final

Perennialism What is the goal of education?

is a teacher-centered educational philosophy that focuses on everlasting ideas and universal truths. To clarify, Perennialism suggests that the focus of education should be the ideas that have lasted for centuries believing the ideas are as relevant and meaningful today as when they were written. Perennialists view education as crucial because it develops a person's mental discipline and rationality, which are necessary to the search for truths that will help humans avoid being dominated by the instinctual (i.e., animallike) side of human nature. For perennialists, the purpose of education is to find the changeless "truth," which is best revealed in the enduring classics of Western culture. According to this perspective, schools should emphasize classical thought as their subject matter. Perennialists believe that schools should teach disciplined knowledge through the traditional subjects of history, language, mathematics, science, and the arts. They place particular emphasis on literature and the humanities, believing that these subjects provide the greatest insight into the human condition. Although this view of the curriculum is evident in many areas of education, in its most complete form, it is known as the Great Books approach, as developed by Robert Maynard Hutchins, who was president and chancellor at the University " Never mistake knowledge for wisdom. One helps you make a living; the other helps you make a life. —Sandra Carey, lawyer 77690_ch09_ptg01.indd 283 18/08/14 2:02 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 284 Chapter 9 What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education? of Chicago throughout the 1930s and 1940s, and the late Mortimer Adler, a professor at the University of Chicago during the same time period. The Great Books, which constitute a shelf of volumes stretching from Homer's Iliad to Albert Einstein's On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies, are perennialists' ideal curriculum. In perennialist-oriented high school curricula, a broader and more modern selection of works is included, though the emphasis remains on the intellectual richness of the material. (See the Video Case, Middle School Reading Instruction: Integrating Technology, for an example of how one middle school teacher makes use of an ancient book in a thoroughly modern setting.) For perennialists, in the early years of schooling the development of the intellect is best achieved through a teacher-directed instructional approach that develops the foundational skills needed for later learning. Socratic dialogue is then used to help mature learners question and examine their beliefs, enabling them to move closer to the truth. Since the early 1990s, a controversy has arisen over the content of perennialist literature, history, and philosophy courses. Scholars and students have criticized colleges and high schools for promoting a "Eurocentric" view of knowledge and culture, one that ignores the contributions of everyone except "dead, white, male writers and thinkers." They urge adoption of a more inclusive curriculum—that is, one that gives greater attention to women, minorities, and members of African, Asian, Hispanic, and Islamic cultures. Although some perceive this movement to be a direct attack on the perennialist curriculum, others see it as a natural and useful extension of the perennialists' search for the best of the world's wisdom. One perennialist friend of ours, who welcomes this new approach, suggested, "Sure, students should know about Islamic literature and Eastern philosophy, but they should first get to know their own neighborhood, Western culture. Education is of great importance to perennialists, but it is an education that is rigorous and demanding. Perennialists insist that education is preparation for life and, therefore, believe that it should not attempt to imitate life or be lifelike. Students should engage in a rigorous examination of the classics—mostly ancient, but some modern—to discover the timeless wisdom embodied in this literature, rather than focusing on knowledge that might seem personally meaningful. In summary, the perennialists' view is that through disciplined study of the great works, a person acquires reasoning skills and mastery of the important ideas of human history. This view leans heavily on the authority of the collected wisdom of the past and " looks to traditional thought to guide us in the present. As such,the curriculum is structured and clearly defined. Perennialists also see education as protecting and conserving the best thought from the past. In this sense, they favor a very traditional or conservative ("conservative" as in conserving the best of the past) view of education. The following case study presents the point of view of a more or less typical perennialist teacher.312-314

Describe the four basic purposes of school.

66-69 Having most likely spent 12 or 13 years in school—the better part of your life—you are probably convinced you know the territory. Isn't it obvious what schools are and what they do? Perhaps. Yet most of us tend to think of schools in limited ways. Our own experiences within a relatively few schools influence what we think about all schools and what we understand of schools in general. Thus to gain a greater perspective, it is important to look at schools from different vantage points. The two missions we just examined, schools for "transmission of the culture" or for "reconstructing society," represent rather broad, general purposes for schools. Now we examine four purposes for schools that are closer to the everyday reality of teachers and students. What should our schools be trying to do? This fairly straightforward, almost innocent question is, however, also perennial and has stirred fierce arguments among different groups. If residents have strongly conflicting views about what their community's schools should do, the question can rip apart the often delicate fabric of a community. It taps into serious disagreements about what different people think of contemporary American culture and society and what they want the schools to do for their children. To further illustrate that point, we have included several quotes about schools in this section. Some were written centuries ago, others more recently. As you read each, think about how the speaker characterizes the functions of schools and education. Also think about your own schooling. 2-5a Intellectual Purpose If you said that Barzun was emphasizing here the academic or intellectual purposes of schools, you would be right. One long-standing purpose of schools has been to foster the intellectual development of the young. Barzun was one of many observers who contend that promoting academic learning is the single most important purpose of schools. Most people who highlight the intellectual purpose of schools believe that the development of reason, through intellectual pursuits, leads to individual enlightenment. Rationality—that is, the ability to know, to think, and to reason—is seen as an attribute distinct to humans and, more importantly, as the capacity that makes us human. Many of those who rank intellectual purposes as the highest priority see school as the one institution most available and most common to all people. They believe, therefore, that promoting intellectual development in schools is essential so that all children have the opportunity to become rational human beings. The intellectual purpose of school is included in every school's mission. The way it is manifested, however, can look different from school to school. Some schools exist for the primary purpose of helping students develop their intellects. You may have heard about or even attended a secondary school that requires students to study "the great books" or one that has adopted the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, currently taught in over 1,489 U.S. schools and growing in popularity. 2-5b Political and Civic Purpose You will read more about Jefferson's contributions to the American public schools in Chapter 10, "What Is the History of America's Struggle for Educational Opportunity?" For now, note that Jefferson hoped that American schooling would help establish and sustain the United States of America, an infant nation. One of the overriding concerns of the early political leaders was, in fact, how people would learn to be American citizens and not subjects of a foreign king. The Jefferson quote underscores the political and civic purposes of schooling. Jefferson thought schools could help people learn how to govern themselves wisely and justly. The only sure way for any country to have a well-informed citizenry is through the systematic education that schooling can bring. He championed the concept of the "office of citizen," expressing his belief that American-style democracy obliges all who desire participation to become educated, engage their respective consciences, and act. Citizens' likeliest forays into political activity are voting for Real materials help focus students' attention. Kali Nine LLC/E+/Getty Images 77690_ch02_ptg01.indd 37 18/08/14 1:29 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 38 Chapter 2 What Is a School and What Is It For? or against political representatives and legislation, joining or challenging civic organizations, and supporting or refuting societal reforms. Citizens may even abstain from public policy-making entirely as a message, or pseudo-vote, of displeasure in their choices for governance.9 That need may be more or less prominent at times, but the political purposes of schools have always been a primary reason why public schools exist. In your own schools, you may have seen political and civic purposes emphasized through student government elections, voter registration drives, citizenship education programs, and even community service and outreach programs. Schools also promote these purposes by how they teach students to read, write, and discuss ideas rationally. 2-5c Economic Purposes What is the implicit criticism that Anyon raises about the connection between a student's schooling and his or her occupation? As this quote suggests, many Americans think that schools primarily serve an economic purpose—that is, they believe that schools help students climb the economic ladder, obtaining the skills and knowledge required to attend college or to get a job. Think about how you approach your own college education. If you and a good number of your fellow students were interviewed right now about why you are attending college, many of you would say that you attend college because you expect to earn a more comfortable living with a college degree than without one. Americans generally expect that more schooling will lead to greater personal wealth, and so far they are right. On the whole, high school graduates do obtain higher-paying jobs than those who didn't complete high school, and college graduates earn more than high school graduates. Americans also expect that schools will prepare students for their future, regardless of whether that future includes a college education. High schools support that expectation by including courses of study that are college preparatory or vocational (more currently called CTE for career and technical education). Many Americans accept without question that schools guide students into curricular tracks that seem matched to their abilities and inclinations: Mathematically inclined students enroll in such courses as calculus and advanced placement (AP) physics, whereas labor-oriented students enroll in culinary arts or computer repair courses. The assumption underlying the economic purposes of schools is that well-schooled people and people appropriately schooled are vital to a strong national economy, regardless of whether they become business leaders or laborers. We will see later in the chapter that Anyon, among others, has questioned the practices that rest on this assumption, pointing out that curricular tracking and instructional practices are not always related so much to students' individual abilities as to their expected role in the work world. The economic purposes of schooling have profound effects both on students and on society as a whole. You may have heard news accounts of the need for a "welleducated workforce" or the "new demands of working in 'green' industries." Pundits pronounce to one another what the new global economy will demand, and those predictions trickle down to schools. For instance, many school systems have placed emphasis on teaching computer skills and technology, with the goal of equipping graduates for the new realities of the workplace. 2-5d Social Purposes We have identified intellectual, political, and economic purposes of schools. A fourth purpose is called the umbrella purpose because it is so all encompassing.This quote draws attention to the social purpose of schools. How would you paraphrase this quotation? At some point in your life, you may have heard that schools also teach "social skills." What exactly does that mean to you? You may have heard the old adage "It's good to be smart, but if you can't get along with people or don't know how to work with others, then it doesn't make much difference how much you know." Émile Durkheim was a French sociologist in the early twentieth century. One of his primary interests was the school's responsibility in promoting a healthy social order. For Durkheim, schools existed to help mold or guide students into what their society needed and expected of them. A teacher's job was to help students understand their role in the broader social order. Durkheim's idea that schools must work to help students adapt to social expectations still holds currency today. Think of how many times elementary school teachers impress on pupils how important it is to share. Who decided that we needed to learn to share? Think of how frequently middle and high school teachers remind students to give their best effort on their homework or a project. What does "best effort" mean? Why not encourage students to "kick back and go with the flow"? Think also how schools and teachers emphasize punctuality and the importance of meeting commitments on time. These attributes are emphasized, in part, because they are characteristics prized by most employers. Further, the capacity to share, being sensitive to issues of time, and keeping commitments are habits that have wide value in marriage, family life, and community life. Sharing, concern for others, and promise keeping are three human qualities that illustrate how schooling helpschildren learn and adapt to social conventions. Because the social nature of schooling is so important, we will return to it later in the chapter

what does the term at risk refer?

