, I believe I attended a working-class school because my high school education just taught me the basic skills of attaining a minimum wage job, whereas in professional school, or elite school students are taught knowledge and skills that lead to higher wage jobs. My experience relates to author Jean Anyon’s essay because I felt the working-class school category matched my high school education. For example, in the essay she states, “In working-class schools, work is following the steps of a procedure. The procedure is usually mechanical, involving rote behavior and very little decision making or choice”(Anyon 140). Author Jean Anyon also states, “Available textbooks are not always used, and the teachers often prepare their own dittos or put work examples on the board”(Anyon 140). Both of these examples from the essay relate to my high school education because we would often do assignments created by the teacher rather than do assignments provided by the school textbooks. From my high school education, I received a working-class education because although we did have new buildings, new technology, and a clean school campus, the high school was located in a low income, and dangerous neighborhood, and students received an education from average standard courses. In my opinion, I received a working-class

In “The Flat World and Education”, Linda Darling-Hammond makes the case for a radical rethinking of American public education. She believers changing the “factory” model schools originally designed to train students to function as laborers within an industrial / manufacturing context with “thinking” schools whose aim is to prepare students with the skills necessary to compete in the modern world’s information-driven economy.

One of the biggest changes in this new American society was the move from agricultural based jobs, to factory based jobs. People’s lives changed drastically because of it. Families no longer worked as a single unit, but rather each family member went out to work and bring money to the family. However,

Many issues in the 1900’s have been affecting jobs, social classes, and student’s education. In particular, fifth graders are being divided by their parents work level. Because this is happening, students will have unequal fairness on the outcome of the education they will receive. Jean Anyon, the author of “From Social Class And The Hidden Curriculum Of Work,” employs important concepts and powerful illustration to prove that the parents work level affects their children’s quality of education.

The Industrial Revolution had a remarkable effect on the United States. Prior to it, much of the population lived in rural areas, whereas after it, a steadily growing percent moved to densely populated areas, creating new cities across the country. This urban boom brought with it many benefits, such as easier access to goods and services, including education. In 1870, before Industrialization, 13.3% of the country’s population was illiterate. After urbanization and the Progressive Era, in 1930, that number had dropped to 4.3%. The correlation in undeniable. With new cities came new schools, more able to do their job now that so many people lived in the same place. However, the consequences of urbanization were not all

"Progressive Education assumes the world changes, and that in a universe that is not particularly concerned with ability to think straight" - Rychard Fink

Our strongest teaching remains equally committed to the content we develop and the minds and hearts we nurture. We recognize that the students we work with are continuosly constructing their understanding of themselves and of the world around them. This workshop invites participants to reflect on their own practice as progressive educators. We will share powerful and practical tools to foster a classroom community infused with honesty, transparency, mindfulness, and activism.

In his essay, “Idiot Nation,” Michael Moore directly conveys the horrid truth behind American education when he utters the sheer words, “the knowledge (students) acquire in school is not going to serve them throughout their lifetimes. Many of them will have four to five careers in a lifetime. It will be their ability to navigate information that will matter” (Moore 141). According to Moore, American education today is by no means preparing students for the real world of work. In fact, he infers that students must acquire the acute skill of navigating through information that will guide them into the career they will eventually pursue. The American school system not only teaches students unnecessary material, but also does not stimulate principle qualities that students need in order to develop into bright, innovative, and independent individuals. Structured public education does not breed entrepreneurial spirit; but rather, it destroys it. For what seems like endless years, students are programmed to obey rules, to do homework, to accept discipline rather than learn. They simply learn to submerge their unique personalities under the sort of “totalitarian dictatorship,” which the American school has come to represent implicitly (Moore 147). Because they don’t promote intelligence, creativity, and individuality, current-day American schools fail to prepare their students for the modernized, competitive world of labor, where an idea parallel to Herbert Spencer’s “survival of

As I was going through the materials for this module I also noticed a lot of similarities between the early 20th and 21st century. I already mentioned it in my post, but I thought the history behind block scheduling was pretty cool. I like how you pointed out that progressive schools and schools today both have vocational education, and while some continue to see students who are in vocational programs/classes as being tracked into them, it is a lot less limiting today than it was then.

It’s evident in Freire’s and Noddings’ writings that education is extremely important to the time and culture of the postmodern worldview. They expressed great concerns for education and the way the system works. They argued that the education system needs to reflect current times. Even though the earlier postmodern characteristics do show that education is important, it is not reflective of the reality that exist in the current times. Teachers have to realize the changes that have arisen in the world of postmodern time and culture. There are many considerations that need to be taken, such as, diversification and changes of people, learning, and teaching approaches. The authors discussed how it is important to let students be involved

Today’s educational system as a whole can gain the confidence to unlearn it’s archaic way of learning in the classrooms if it realizes the possibilities and endless potential the 21st century student

This article assists me to comprehend pedagogical progressives. Alongside the three principle focuses he made, he mentioned different examples of this throughout the context. For example, Counts said, "Any individual or group that would aspire to lead society must be ready to pay the costs of leadership: to accept responsibility, to suffer calumny, to surrender security, to risk both misfortune and fortune."(2) Through this, he is expressing that being a leader in society is necessary to being a leader in the

It is no surprise that throughout the world today, the issue of shaping education around propaganda remains. The United States has shown the world how propaganda was essential for steering students into the labor force and teaching them becoming ideal citizens for the economy during times of need. The impact of propaganda is largely evident, “ As late as the mid 19th century the modern concept of unemployment did not exist in the United States… While paid work came and went, home industry- canning, sewing, carpentry- was a constant” (Thompson 14). This quote demonstrates how America was not standing still, it was producing and moving. In turn, Americans were to be moving as well In that same article, the author, Derek Thompson, illustrates

In this paper I will discuss and compare two scholarly articles pertaining to the topic of factory education in America and determine which solution is more ethical. The United States educational system is based off a factory system that is decades out of date. Every student is to be taught the same way, with a similar curriculum, and no collaboration, when teachers fail grades, students are just sent back to the beginning of the line. Christine Leland and Wendy Kasten wrote the article “Literacy Education for the 21st Century” that was published in the Reading & Writing Quarterly journal (Leland & Kasten, 2002). The article discussed how to change the issues facing education and how children are educated in schools (Leland & Kasten, 2002).

We are living in the age of self-improvement and self-help, where people’s thoughts are consumed with the growth, self-expansion, and the furthering of one’s capabilities (Hepper & Sedikides, 2009; Seligman, 2009). Self-improvement, a 9.6 billion dollar industry, deals exclusively with the “improvement of one’s mind, character, etc., through one’s own efforts,” with a market offering a range of products and services seeking to improve us physically, spiritually, financially and emotionally (Self Improvement, n.d; The Market For Self-Improvement Products and Services, n.d.). With the growing popularity of self-help pursuits, it’s important to consider the long-standing role educational progressivism – were skill and habits are made a necessity to conform to our new technological society – plays, as a motivating factor driving peoples need for self-improvement (Kohlberg and Mayer, 1972,p. 453). Also, it’s important to consider how technology has altered the self-help environment, with the Internet now offering new, more progressive methods to meet the growing demand for quick and easily accessible forms for self-help. Has the public’s perception and attitudes toward self-improvement, and it’s available products and services significantly changed in the 21st century?