The Elementary School : A Typical Of American Society

There are different type of instructional strategies that we provide in preschool. Some examples of these is art, repeating what we saw, music, and hands on learning. There are few more techniques that we provide, but these are main ones.

In a progressively more globalized world that necessitates more effective educational practices, the U.S., once the biggest global force in education, has seen its dominance slowly slip out, and its educational status fall even lower than that of several third-world countries. The decline experienced in American school system academic achievement is not as a result of lack of funding, but as a consequence of the overall educational system watering down. According to Gatto, educating children through the existing public school system of America is crippling rather than helping them. From his essay, ‘Against School,’ it is established that the goal of the whole public school system is to limit people’s intelligence in an attempt to create a society that is manageable. Gatto continues to state that action is needed to change this situation. He supports his assertions using current and historical information about the American school system and his personal experience. After reading his article, one realizes that most of Gatto’s arguments are true. It is true that the American education system is making the students comfort to the government and society norms, which is why they are easily bored. This essay’s goal will, therefore, be to support John Gatto’s beliefs.

This course has really enlightened my view of being able to learn the value of linguistic and cultural diversity and the influential learning opportunities it gives today’s classrooms and schools. We as teacher educators were allowed to examine our attitudes, beliefs, and preferences regarding linguistically and culturally diverse students, families, and communities and learn methods for working together to confirm high levels of learning for all students. Also, strategies for guaranteeing

The instructional setting is two eighth grade classrooms with class sizes of 28 and 32 students. Of the 60 students, ten are Hispanic, four are Asian, and one is African-American. All ten Hispanic students are bilingual with overall California English Language Development Test (CELDT) classifications of: one student intermediate, three early advanced, and one advanced. The remaining five Hispanic students have been reclassified to English proficient and do not require EL support. Four students are foster youth. Nine students receive special education support.

“Where inability to speak and understand the English language excludes national origin minority-group children from effective participation in the educational program offered by a school district, the district must take affirmative steps to rectify the language deficiency in order to open its instructional program to these students.” (Smith, 1990)

While many different types of schools and educational movements have influenced the American education system that we have today, two primary influences are the American common school movement and the Latin grammar school movement. Common schools were first started in the 1830’s and 1840’s and consisted of a universal curriculum with multiple types of schools. They were also provided by the government. The Latin grammar schools came into being around the 1870’s to 1900’s and were used as secondary education to prepare young men for college. While both schools have different characteristics that contribute to the differences of them, they also have similarities such as their curriculum that make them alike.

Throughout this year, we have read two books, 50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools and Schooled: Ordinary, Extraordinary Teaching in an Age of Change, as well as several different articles spanning various topics regarding school and its purpose in society. We learned that each of us in class have had unique school experiences, whether we went to a public, private, charter, or home school. Each of our unique experiences have allowed us to share our personal encounters with school, both positive and negative. Through these readings we learned about how each of us has a stake in schools. We depend on one another to be educated enough to make important decisions, for example critically analyzing candidates and their platforms when deciding to vote. If I could suggest any three of our readings to a high school teacher, a parent, and to a fellow student, they would be the Postman and Weingartner section from Teaching as a Subversive Activity, Why Wrong is not Always Bad by Alina Tugend, and College is not a commodity. Stop treating it like one. by Rawlings, respectively. These articles stood out to me as the most informative as well as the most relative to many of the issues we see today.

We will teach a third grade class located at PS. 31 in Staten Island, New York. The classroom has a total number of 27 students; 15 girls and 12 boys. The classroom is ethnically diverse. Most of the students in the classroom are African-American, Haitians, Chinese and Portuguese. Even though the classroom is considered as a general education class, they are few students with learning differences, such as: visual, auditory, kinesthetic and linguistic.

From the data, one theme that was deduced from repeating data was discrimination. Marissa’s school sent a letter to her parent’s saying she needed to be evaluated for ESL, when English is the official language of her home country. Because she uses a dialect and pronounces her words differently from the mainstream American society, they assume she is English deficient, a language bias because she is an immigrant. As stated by P. Rudy Mattai in the article ‘Rethinking the Nature of Multicultural Education: Has it Lost its Focus or is it Being Misused?’ “…the affirmation of minority culture in various bilingual, bicultural and ethnic programs represent a direct challenge to the centrality of Anglo values in the school curriculum and the notion that minority culture and language are “naturally” deficient…” (p. 69).