. For such students at risk, as they are often called, the chances are great that they will have difficulty getting an adequate education. What are some of these risk factors? Here are seven major ones affecting students in today's schools: 1. A household without English-speaking adults 2. A family with more than four children 3. Parents without a high school degree 4. A change in residences one or more times in a year 5. Single-parenthood 6. A teen mother 7. Unemployed parents

Describe the characteristics of 11-13 year-olds that influence the educational experiences found in middle schools.72-75

2-6b Life in Middle and Junior High Schools In the "middle years," ages 11 to 13, students change in fundamental ways, becoming more independent, more social, and more involved in the world around them. It can be a stressful period for parents and teachers and, most especially, for the students themselves. Increasingly, these "middle years" are seen as a crucial time in an individual's formation. Early adolescence is characterized by a variety of developmental changes and needs that dramatically impact the school experience. Among the major changes are: ●● Biological changes. Early adolescence witnesses dramatic biological changes.14 First, girls enter puberty an average of 18 months before boys during this stage. Second, even within gender the onset of puberty varies considerably, which complicates both genders' relationships with their classmates. Further, early-maturing girls, that is, the first to experience pubertal changes, often feel out of sync with their peers, resulting in emotional and adjustment issues.15 ●● Cognitive changes. Thinking also changes in significant ways during this period of development.16 Students increasingly engage in abstract thinking and more sophisticated and elaborate information-processing strategies. They begin to use what Benjamin Bloom calls higher-order thinking.17 Recent advances in cognitive research are revealing that the brain changes in significant ways during this period.18 Continuing advances in this emerging field of brain structure and function will undoubtedly increase educators' understanding of adolescents' cognition and behavior. ●● Changes in self-concept, self-esteem, and identity development. These three interrelated terms—self-concept, self-esteem, and identity development—all deal with slightly different aspects of an individual's sense of self. Early adolescence is a prime time for strong emergence of self-awareness. Children become vividly aware of their gender, race, and ethnicity during this period. Psychologists insist that integrating these experiences and characteristics into a coherent sense of self is fundamental to healthy development. Changes in achievement motivation. Behavioral scientists have observed the somewhat obvious fact that some people have an intense desire to achieve something, whereas others may not seem that concerned about their achievements. They have labeled this phenomenon achievement motivation, the tendency to strive for success and to be goal oriented. Current criticism of middle schools frequently blames changes in achievement motivation as the direct cause of student disengagement.20 Although both younger and older students have these developmental needs, it is particularly important that schools serving children in the middle years meet these needs. Not meeting them often results in a young person's alienation from peers, loss of a sense of self-worth, and the onset of all sorts of destructive behavior, from fighting to escapism into drug use, to promiscuity. As one specialist observed, "Every child wants to believe in himself or herself as a successful person; every youngster wants to be liked and respected; every youngster wants physical exercises and freedom to move; and youngsters want life to be just."21 Easy to say, but enormously challenging for parents and teachers. dolescents seems to be in constant flux. As will discuss more fully in Chapter 10, "What Is the History of America's Struggle for Educational Opportunity?," our knowledge about this topic is circumscribed somewhat by the plethora of grade-clustering patterns evident in U.S. schools. Up until the beginning of the nineteenth century, students went through eight grades of one-teacher-to-a-classroom elementary schools, and then some went on to multiple-teacher high schools. Reformers at the time thought the transition was too late and moved seventh, eighth, and ninth grade into what they called "junior" high school. This pattern was predominant until the 1960s, when theorists and reformers came to the conclusion that junior highs were becoming overly content focused and ignoring intellectual and development needs of young adolescents. Their answer was the "middle school," which stressed developmental goals in addition to more integration and exploration of subject matter. Since then, middle schools have become the dominant pattern, but with continuing debate about which particular pattern (grades 6-7, 5-7, 6-8, or 5-8) is most effective.22 It is worth noting that most private and religious schools have traditionally resisted these changes and kept to the eight-grade elementary model. While the middle school model is dominant in public education today, it is not without its critics. These middle school opponents site the information "drop-off " that is occurring between elementary and middle school. Recent test results in math and reading in all 50 states show that "between 1999 and 2004, elementary school students made solid gains in reading and math, while middle school students made smaller gains in math and stagnated in reading."23 Describing "the lost years of middle schooling" in the United States (grades 6, 7, and 8) as "an intellectual wasteland" and "the 'Bermuda Triangle' of American education," such critics call for a return to the K-8 pattern and a more rigorous, discipline-focused curriculum.24 Supporters insist that the nature of the "middle years" requires a specially designed environment, but opponents characterize the curriculum as soft and disorganized, with the middle school's academic mission taking a backseat to addressing students' social and emotional needs. Urban school leaders in particular are moving back to the K-8 and 9-12 model.25 They have been prompted by a New York City study, comparing the math and English achievement scores of students in middle schools and in K-8 schools. Not only did the middle schoolers do less well, but their disadvantage also grows larger over the course of the middle school years.26 77690_ch02_ptg01.indd 44 18/08/14 1:29 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. What Do Studies Reveal about the Nature of Schools? 45 Sometimes this is part of a reform agenda to "shake up" a failing status quo situation; sometimes to restore a more direct and rigorous academic focus; and sometimes for social and behavioral purposes. This last motive is supported by recent research that found that sixth-graders in middle schools got into significantly more discipline problems than those in K-8 schools, and further that this pattern of misbehavior and concomitant academic problems persisted.27 Developmental or Academic Purposes Foremost? Is there one right way of educating students in the middle grades best? Probably not. No one pattern is superior for all students. Increasingly, the debate over middle schools versus junior high versus K-8 elementary school is being influenced by a greater focus on academic achievement, concerns over the earlier and earlier arrival of puberty in children, and even district financial and building issues affecting the configuration of grades. Like many issues in school, this one involves a series of tradeoffs. However, what is consistently identified as important for educating students in the middle grades is that the developmental needs of early adolescents, such as selfesteem and interpersonal skills, must be acknowledged and considered in developing and organizing programs.

Describe significant changes in education that have taken place since World War II.

After World War II, the United States' role in world affairs expanded dramatically, thus broadening the scope of educational objectives for the nation's schools. The use of the single textbook was supplemented by a great variety of learning resources. Other major developments in elementary education included the rapid growth of kindergartens and an emphasis on providing special educational programs for children with disabilities. During the period of the 1950s and 1960s, we were in what was called "the Cold War" with the Soviet Union. In response to the Soviet launch of the space satellite Sputnik in 1957, for example, national curriculum projects emphasizing mathematics, science, and social studies were developed and implemented in our elementary schools. Also during this period, two types of students received major attention from elementary school educators: the gifted and the disadvantaged. (See Chapter 3, "Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society?," for more on gifted education and students from poverty backgrounds.) Gifted students received attention because of U.S. concern over the ongoing Cold War with the Soviet Union and the perceived need to produce scientific breakthroughs to ensure U.S. military superiority over the Soviets. As the movement for civil and human rights gained momentum, an increasing number of curriculum reform movements also focused on "culturally disadvantaged" children. In response to judicial decisions and protests by minority groups, the federal government advanced significant financial aid in an effort to change schools to better address the needs of these children. Compensatory education programs, such as Head Start and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, improved the learning of disadvantaged children. (See Chapter 11, "How Are Schools Governed, Influenced, and Financed?," for more details on compensatory education programs.) As achievement test and Scholastic Aptitude Test (now known as the SAT) scores declined during the 1970s, many parents, politicians, and educators argued that the schools had tried to accomplish too much and had lost sight of their basic purposes. A return to the basics seemed to be the cry of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Today, academic rigor continues to be emphasized in the form of content standards, but more programs have been developed to meet the needs of students who are at risk for dropping out. (See Chapter 5, "What Is Taught?," and Chapter 12, "How Should Education Be Reformed?," for more discussion on standards.) Although a public elementary school education is now available everywhere in the United States, the issues of what constitutes a proper education—how comprehensive it should be, how secular it should remain, and how basic learning should be defined—are far from finally settled. The changing nature of what constitutes the basics of education has been another key theme of the history of American education.344

List the pros and cons of establishing common schools

After the American Revolution, it was recognized that a democratic government would be only as strong as the people's ability to make intelligent choices, which in turn depended on a basic education for all. It was also argued that education was a natural right, just like the very rights for which the revolution had been fought. During this period, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson suggested educational plans, as did other leaders of the revolution. This early period of independence also saw an increased concern with citizenship and nationhood. Leaders perceived that a system of common schooling would strengthen the new nation's unity. An influx of immigrants in the 1840s and 1850s, following a period of upheaval in Europe, further stimulated demand for an educational system that would serve to "Americanize" the waves of foreigners and keep U.S. society stable. In contrast to European social structure, class membership in America was rather fluid: Wealth and social status in this country depended less on the social class into which a person was born. Universal education, one of the key themes of American education, was thus seen by the newly evolving working class as a means of equalizing economic and social opportunities. As a result, another reason given for spreading educational opportunity was that better-educated people would increase productivity and enhance everyone's prosperity while diminishing crime and reducing poverty. In fact, school materials of the time reflected this argument. Whereas The New England Primer reflected the religious orientation of much colonial education, the textbooks of the nineteenth century began a trend toward secular education (another of the seven major themes in the history of American education), emphasizing morality and Americanism. No other book was more popular than the six-volume series of McGuffey Readers, which sold more than 100 million copies between 1836 and 1906. Besides training students in (American) English language and grammar, these texts introduced poetry and the writings of statesmen, politicians, moralists, and religious leaders. Although universal education at this time was meant only for whites, the same arguments advanced by its advocates were used later to extend equal opportunities for education to include racial and ethnic minorities and children with disabilities,to name just a few groups that have been denied equal educational opportunities in the past. The desegregation efforts of the 1960s and 1970s, for example, were based on these very arguments.340 Arguments against the Common School As proper as these thoughts may sound to the modern ear, they often encountered opposition. The arguments against the public common school were based on economics as much as on educational or political principles: Why should one family pay for the education of another family's children? Many people believed that schooling, especially for the poor, should be the responsibility of religious groups. Still others thought that a free public school would gradually weaken or dilute the particular culture or religion that they had sought to establish in the United States. If ethnic groups mingled together, what would be the fate of each group's native culture and language? Similar concerns are reflected in the current controversies about multicultural and bilingual education, discussed in Chapter 3, "Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society?" Educators also struggled with another question: What was to be done about religious study? The ability of different religious groups to exist together in one school, as in democracy itself, demanded that no one religious group be favored over another. Although many competing proposals were advanced, the common schools finally settled on the teaching of basic moral values such as honesty and sincerity, as a substitute for direct religious instruction. As described in Chapter 8, "What Are the Ethical and Legal Issues Facing Teachers?," the same issues continue to inspire controversy today340

What are some of the things that principals and teachers can do to reduce the incidence of violence?

Concern over school crime and violence has prompted many public schools to take measures to reduce and prevent violence and to ensure safety in schools. In particular, concerns about keeping schools secure from outsiders have increased since the 2012 deadly shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Schools have increasingly adopted safety measures including the following steps: ●● Controlling building access during school hours ●● Providing telephones in most classrooms ●● Requiring faculty and staff to wear picture IDs ●● Using one or more security cameras ●● Requiring students to wear uniforms ●● Requiring students to wear picture IDs34 The Video Case, Social and Emotional Development: Understanding Adolescents, shows a group of middle school boys discussing productive ways to handle stress and anger. Several aspects of school organization can contribute to student aggression, including high numbers of students occupying a small space, imposition of routines and conformity that may anger some students, and poor building designs that may contribute to the commission of violent acts. Most incidents of violence occur during "transition times"— that is, at the start of school, during lunch periods, or at the end of the school day. Reducing crowding, increasing supervision, and instituting policies for handling disputes during these intervals can reduce the likelihood of conflicts and their resulting injuries. Students who enjoy positive interactions with faculty and staff, are academically successful, or participate productively in school activities are less likely to commit acts of violence. In most cases of school violence, warning signs are apparent— for example, notes, threats, journal entries, arguments, or physical fights. Teachers who are able to develop close relationships with students may be in a good position to spot these signals of impending violence. Developing mechanisms for reporting threats and other warning signs of potential violence can also help schools curb these incidents. What else can schools—specifically, principals—do to reduce school violence? ●● Establish common goals for the school and elicit commitment to these goals from teachers, students, and parents. ●● Establish a firm, fair, and consistent system for running the school. ●● Establish high expectations for the behavior and performance of students and staff. ●● Create a curriculum that supports the values of honesty, integrity, kindness, and respect for others. ●● Use a variety of security measures to keep intruders and weapons off school grounds. ●● Establish the school as neutral territory for students, control rumors, and squelch loitering and tardiness. ●● Create alternative schools for serious offenders. ●● Provide students and teachers with training in effective communication. Social and Emotional Development: Understanding Adolescents Watch the video clips, study the artifacts in the case, and reflect on the following questions: 1. What are your concerns, as a teacher, about violence in the schools? 2. Which of the strategies for teachers and schools listed in this chapter is represented in this case? 3. Can you think of additional techniques that you, as a teacher, could use to defuse potentially dangerous situations in school? TeachSource Video Case © 2016 Cengage Learning® 77690_ch04_ptg01.indd 112 18/08/14 1:39 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. Student Cheating 113 What can teachers themselves do to prevent violence and vandalism? ●● Establish a classroom environment centered on respect and kindness, where put-downs, ridicule, and sarcasm are not tolerated. ●● Learn how to defuse conflict in ways that save face for both students and teachers. ●● Develop intensive skills in classroom management. ●● Use peer counseling or peer mediation to train students to handle problems before they become serious. ●● Involve students in decision-making processes in areas such as finding methods to handle offenders. The encouraging news is that although school violence and vandalism are serious problems, they affect a relatively small percentage of teachers and students in the public schools. Viewed from a broader perspective, this problem probably reflects as much a societal malaise as any particular flaw of schools. Boredom, frustration, alienation, despair, and low self-concept are characteristics that teenagers may experience in their homes and in society in general, as well as in school. As long as violence prevails in society, schools will likely be affected.142

Education 57-59

Education is a process of human growth by which one gains greater understanding and control over oneself and one's world. It involves our minds, our bodies, and our relations with the people and the world around us. Ideally, education is also characterized by continuous development and change Education is much more open-ended and all-inclusive than schooling and knows few boundaries. It includes both the formal learning that takes place in schools and the entire universe of informal learning, from how to hook a worm on a line to how to burp a baby. Whereas schooling follows a routine and has a certain predictability, education quite often takes us by surprise. Education is a lifelong process: it starts long before we begin school and should be ongoing our entire lives.

What is the goal of education? Essentialism

Essentialists' goals are to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, patriotism, and character development through traditional (or back-to-basic) approaches. This is to promote reasoning, train the mind, and ensure a common culture for all citizens.

List some of the extrinsic rewards of a career in teaching.33-35 CHAPTER 1

Extrinsic rewards are the public, external attractions of an occupation, such as money, prestige, and power. Salaries and Benefits Status Power Work Schedule

Describe some of the characteristics of effective schools.77-80

First, the obvious: Not all schools are good schools. Second, good schools do not just happen—they are made. A school is the product of people's intellectual and physical energies. At any particular moment, the way a school is reflects the multiplicity of efforts that have gone into creating and maintaining it. Further, like towns and civilizations, schools rise and fall. They are human creations—dynamic and continually on the move. No school, at least in the authors' experience, is "right" or "good" for all students. Nevertheless, some schools are strikingly better than others—that is, some schools provide a significantly better education for a much larger percentage of their students than do others. These schools, referred to in the educational literature as effective schools, are the focus of this section.Defining an effective school has been a major concern of educators for several decades. A popular definition of an effective school is one in which learning for all students is maximized. Although this definition is certainly compelling, it is hardly precise. Besides the question of what constitutes learning, the meaning of effective is uncertain. Effective or good in what dimension? In academically engaged and happy students? In a teaching staff with high morale? In the percentage of students who are promoted or graduate? Those who go on to college? What kinds of colleges? How many students become skilled technicians and accomplished artisans? How many succeed in business or professional life? In athletics? Socially? Ethically? Effective, as currently defined in most of the educational research literature, refers to students' achievement test scores in basic skills such as reading and mathematics. Although such tests measure skills that are not the only objectives of education, achievement in these academic areas is an important and widely acclaimed outcome of schooling. Also, achievement in reading and mathematics is easier to measure than good citizenship, artistic development, or passion for ideas. Beginning almost 30 years ago, a number of educational researchers began looking for the characteristics or qualities of effective schools.37 Among the most significant characteristics they found to be correlated with high achievement in the basic skills were high expectations for student performance, communication among teachers, a task orientation among the staff, the ability to keep students on task, the expenditure of little time on behavior management, the principal's instructional leadership, the participation of parents, and the school environment. The Teacher's Expectations Through their attitude and regular encouragement, teachers in effective schools communicate to students their belief that the students will achieve the goals of instruction. In effect, the teachers get across to students a "can-do" attitude about learning. We discuss teacher expectations more in Chapter 6, "What Makes a Teacher Effective?" Communication among Teachers Teachers in effective schools do not operate in a vacuum, each in his or her isolated classroom. Instead, they talk among themselves about their work and converse about one another's students. They know the curricular materials and activities that go on in one another's classrooms, and they are helpful to one another. In short, effective schools have teachers who are good colleagues. Task Orientation The faculties of effective schools are highly task oriented. They begin instruction early in the class period and end instruction late in the period. The staff approaches its teaching responsibilities with a serious air and wastes little time in class. Whether the classes are formal or informal, underneath the surface of events lies a seriousness of purpose that is communicated to students. Academic Engaged Time Academic engaged time (or academic learning time) refers to the amount of time students are actually engaged in relevant content-related activities while experiencing a high rate of success. As we describe in Chapter 6, this characteristic involves the ability of a teacher to engage students in academic tasks, such as reading or solving math problems, and to keep their attention on these instructional activities. Research has demonstrated a tight link between the amount of time devoted to academic learning tasks and students' achievement.38 Behavior Management We have all been in classrooms with teachers who spent huge chunks of time trying to quiet students to get them "on task" or who, in the course of correcting one student, disturbed all the rest, causing a ripple of distraction throughout the room. Teachers in effective schools have learned techniques to minimize the time devoted to managing students. They are efficient both in handling discipline problems and in implementing the learning activities. In addition, these teachers do not routinely resort to corporal punishment, because they use other techniques to deal with student behavior. (See Chapter 6, "What Makes a Teacher Effective?" for more on classroom management.) The Principal Principals play an important role in effective schools. Instead of being faceless bureaucrats aimlessly shuffling papers, the principals of effective schools are instructional leaders. They have strong views on the purposes of education and are vitally concerned about the quality of teaching and learning in their schools. Still, the principal is perceived as democratic in approach and cooperative in relationships with faculty. Effective principals gain teachers' confidence and clearly communicate to them a vision of what the school should accomplish and how each teacher can contribute toward this end. The teacher-parent-student triangle is a powerful educative force. Digital Vision/Photodisc/Getty Images Parental Involvement in School Culture Watch the video clips, study the artifacts in the case, and reflect on the following questions: 1. Which of the other aspects of an effective school and effective teaching can you see in the portrayals in this video case? 2. Were parents involved in the schools you have attended? How? How could their involvement have been improved? 3. Do you as a teacher feel comfortable about involving parents in your classroom? If not, what can you do now to address your concerns? TeachSource Video Case © 2016 Cengage Learning® 77690_ch02_ptg01.indd 50 18/08/14 1:30 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. What Is a Good School? 51 Parents An effective school reaches out and draws in parents instead of ignoring them or keeping them at arm's length. Parents are treated as key members of the learning team, as partners with the professional staff in helping their children achieve academic success. In addition to aiding in students' intellectual achievement, the involvement of parents can help improve their children's self-concepts, work habits, and attitudes toward school. The video case Parental Involvement in School Culture lets you view one example of how parents can contribute to an effective school. The School Environment Schools that promote learning have climates or environments that support a teacher's efforts to teach and students' efforts to learn. A school that has an environment that is calm, safe, pleasant, and orderly is conducive to learning. Conversely, a school with an environment that is unsafe, hostile, and generally unruly is rarely a place of learning—at least not academic learning. Attempts to answer the question "What is a good school?" are still incomplete. Although the characteristics cited are those identified by several extensive research projects, studies continue. For instance, researchers at the recently formed National Center on Scaling up Effective Schools reports that "a consensus has grown among practitioners and researchers around the essential components of a successful urban school," such as: ●● Quality instruction ●● A rigorous curriculum ●● A culture of learning ●● Professional behavior ●● Connections to external communities ●● Systemic use of data ●● System performance accountability ●● Learner-centered leadership39 One of the newest factors to be identified as contributing to a school's effectiveness is trust. Relational trust refers to the network of trust among people. It is built on four factors: respect for the other, competence, personal regard for the other, and integrity. It involves all the players in a child's education and appreciates the contributions of each: fellow teachers, aides, administrators, parents and, the students . . . everyone in the school community. Schools vary greatly on this factor of trust, but where there are high levels of trust, there is a high probability of an effective school. A high trust school is where people feel cared for, where honesty among people is high, and where effort is appreciated. An environment of trust acts as a school's glue, keeping people together and moving forward.40 Although there is much overlap with the long-standing list of characteristics, the new emphasis on assessment and evaluation is reflected in the inclusion of "systemic use of data" and "system performance accountability." We strongly suspect that a number of qualities besides those mentioned here make major contributions to the establishment of an effective school. Among these are a pervasive sense of curiosity, a passion for excellence, a strong belief in students' capacity to grow, and an environment of kindness and support.