An impressive 16.2% of students in the Federal Way public school system self-identify as Hispanic (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. Of these students, 23.9% are foreign born (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. These students are often multilingual, switching to Spanish when home. In fact, 32.4 percent of students speak a different language at home (U.S. Census, 2013) [primary]. It should not come as a surprise that language is a major component of one’s culture. Most American schools place a heavy emphasis on

What can be defined as school in America or who created and contributed to the modern school system? My fundamental question was what are the significant contributions (and who contributed) to America’s present school system? Schools in America have gone back years since 1635 starting in Boston, Massachusetts which lead to the first school being named the Boston Latin school. With the opening of the first school many teachers and leaders focused on religious values instead of specific subject areas as we would today. However, there have been changes in the way we teach the future generations that are different from the 1600s. In order to see these changes we have to take a time machine back to the 1800s, 1990s, and 2000s. The 1800s brought Americans the common school movement, Horace Mann, the Committee of Ten, and the Prussian system in America. In addition great advancements have been made in the school system, but not as much advancement has been made since the 1800s. This can be a problem as the internet and technology blossomed in the late 1990s and today many teachers have questioned if we should really teach the same way we did almost 180 years ago. From the past we have gotten common core, standardized testing or teaching children as if they are on an assembly line which all come into question in today’s school system. Programs such as KIPP or Khan academy are showing how children can be in classrooms that are more student led. Also first year teachers can find a way

America’s school system is dramatically declining due to the lack of preparation that America’s High-school 's fail to deliver to its students. High-schools and their incompetent teachers do not adequately prepare students for jobs in Stem fields. STEM jobs are Science, Technology, Engineering and Math careers that pay wages close to double the U.S average. STEM jobs are vital in order to obtain a thriving market of new ideas and inventions in the world. Without proper teaching from qualified teachers in these particular fields many students may lose interest, not enjoy their teachings, or not even properly understand what STEM jobs are. This leaves many students unsatisfied with their experience limiting their abilities to do something great. Teachers are frequently found lacking degrees in the particular fields they teach: “Almost 40% of high-school math teachers have neither a college major nor minor in math.” (Chang 345). American students learn from unqualified teachers, hindering their ability to get a job in the fast paced twenty first century. It is important to understand the direct correlation between the mastering of essential subject matter and the success of our students to better the country. Studies have been shown to prove that teachers can change the trajectory of their students’ lives. Teachers who lack complete understanding in the fields that they teach can greatly negatively impact students lives further down the course of their lifetimes. Therefore when

Diverse cultures within the United States are rapidly developing and growing and the educational sector is the number one target to ensure that English –learners are receiving adequate education. Within the educational sector there are administrators and teachers who are involved in students lives on a daily basis to ensure that education is equal. In order to achieve the vital objective of equality, socio-cultural influences on ELL students, bilingualism and home language use, parental and community resources, and partnerships between families and schools all have to be considered to provide an opportunity for equal education.

The second classroom I observed was a first grade class of twenty-five students. Students in this class were all of Mexican descent and labeled as early intermediate English language learners. The

Education is one of the most important factors in every person’s life regardless of where they’re from, their race, or their culture. Becoming educated not only makes life easier for us but also can help people become more successful in all things. However with so many people of various races, ethnicities and backgrounds in the United States it is difficult to create an education system that attends to each student’s individual culture. Ones own culture influences their actions and lifestyle, therefore this can create conflict if it is different from their schools cultural teaching style. Multicultural and multilingual classrooms have become the norm in many educational and professional settings throughout the U.S. because of changing immigration patterns caused by globalization (Institute for Educational Leadership, p. 2). For teachers today, it is essential to understand the role of culture and have the ability to interact interculturally in the classroom to create an effective learning environment. Analyzing cultural issues or differences can help teachers to understand some of the unconscious processes that shape individuals’ actions and interactions, as well as their language use and communication. “Teachers who understand cultural diversity…are more likely to be successful in their multicultural classrooms” (Samovar, Pg.2).