Identify the European educators who have made significant contributions to American education, and briefly describe each of their contributions

From Europe came new ideas about education. One of the most far-reaching experiments was the kindergarten, or "children's garden," where pleasant children's activities such as songs and stories were used to lay a foundation before formal education began. Friedrich Froebel of Germany developed the first kindergarten " The Common School is the greatest discovery ever made by man. —Horace Mann (1796-1859), nineteenth-century champion of the common school Pause and Reflect How are the arguments for and against common schools reflected in today's controversies about using vouchers to pay for private or religious schooling? 77690_ch10_ptg01.indd 311 18/08/14 2:05 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 312 Chapter 10 What Is the History of America's Struggle for Educational Opportunity? in 1837. The first U.S. experiments with this sort of education were actually made before the Civil War, but it was not until 1873 that a public school kindergarten was established in St. Louis, and the idea spread rapidly. Elizabeth Peabody brought Froebel's ideas to the United States and was influential in instituting early childhood education in our country. European influence also resulted in greater emphasis on the interests of the children in elementary education. Johann Pestalozzi modeled his educational doctrines on a Swiss experimental school at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Pestalozzi attempted to educate the heads, hearts, and hands of his pupils, relying on attitudes of acceptance and love of individual students to reach large numbers of poor and handicapped children. Among his instructional techniques were object lessons, which focused on actual objects and pictures. Pestalozzi also emphasized learning through sense perceptions and sequencing of learning experiences from the known to the unknown. We can still see the influence of many of Pestalozzi's ideas in American education. German educator Johann Friedrich Herbart, influenced by Pestalozzi's thinking, stressed that the primary purpose of education was moral development. Herbart also established a highly structured mode of teaching that strongly influenced American teachers during the early part of the twentieth century. Many European thinkers, and American educators influenced by them, believed students could learn best by direct experience—that is, by using their senses and relating new learning to their previous knowledge. As a result, some schools incorporated more physical activity and manual training in their curricula. This innovation was designed not to train technical workers, but rather to complement and round out traditional intellectual instruction. Maria Montessori was particularly influential in developing a curriculum that emphasized learning through the senses for young children. The theories espoused by Froebel, Pestalozzi, Herbart, and Montessori, among others, entered American education through their influence on issues of curriculum and instruction. The emphasis on the children's interest and experience, which was advocated by the progressive educators (described in this chapter and in Chapter 9, "What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education?") and remains a strong in American elementary education, owes much to these European thinkers. 340

Name several of the most common motives for becoming a teacher CHAPTER 1:(32)

I really like the idea of having a positive influence on 25 (or 150) kids every day. I can't think of anything else to do with my major. Teaching seems to be a fairly secure, low-risk occupation with many attractive benefits, including lots of vacation time and time to raise a family. I always loved history (or mathematics or science or literature), and teaching seems to be a career that will allow me to work with a subject matter that I love. I can't imagine anything more important to do with my life than helping children with disabilities learn to cope with, and even overcome, their barriers The instruction I had in school was incredibly bad, and I want to correct that situation. My parents would really be pleased and proud if I were a teacher. Quite simply, I love children. I enjoy being in charge and being a positive influence on students. I really don't know what else I could do. I know about teaching, and I think I could do it. I'm concerned that society is falling apart, and I want to look out for the kids. Education seems as if it's going to be the action field of the future, and I want to be part of it. One of my students might become a famous painter, or the president of a major foundation, or who knows what. It would be great to have a strong impact on just one significant life. I really want to become a principal/coach/guidance counselor/college professor/ educational researcher, and teaching seems to be the way to start. I have strong religious beliefs and see teaching as a good and useful way to live my life. Businesses are increasingly interested in training and educating their employees, and I want a career as a private-sector educator working in corporate America. I come from a family of teachers, and teaching just seems to be the natural thing to do. I want to have fun in life, and as a teacher, I'll have fun and get paid for it! I have always felt I have a calling—a vocation—to be a teacher.

IDEA, and their major provisions.

In 1990, Congress passed two significant federal laws relating to people with disabilities: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) aspects of their lives other than education. Seven principles provide the framework of IDEA, around which education services are designed and provided to students with disabilities: ●● Fair and appropriate education (FAPE) ●● Appropriate evaluation ●● An individualized education program (IEP) ●● Least restrictive environment (LRE) ●● Parent and student participation in decision making ●● Procedural safeguards ●● Response to Intervention (RTI) Because of the wide variety of disabilities and infinite degrees of severity in which these conditions may be found in individual students, IDEA mandates that a "free appropriate public education" be defined on an individual basis, using the written IEP. The IEP identifies the child's current levels of educational performance, shortterm objectives and annual goals, services to be provided, and criteria and schedules for evaluation of progress. In this way, it helps ensure that the educational goals designed for the child are appropriate to his or her individual learning needs and that these plans are actually delivered as intended. Provisions in the IEP must be reviewed and revised annually—or more often, if necessary. Teachers, parents or guardians, special educators, other professionals, and the child (whenever appropriate) are all involved in the development and approval of the IEP. IDEA also requires that all older students with a disability (usually ages 14 to 16) have an individualized plan for making the transition from school to work or additional education beyond high school through age 21. Like the original act of 1975, IDEA further stipulates that services for students with disabilities be provided in a least restrictive environment (LRE), meaning students with disabilities should be educated with children without disabilities to the greatest extent appropriate. Determination of what constitutes the LRE has been controversial. The social and academic benefits of the regular classroom must be weighed against the unique educational needs and individual circumstances for each child. In the past, the term mainstreaming was used to describe the practice of placing special education students in general education classes for at least part of the school day, with additional services, programs, or classes being provided to these students as needed. More recently, the term inclusion has been used to mean the commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the regular school and classroom. Compared with mainstreaming, inclusion—and particularly full inclusion, as it is sometimes called—indicates an even greater commitment to keeping students with disabilities in regular classrooms. It usually involves bringing the support services to the child rather than moving the child to services located in separate rooms or buildings. Congress incorporated definitions of assistive technology into IDEA, declaring that such technology must be provided whenever necessary as an element of free and appropriate public education. Assistive technology must be considered a potential component of the IEP for each student with disabilities.26 As a new teacher, you should be prepared to encounter situations in which a child uses technology as a medium for interaction and engagement within your classroom

Describe PL94-142 and IDEA, and their major provisions.

In 1990, Congress passed two significant federal laws relating to people with disabilities: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), subsequently reauthorized in 1997 and again in 2004, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). IDEA amended the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. ADA ensures the right of individuals with disabilities to nondiscriminatory treatment in aspects of their lives other than education. Seven principles provide the framework of IDEA, around which education services are designed and provided to students with disabilities: ●● Fair and appropriate education (FAPE) ●● Appropriate evaluation ●● An individualized education program (IEP) ●● Least restrictive environment (LRE) ●● Parent and student participation in decision making ●● Procedural safeguards ●● Response to Intervention (RTI) Because of the wide variety of disabilities and infinite degrees of severity in which these conditions may be found in individual students, IDEA mandates that a "free appropriate public education" be defined on an individual basis, using the written IEP. The IEP identifies the child's current levels of educational performance, shortterm objectives and annual goals, services to be provided, and criteria and schedules for evaluation of progress. In this way, it helps ensure that the educational goals designed for the child are appropriate to his or her individual learning needs and that these plans are actually delivered as intended. Provisions in the IEP must be reviewed and revised annually—or more often, if necessary. Teachers, parents or guardians, special educators, other professionals, and the child (whenever appropriate) are all involved in the development and approval of the IEP. IDEA also requires that all older students with a disability (usually ages 14 to 16) have an individualized plan for making the transition from school to work or additional education beyond high school through age 21.101

Describe the time period and characteristics of dame schools, town schools, private venture schools, and common schools.

In the 1600s, some girls received elementary instruction, but formal colonial education was intended mainly for boys, particularly those of the middle and upper classes. Both girls and boys might have had some preliminary training in the four R's—reading, 'riting, 'rithmetic, and religion—at home. Sometimes, for a small fee, a housewife offered to take in children, to whom she would teach a little reading and writing, basic prayers, and religious beliefs. In these dame schools, girls also learned basic household skills such as cooking and sewing. The dame schools often provided all the formal education some children, especially girls, ever received.336 In New England, the Puritans believed it was important that everyone be able to read the Bible and interpret its teachings. As early as 1642, Massachusetts passed a law requiring parents to educate their children. That law was strengthened in 1647 by the famous Old Deluder Satan Act. Because Satan assuredly would try to keep people from understanding the Scriptures, it was deemed important that all children be taught how to read. Therefore, every town of 50 or more families was obligated to pay a man to teach reading and writing. With these schools, known as town schools, New England set the precedent that if parents would not or could not educate their children, the government was obligated to take on that responsibility337 Unlike Puritan New England and the Anglican Southern Colonies, the Middle Colonies were composed of various religious and ethnic groups. Quakers, Catholics, Mennonites, Huguenots, Baptists, and others each wished to train their children in their respective faiths; Dutch, German, and Swedish settlers also wanted a separate education for their children. As a result, private venture schools, which were licensed but not protected or financed by the civil government, flourished, and the use of public funds to educate everyone's children did not become customary. In these private schools, parents paid the teacher directly on a contractual basis. Instructors managed the school and curriculum, accepting or rejecting students as desired. The denominational schools in the Middle Colonies shared the New England concern for proper religious training as a primary goal, but they also began early to offer, in addition to the basics, practical subjects such as bookkeeping or navigation.338 Before the American Revolution, the term common school referred to schools that provided education for the average person, albeit not necessarily at public expense or available to all. Even in colonial New England, parents had to pay for their children's schooling. In the first blush of the new republic, however, conditions began to favor universal education—the idea that some sort of elementary education should be provided free, at public expense and under public control, for everyone who could not afford or did not want private schooling339

Distinguish between the practices of inclusion and mainstreaming.

In the past, the term mainstreaming was used to describe the practice of placing special education students in general education classes for at least part of the school day, with additional services, programs, or classes being provided to these students as needed. More recently, the term inclusion has been used to mean the commitment to educate each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, in the regular school and classroom. Compared with mainstreaming, inclusion—and particularly full inclusion, as it is sometimes called—indicates an even greater commitment to keeping students with disabilities in regular classrooms. It usually involves bringing the support services to the child rather than moving the child to services located in separate rooms or buildings. Controversy over Inclusion In recent years, full inclusion has become a civil rights issue. Advocates of full inclusion argue that segregated education for students with disabilities is inherently unequal (much like the earlier practice of racial segregation), and therefore violates the rights of these children. They also argue that traditional special education programs have resulted in a costly special education bureaucracy that has not shown the expected benefits in terms of academic, social, or vocational skills. Among the benefits of full inclusion for children with disabilities, they say, are higher expectations and better socialization, as well as greater acceptance of human differences by children without disabilities. The "Up Close" feature describes how one teacher has learned about the students with autism in her classroom. Critics of full inclusion say that both teachers and students are being hurt in the rush to embrace this teaching approach: ●● Parents of children without disabilities often worry that the curriculum standards will be lowered by the inclusion of students with learning disabilities and that those students with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or emotional problems can be a disruption to their classmates and teachers. ●● Some special educators voice concerns that full inclusion may result in diminished or inadequate specialized services for students who have special needs. They point out that the regular classroom may not be the best setting for every child. Violent or emotionally disordered children, for example, may pose a threat to themselves and to their classmates. These educators are wary of eliminating the range of service delivery options currently available in favor of a pure inclusion model. They argue that little evidence shows that inclusion programs strengthen students' academic achievement. (The same criticism could be made of many special education programs.) ●● Overworked classroom teachers have complained that they are given inadequate resources and training to deal with students with disabilities. Ideally, when students with disabilities are included in regular classrooms, their teachers receive special training and help from a special education teacher who serves as either a co-teacher or a consultant. In some cases, however, teachers have been given sole responsibility for a class of 30 students, with as many as 10 having disabilities. True collaboration between general education and special education teachers is essential for inclusion to work effectively In too many instances, critics say, when children with disabilities are moved from resource rooms and self-contained classrooms into regular classrooms, the necessary supports do not follow them on their journey. One reason for this trend is that some school districts use the cover of inclusion as a way to cut costs for special education services. With voters reluctant to increase school taxes, and many school districts facing budget cuts as a result, some school boards and administrators see the inclusion movement as a way to save money by reducing funding for special education. The 2004 reauthorization of IDEA committed the federal government in principle to paying 40 percent of the average per-pupil cost of educating a special education student by 2011. A little over 13 percent of school-aged children are served by programs for students with disabilities. Unfortunately, in 2012, the federal government provided approximately 17 percent of its commitment rather than the 40 percent specified by law.23 This development is especially important because the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act requires that special education students take the same achievement tests that regular education students take, albeit sometimes with accommodations. Without additional funding or appropriate alternative assessments, many special education students will not pass these tests, and their schools will fail to meet the provisions of the law. For more on the No Child Left Behind law, see Chapter 11, "How Are Schools Governed, Influenced, and Financed?," and Chapter 12, "How Should Education Be Reformed?" Despite the criticisms of the inclusion movement, one thing is certain: Inclusion of children with disabilities has become accepted practice in U.S. schools. The majority of students with disabilities are taking part in regular classroom and school life alongside their peers. Inclusion seems to thrive in schools that have a shared vision of the school's purposes; strong lines of communication among teachers, administrators, and parents; and a culture of innovation and reform. In many schools with successful inclusion programs, the presence of students with disabilities has sparked other reform initiatives such as cooperati learning, peer teaching, team teaching, authentic assessment, and interdisciplinary instruction. In addition to students receiving special education services, a number of children in elementary and secondary schools have "504 plans." The "504" in "504 plan" refers to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act, which specifies that no one with a disability can be excluded from participating in federally funded programs or activities, including elementary, secondary, or postsecondary schooling. Disability in this context refers to a "physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities." This can include physical impairments; illnesses or injuries; communicable diseases; chronic conditions like asthma, allergies, and diabetes; and learning problems. A 504 plan spells out the accommodations that will be needed for these students to have an opportunity to perform at the same level as their peers, and might include such things as wheelchair ramps, blood sugar monitoring, an extra set of textbooks, a peanut-free lunch environment, home instruction, or a tape recorder or keyboard for taking notes.101-105

List and describe some of the common experiences of elementary students.69-71

One of the best perspectives on how time is usually spent in the elementary classroom is Philip W. Jackson's classic study Life in Classrooms. 12 Anthropologists have taught us that the humdrum aspects of human existence have cultural significance and that we must look at the most routine events in an elementary classroom if we are to understand what happens there. Are certain trivial acts repeated many times? How often do they occur? What is their cumulative effect on children? What do they teach children? Jackson's careful observations of elementary school classrooms show how revealing the answers to these questions can be. Have you ever figured out how many hours a child spends in school? In most states, the school year is 180 days. The day typically begins at 8:30 a.m. and ends at 3 p.m., so it lasts a total of six and a half hours. If a child doesn't miss a day of school, he or she spends more than 1,000 hours in school each year. Including kindergarten, the average child, by the end of sixth grade, will spend more than 7,000 hours in elementary school. How are those hours typically spent? In pondering this question, you may think first of the curriculum, which specifies so many hours of reading, language arts, mathematics, science, play, social studies, music, art, and so on. But what do students really do when they are studying these subjects? They talk to each other or the teacher. They read silently and aloud. They yawn. They look out the window. They raise their hands. They line up. They stand up. They sit down. In short, they do a number of different things, many of them commonplace and trivial. To understand why some of these things happen, we must first look at what the teacher does. The Teacher's Role Jackson has observed that the elementary school teacher engages in as many as a thousand interpersonal interchanges each day. The teaching-learning process consists, for the most part, of talking, and the teacher controls and directs discussion. The teacher acts as a gatekeeper, deciding who shall speak. (One may debate whether this should be the teacher's role, but clearly most teachers function this way.) The teacher also acts as a dispenser of supplies. Because both space and resources are limited, and because the number of students wishing to use them at any one time is likely to be greater than the supply, the teacher must dole them out. A related function is as granter of special privileges to deserving students: passing out the milk, sharpening pencils, taking the roll, or spending free time at the computer. Although little teacher time is involved in awarding these special jobs, they are important because they help structure the classroom socially as a system of rewards and punishments. Timekeeper is another teacher responsibility. It is the teacher who decides when a certain activity ends and another begins, when it is time to stop science and begin spelling, and when students go outside for recess. In some schools, the teacher is assisted in timekeeping by bells and buzzers that signal when a period is over. As Jackson observes, things happen because it is time for them to occur, not because students want them to happen. All these teacher functions can be seen as responses to the crowded conditions in the classroom. If a teacher were dealing with one student at a time in a tutorial situation, then gatekeeping, dispensing supplies, granting special privileges, and timekeeping would not be necessary. Given that a tutorial setting is not possible, much time and energy are spent keeping order. The resulting atmosphere has unavoidable effects on the students. What are some of the consequences for students in crowded classroom conditions? What Students Experience One inevitable outcome for students that results from the teacher's "traffic management" functions is delay. Because students' actions are limited by space, material resources, and the amount of teacher attention they can command, there are definite limits on their freedom in class. In addition, because the class ordinarily moves toward a goal as a group rather than as individuals, its slowest members often determine the pace of progress. Waiting is a familiar activity for elementary school children—that is, waiting in line to get a drink of water, waiting with arm propped at the elbow to be called on to answer a question, waiting to use the scissors, waiting until others have finished their work to go on to the next activity, waiting until four other students have finished reading aloud for a chance to do so, and on and on. Denial of desire is another common experience for elementary students. A question goes unanswered, a raised hand is ignored, talking out of turn is not permitted, relief of bodily functions is allowed only at specified times. Some denial is necessary and probably beneficial, but one thing is certain: Delayed gratification and denied desire are learned in school, and a certain amount of student frustration is bound to develop. Students also experience frequent interruptions of many sorts, such as interruptions of seatwork by the teacher to give additional instructions or to clarify one student's question, interruptions when messages from the principal's office are read aloud to the class, interruptions for fire drills, interruptions when a teacher is working with one student and another student misbehaves, and so on. Students are expected either to ignore these intrusions or to quickly resume their activities. The emphasis on an inflexible schedule contributes to the sense of interruption by often making students begin activities before their interest has been aroused and stop at the height of their interest when the schedule dictates that they must begin another task. A related phenomenon is social distraction. Students are often asked to behave as if they were alone, when they are actually surrounded by 20 to 30 other people. During assigned seatwork, for example, communication among students is often discouraged, if not forbidden. To be surrounded by friends, sometimes seated across from each other at a table, and not be allowed to talk is a difficult and tempting situation. As Jackson remarks, "These young people, if they are to become successful students, must learn how to be alone in a crowd."13 Delay, denial, interruption, and social distraction, then, are characteristic of life in elementary classrooms. Given these classroom conditions, it seems likely that students who either possess or quickly develop patience would find school more tolerable than students who lack it. The ability to control desires, delay rewards, and stifle impulses seems to be characteristic of successful students, whereas less successful students exhibit less patience and more impulsiveness.

Re-creators of culture

The realization that the modern world is a dangerous place, faced with many complex issues, from international terrorists and nuclear weapons to widespread hunger and social injustice, has led some educators to posit that schools must become the tool of social reconstruction. Instead of seeing schools as places where past collective wisdom flows down to those who have the capacity and interest to make use of it, these educators assume a much more active, even assertive role for the school. According to this perspective, schools and teachers should work toward activating student interest and commitment to improving society. Unlike those who wish to transmit culture, educators who wish to reconstruct society accept the existence of conflicts among different groups and look at them as important tools to understand these groups' view of social problems. Called social reconstructionists, these educators see the role of schools as forming the young into agents of change and participating in the decision about how society needs to change. Compared to those committed to cultural transmission, they have less reverence for the accumulated wisdom of the past and more concern for the world's problems and the necessity to create a new order. They reject the idea of schools being "sorting machines," separating students for different life roles, and see successful students not so much as cultivated people, but as autonomous citizens ready to join with others to tackle the world's ills and help in the reconstruction of society. Currently, the most influential advocate of this position is William Ayers. Even among social reconstructionists, however, a wide range of emphases and views are evident. Social reconstructionists fall into two broad categories: democratic reconstructionists and economic reconstructionists. Democratic Reconstructionists Democratic reconstructionists see the solution to certain trends and current issues, such as racism, poverty, and the destruction of the ecosystem, as the responsibility of an aroused and skilled citizenry.3 The school's mission, then, is to prepare students for vigorous participation in their government. The focus of schooling is on developing knowledge of democratic processes, critical thinking skills, and group process skills so the student can work fruitfully with others for social improvement. In more active programs, students select, study, and work on a community environmental problem, such as the polluting of landfills with unrecycled garbage. (We will return to this concept of democratic reconstructionism later in this chapter, in the discussion of Thomas Jefferson.) Economic Reconstructionists Economic reconstructionists tend to take a harsher view of the dominant culture and see schools as the pliant servants of those in power. The influence of corporate values is seen in many phases of school life, from the way textbooks are used to the widespread use of testing.4 Moreover, economic reconstructionists often argue that schools claim to serve the needs of all but, in fact, serve the needs of the elites (i.e., the people with the most power). Economic reconstructionists suggest that schools disguise this fact, either by their own naiveté or by their willing support of the existing system. Because of their deep suspicions of, and sometimes outright disgust with, capitalism, economic reconstructionists are often labeled neo-Marxists. One noted economic reconstructionist was the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Freire's first book, The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, describes his work with " The great aim of education is not knowledge but action. —Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), British philosopher 77690_ch02_ptg01.indd 34 18/08/14 1:29 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. The Four Basic Purposes of School 35 poverty-stricken, illiterate peasants in his native Brazil.5 As Freire tried to teach these adults to read, he saw they were trapped in an economic and social web over which they had little control. Likewise, the normal mechanisms of education, such as grading and control by the teacher, imposed on the peasants a passivity and subservience to authority. For Freire, the typical methods and routines of schooling are a form of oppression in that they keep people from becoming fully free and independent. To counter this tendency, Freire taught literacy by helping the peasants to (1) name their problem (a polluted water supply); (2) analyze the problem (sewage contamination of the springs); and (3) collectively take action (design and build a new sewage system) to solve the problem. When used in this manner, education becomes a tool both to develop the human potential of people, such as the ability to read, and to free them from oppressive conditions such as poverty and disease. Currently, two U.S. educators, Henry Giroux and Michael Apple, are major advocates for this economic reconstructionist view. Although both democratic and economic reconstructionists focus on social problems and try to foster in students the attitudes and skills necessary to solve them, economic reconstructionists question more deeply the fundamental economic and social arrangements in a society. They see education as a necessary means for restructuring the power structures in a society. For them, money, power, and control of education are tightly bound together. Critics of the social reconstructionists' approach to education see it as naive and wrongheaded. They emphasize two points: (1) Our young need to acquire the basic skills and background before they become social activists, and (2) our current economic and social relations are too fragile and too serious to be toyed with by innocent and immature children.63-64 1) the school as the social institution where the young receive from the older generation the very best of their culture, and

List some of the possible intrinsic rewards of a teaching career. CHAPTER 1 35-37

The intrinsic rewards of occupation are the internal psychic or spiritual satisfaction one receives from one's work, such as a personal sense of accomplishment or enjoyment of the work itself. Students Performance of a Significant Social Service Stimulation and Support from Fellow Teachers The Work of Teaching

What are some things that teachers can do to make the classroom safer for all students, especially gay and lesbian students?

There are many things that schools and educators can do to make school safer for all students as well as those who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered: ●● Establish classroom guidelines about name-calling. Challenge homophobic remarks everywhere and all the time. ●● Respect different points of view. ●● Make no assumptions about students' families or their sexual orientations. Use the words gay, lesbian, and bisexual. Use inclusive language, such as partner or spouse instead of husband or wife. ●● Be role models for how all students should be treated with respect and dignity113-115

What is the goal of education? Progressivism 320-322

This is a subject-centered philosophy. The goal of a perennialist educator is to teach students to think rationally and develop minds that can think critically. A perennialist classroom aims to be a closely organized and well-disciplined environment, which develops in students a lifelong quest for the truth. look first to the learners rather than to the curriculum. Both consider the development of learners to be the main purpose of education. A well-educated person does not necessarily have a definite body of knowledge; rather, a well-educated person is able to function well in society and life. progressives see society as an integral aspect of the students' life. Progressives view schools as small societies in themselves, places where students are learning as they live life, not simply preparing for life. This gives progressive schools a unique atmosphere, different from that of perennialist storehouses of wisdom or places with the clearly defined roles and authority structures promoted by essentialists. Progressive educators believe the school should be democratic in structure so that children can learn to live well in a democracy and become good citizens. They emphasize group activity and group problem solving so that students learn to work with others and help others.5 This is one reason many teachers who describe themselves as progressive educators are enthusiastic about cooperative learning strategies, such as those discussed in Chapter 5, "What Is Taught?" Implicit in the progressive approach is the belief that children must not only learn to solve their own problems, but also help to solve the problems of their neighbors. For progressives, one of the main purposes of education is to make society better, which requires that people work together to solve problems. It is not uncommon for the problem-solving activities of the progressive school to spill out into the community and involve students in issues such as ecology and poverty. In this way, students learn an important principle of progressive education: Knowledge should be used to redesign or improve the world. One notable progressive educator was William Heard Kilpatrick (1871-1965), who was a professor of philosophy of education at Columbia University in New York. He was a follower of many of Dewey's ideas about education, but differed on the importance of subject matter in a child's educational experience. Rejecting formal curriculum study, he developed the project method of education, in which students work in groups on a topic of interest to them. He believed that because students learn only what is of interest to them, they should be the ones to determine topics of study. Both progressive and essentialist educators claim their particular approach is the true American philosophy of education. One can make a case that both match this description, but each reflects different aspects of the American personality. Progressivism represents our antiauthoritarian, experimental, and visionary side; essentialism speaks to our more practical, structured, and task-oriented side. In recent years, many of the tensions and public debates in U.S. education can be traced to struggles between these two philosophies of education. Clearly, essentialist educators gained ground on progressive educators in the 1980s and " Education makes people easy to lead, but difficult to drive; easy to govern, but impossible to enslave. —Henry Brooks Adams (1838-1918), American novelist and historian 77690_ch09_ptg01.indd 293 18/08/14 2:02 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 294 Chapter 9 What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education? 1990s. Concerns over the country's global economic competitiveness and the perceived "softness" of our schools have created a receptive climate for essentialist views. To judge your own sympathy for the progressive approach, see what you think of the following representative statement by a progressive educator.

What classroom interventions might be useful to eliminate some of the ongoing examples of gender bias in classrooms?

above

Indicate the percentage of students who attend private schools, and analyze the significance of this option in the United States.

out 68 percent of private schools, enrolling about 80 percent of private school students, have a religious orientation.

What are Latin grammar schools, English grammar schools, and academies

n the colonial period, all secondary education—that is, all education beyond the elementary level—served the sole purpose of preparing for entrance to college. The earliest secondary institution was the Latin grammar school, whose name gradually came to mean "college preparatory school." The term prep school still carries that classical connotation today. A boy entered a Latin grammar school around age 7 or 8 and spent the next seven years learning Latin and Greek from texts written by ancient Romans, Greeks, or medieval scholars. Much work was memorized, and the student learned composition and writing of Latin verses over three or four years. He also might have given some attention to the study of the Hebrew language and the New Testament. The first Latin grammar school in the colonies is generally considered to have been the one established in 1635 in Boston. It was public and open to boys of all social classes. The Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647, which required communities of 50 or more families to establish elementary schools, also required communities of 100 or more families to establish Latin schools. At first, Latin grammar schools were found primarily in New England; a bit later, they emerged in the Middle Colonies. English Grammar Schools The growth of middle-class businesses in the 1700s led to the demand for a secondary education that would provide practical instruction in everything from navigation and engineering to bookkeeping and foreign languages. To meet this demand, private English grammar schools were established. These schools catered to the growing number of students who needed more than elementary instruction but were not interested in preparing for college. Classes were offered at various times and places, sometimes to both girls and boys. Commercial rather than religious subjects were taught. Some subjects, such as music, art, and dancing, were actually not practical, but were meant to train students for socializing in polite company. Secondary Education for Females In the 1700s, private-venture English grammar schools were more flexible than the Latin grammar schools and, as a result, were the first secondary institutions to accept female students. Depending on the sophistication of the particular school and the preferences of its clientele, girls typically studied the three R's (reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic), geography, and French, but they also sometimes learned English grammar, history, and Latin. Some practical vocational subjects, such as bookkeeping, were occasionally taught, along with such traditional and socially accepted skills as art and instrumental music. Because of the somewhat larger number of private-venture schools in the Middle Colonies, girls who lived there probably had greater educational opportunities than girls elsewhere. Quaker leaders, including William Penn and French-born Anthony Benezet, were concerned with and supported the education of several deprived groups, such as African Americans and American Indians— and women. In the South, the daughters of wealthy landowners could receive traditional instruction in the various arts and letters, such as music, dancing, and French, which would give them the social skills appropriate for the lady of a household. By the end of the colonial period, separate class-based education tracks were developed for girls similar to those for boys in the English or Latin grammar schools. 10-3b The Academy A new type of secondary school, known as an academy, emerged during the second half of the eighteenth century. The academy was an attempt to combine Latin and English grammar schools through separate Latin and English departments within one school. Academies were unlike the Latin grammar schools in that the primary language of the academy was English; they were unlike the English grammar schools in that they included classical subjects in the curriculum. Gradually, the academy took the place of both types of school.

Distinguish between the practices of inclusion and mainstreaming.

the main difference between mainstreaming and inclusion is that students who are participating in mainstreaming are expected to keep up with the other students in the class with little to no assistance. ... The focus for students in inclusion is to gain social and life skills, even if they don't make academic gains.

Define cultural pluralism.

the practice of appreciating and respecting ethnic and cultural differences

b. Transmitters of culture

the school as the social institution where the young learn skills and become agents of social change. Often an individual school is attempting to follow both mod In the model of the school as acculturator, schools exist to advance society by ensuring that the young know and appreciate the dominant ideas and values of their society's culture. The goal of cultural transmission in U.S. public schools is to teach the American way of looking at the world and the American way of doing things. This desire to ensure that the young share the common culture may explain why, in many U.S. school systems, we teach American history in the third, seventh, and eleventh grades. It can also explain why, for instance, we give little attention to the histories of China and India, even though they are among the most populous nations on earth and both have old, rich cultural heritages. Without even being conscious of it, our teachers instruct our young in our version of reality and our way of handling the real world. Of course, the schools of other countries do the same for their own young. Schools in Iran, for instance,differ markedly from schools in Ghana, and both differ dramatically from their counterparts in the United States. Even so, the schools of each country are attempting to perform a similar function: to transmit the unique culture of the country to its newest members, the young. People who view schools as transmitting culture usually talk about society as an organism—that is, as a living thing that can thrive or deteriorate based on how well different elements of society function together. When a society is healthy, each of its various components (the government, schools, communities, families, and individuals) does what it ought to be doing and works in concert with all the other components. Conflict is viewed negatively, and society works toward finding consensus among different groups and eliminating any conflict. From this perspective, it is vitally important that the older generation, including parents and teachers, help the young find value and meaning in their own culture so that they will internalize its values and contribute to its smooth functioning. Acculturation and Diversity Several dangers lurk beneath the surface when schools adopt the position that they should concentrate on transmitting the dominant culture. If schools offer the young an understanding of only the prevailing culture, the result may be an attitude of smug cultural superiority, which often leads nations and individuals to commit foolish actions. In cultural terms, what we do not know we often do not respect, and without mutual respect people easily become enemies. In recent decades, instantaneous electronic communications, missile-delivered nuclear weapons, and interdependent national economies have increasingly made the world a "global village," and our students must learn how to function in this new world. In recent decades, the United States has also experienced a surge of immigration from Central America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and elsewhere. These new Americans tend to be young, and both the newly arrived parents and their children are hungry for schooling. Although most are eager to learn American ways and American culture, teachers and students alike need to consider these students' native cultures. The majority of these immigrant children speak a language other than English at home. Sometimes schools, as part of acculturating children, unintentionally pull them away from their individual ethnic backgrounds. For example, one in five U.S. students goes home at night to a family in which English is a second language. As they become acculturated, using English becomes more important for these children, and their first languages become something private, rarely used in public. Other school models try to acculturate the child while supporting his or her ethnic heritage. For example, elementary schools in Calexico, California, serve large populations of newly arrived Mexican children. Teachers design the classrooms so that American and Hispanic cultures are honored, and children learn to operate effectively in both languages.2 The presence of new Americans in a school can be a valuable resource in the effort to increase multicultural understanding and appreciation. Although U.S. schools need to transmit American culture, we must realize that what we call "American culture" has always embraced many cultures. Nevertheless, a primary responsibility of the schools is to assist foreign-born students in the acquisition of a high level of English proficiency. This can be a delicate and politically charged balancing act. We will return to this thorny issue when we discuss multiculturalism and bilingual education in Chapter 3, "Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society?"61-62

What is the goal of education? Montessori

A group program that encourages young children to learn independently through the use of highly specialized materials "follow the child"; introduce a concept, process / develop understanding, "knowing" Montessori is an educational philosophy and practice that fosters rigorous, self-motivated growth for children and adolescents in all areas of their development, with a goal of nurturing each child's natural desire for knowledge, understanding, and respect

Describe changes in family composition and relationships as well as key ways teachers might respond to these circumstances.

An increasing number of children are being raised in families different that the traditional "typical" family. Over the past 50 years, the following five major trends have been identified as factors that are statistically changing family structures: 1. more unmarried parents raising children, 2. more gay and lesbian couples raising children, 3. more single motherhood, 4. more mothers working outside the home, and 5. more interracial marriages. Family composition affects the amount of time children and their parents have to spend with one another and can also affect the quality of that "together time." For a single parent, the combination of job demands and the necessities of maintaining a family, such as cooking, cleaning, and grocery shopping, does not allow for a great deal of leisure time to spend supervising and enjoying the children. Many single parents do a fine job of raising their children, but the hardships are considerable. Even two-parent families can face challenges. Many mothers now go to work or return to work when their children are very young. In approximately 60 percent of two-parent families, both the mother and father worked all year, full time.4 Two-career families must balance the needs of childrearing and family life with the demands of two work environments. Neither Mom nor Dad is as available as she or he used to be to attend daily to children's social, intellectual, and moral development. Of these working parents, over half report that they find it difficult to balance work and family responsibilities.5 With so many dual-career families, many children return home from school and watch television rather than talk with their parents. Coming home to an empty house or apartment after school is standard for an estimated 4 million "latchkey" children in our country. For parents of younger children not yet in school, working outside the home raises the issue of adequate child care. If both parents or the only parent goes to work full time, who is taking care of the children? Grandparents and extended family used to pitch in and help, but today it is less common for a family to settle in one location near relatives for extended periods. Parents who have to work—and especially single parents—can easily be caught in a bind, and they often must settle for whatever child care they can find or afford. The expenses of child care often create an additional hardship on the family's resources. 4-2c School and Teacher Responses In addition to limiting the amount of time children spend in close contact with their parents, the trend toward two-career and single-parent families has a direct impact on the schools. In the past, teachers could count on more support from families; now teachers often find it difficult to even get in contact with many parents. In the past, young people were actively involved outside of school in family and community. Today, however, the school is being urged to play a larger role in expanding and guiding the limited experiences of children and to connect with families of all students. As we discussed in Chapter 3, "Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society?," you will also want to be sure to be aware of what languages are spoken in your students' homes. Often, schools will provide translators to help you communicate with parents who speak a language other than English. It will be important for you to consider working schedules, language barriers, and other social issues as you attempt to build connections from the classroom to the home. The more dramatic social problems, such as poverty and homelessness, take on even greater urgency for the schools than work schedules. Schools are being asked to deal with the new problems that reflect the facts of modern family life and our changed economy. Many schools have responded to child care needs by offering both before-school and after-school programs. For example, schools may offer enrichment and recreational programs or on-site day care before and after school to address student and parental needs. Some schools even stagger their bus schedules to accommodate students who stay for after-school programs. Many schools provide both breakfast and lunch programs. Many schools today hire school social workers, sometimes called family specialists, to help support students' academic and social success. School-based social workers work with teaching teams to identify students who have family factors that may impact their success in school. They help to provide support within the school and identify referral services that will also support the child. A school social worker may help coordinate transportation for parents to attend school meetings or for a homeless student to come to school. The school social worker may coordinate a school supply donation or food donation and help distribute the supplies or food to students in need. The school social worker also works with outside agencies (i.e., Big Brothers/Big Sisters or Department of Social and Health Services) to make referrals and to maximize outside resources that can be used to support the "whole" child in the school. Some schools, such as those following the model developed by James Comer— described in the "Leaders in Education" feature—have responded in a very different way, by redesigning the whole school to make effective teamwork with families a priority 124-126

List the major reasons students give for dropping out.

Besides poverty, what contributes to high dropout rates? Students report poor grades, dislike for school, alienation from peers, marriage or pregnancy, and employment as common causes for leaving school. The role the family plays in monitoring students in school also plays a role in dropout rates. Students who live with both parents and the parents actively monitor the student's schoolwork are more likely to stay in school.37 The most commonly reported factor is poor academic performance. Ninth grade serves as a bottleneck for many students who discover that their academic skills are lacking for high school-level work. Another cause of dropping out is unrealistic expectations about the world of work. Many students with high hopes for the imagined luxury of a regular income fail to realize that wages in the service sector of employment are low. Other teenagers may envision starting at the bottom of the work hierarchy and, through hard work, eventually climbing the ladder of success. Unfortunately, many of them lack job search skills and end up in jobs with limited potential for advancement. Despite this reality, the strong motivation to work often proves too powerful an incentive and results in a student leaving school. The immediate rewards of the workplace lure some students away from the more 143-

Dewey What is the goal of education?

Dewey's concept of education put a premium on meaningful activity in learning and participation in classroom democracy. Unlike earlier models of teaching, which relied on authoritarianism and rote learning, progressive education asserted that students must be invested in what they were learning. John Dewey (who is discussed more fully in Chapter 9, "What Are the Philosophical Foundations of American Education?") and other educators tried to create new, experimental, child-centered schools in the early 1900s. In 1919, the Progressive Education Association was established in a formalized attempt to reform education according to the following principles: 1. The child should have freedom to develop naturally. 2. Natural interest is the best motive for work. 3. The teacher is a guide, not a taskmaster. 4. A student's development must be measured scientifically, not just by grades. 5. Students' general health and physical development require attention. 6. The school and the home must work together to meet children's needs. 7. The progressive school should be a leader in trying new educational ideas.5 The progressive school movement eventually went in several different directions. Some educators argued for letting children do whatever they wanted; others tried to turn the school into a community center for recreation, adult education, and even social reform. Critics ranged from traditionalist advocates of the subject-centered curriculum to some progressives, including Dewey himself, who argued that the ties between society and the child would be broken if children were granted total freedom to do whatever they wanted. The 1940s brought a rather conservative reaction to the progressivism of the previous generation. Even so, many ideas we take for granted now—such as teaching through student projects, field trips, and nonlecture methods of instruction— were hotly debated innovations that were introduced by progressive educators and managed to survive the retrenchment of that era.343

essentialism What is the goal of education?316-317

Educational essentialism is an educational philosophy whose adherents believe that children should learn the traditional basic subjects thoroughly. In this philosophical school of thought, the aim is to instill students with the "essentials" of academic knowledge, enacting a back-to-basics approach. For essentialists, the aim of education is to teach youth the essentials they need to live well in the modern world. To realize this goal, schools should focus on the established disciplines, which are the "containers" of organized knowledge. As captured in the educational slogan, "back to the basics," the elementary years should concentrate on the basics such as the "three R's." These and other foundational tools are needed to gain access to the disciplined knowledge with which one begins to come in contact in high school. Although some debate persists about what is "essential" in the curriculum, essentialists believe this is not a debate to which children can contribute fruitfully. Instead, they see the role of students as simply that of learners; thus an individual child's interests, motivations, and psychological states are not given great attention in deciding what is to be taught. Nor do essentialists advocate a "romantic" view of children (discussed later in this chapter) as being naturally good. They see the students not as evil, but rather as deficient and needing discipline and pressure to keep learning. School is viewed as a place where children come to learn what they need to know. Teachers are not guides, but authorities. The students' job is to listen and learn. Given the imperfect state of the students, teachers must be ingenious in finding ways to engage their imaginations and minds. One notable essentialist was James Bryan Conant, a Harvard professor and president for much of the first half of the twentieth century. Concerned about disparities in the knowledge and skills that high school students brought with them to college, Conant argued for standardization of college requirements for high school students. He was also influential in the establishment of the SATas a measure of essential knowledge that a potential college student needs to possess. Although not purely an "essentialist movement," much of the thought and energy behind the drive for state standards, standardized testing, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the Race to the Top, and the Common Core has a strong essentialist flavor.

Indicate how the ruling in each of the following legal cases affected education in the United States: Old Deluder Satan Act, the Kalamazoo case, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Brown v. Board of Education.

In 1896, in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of "separate but equal" accommodations for African Americans. Although the ruling originally referred to seating in a railroad car, it was quickly extended to schools. The practical significance of this ruling was its federal sanction of the legal separation of African American schoolchildren from white children, most notably in the South—a condition that would persist for the next 58 years. The stage was then set for the precedent-shattering case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), in which the Supreme Court ruled that separate educational facilities are inherently unequal and that laws requiring white and nonwhite students to go to different schools were illegal. This decision held that segregated schools are inherently unequal because the effects of such schools are likely to differ. Thus a new component was introduced into the theme of educational opportunity: Equality of educational opportunity became defined in terms of the effects—rather than the provision—of schooling. Before Brown, the community and educational institutions were expected only to provide equal resources such as teachers, facilities, and materials. Responsibility for the best use of those resources lay with the child and the child's family. In the Brown decision, the Supreme Court found that even if the facilities and teacher salaries provided were identical, "equality of educational opportunity" would not exist in segregated schools. In the decades since then, many people have come to consider it the responsibility of the educational institution, not the child, to create achievement. Desegregation Efforts In Brown v. The Board of Education, the Supreme Court concluded that de jure school segregation violated the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. Early desegregation efforts, therefore, were aimed at eliminating de jure segregation. Throughout the 1960s and into the 1970s, many school systems, often in response to specific court orders, also attempted to reduce or eliminate de facto school segregation. As a result, many school districts underwent desegregation efforts. What have been the results of these efforts? Several researchers have concluded that desegregated schools have accomplished more than mere educational reform—that is, African American students who attended integrated schools experienced desegregation in several aspects of adult life, including attending predominantly white colleges and universities, working in desegregated settings, and living in desegregated neighborhoods.

Identify the significant characteristics of middle schools.

Since the 1960s, the system of five elementary-three intermediate-four secondary grades has become increasingly popular, with a middle school being home to grades 6, 7, and 8 rather than a junior high school. Advocates argue that middle schools have significant advantages over junior high schools. For one thing, they offer a unique environment where 10- to 13-year-olds are free to grow up at their own rates and where attention is focused on the needs of this age group rather than on mimicking the high school's emphasis on academic and sports competition, as is often the case with junior high schools. Because of the earlier onset of puberty in today's children, sixth-graders may be better served in a school designed for early adolescents in grades 6, 7, and 8 than in an elementary school. Additionally, giving the ninth grade, which is still considered the first year in the college entrance sequence, to the high school frees middle schools to try new programs and new approaches without having to make them specifically applicable to college preparation348

List at least four different categories of student diversity in the classroom.

Students in your classroom are likely to come from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, representing many different cultures and ways of looking at the world. Cultural differences among teachers and students can give rise to misunderstandings unless you learn more about your students' backgrounds and expectations. Multicultural educational approaches help students learn to appreciate the contributions of all people. ●● Some of your students may speak a primary language other than English. We will see that parents, educators, and policy makers have become divided, often bitterly so, over the best way to teach these English language learners in U.S. public schools. ●● Another dimension of diversity will be seen in the academic abilities and achievements of your students. Some students will enter the school environment and immediately do well. Others will appear not to respond to your teaching. One of your biggest challenges as a teacher will be to provide a variety of learning experiences. ●● Students in your classroom will develop at different rates and display diverse needs. Recognizing these needs will help you better understand some student behaviors and increase your insight into how to respond. ●● Boys and girls, even when they come from the same socioeconomic, racial, or ethnic group, are different. They are raised differently even within the same families, and often society has different expectations of them. Treating boys and girls equitably as individuals and not as gender stereotypes is a constant challenge for both male and female teachers.84

List some considerations related to gender that classroom teachers should be aware of. What classroom interventions might be useful to eliminate some of the ongoing examples of gender bias in classrooms?

Teaching Implications What can you do to make sure that you are being fair to both male and female students in your classroom? To ensure sex-equitable learning environments in classrooms, teachers should consider the following steps: ●● Have high expectations for all students. ●● Examine instructional materials to be certain that sex role stereotyping or bias does not occur. If it does, try to find alternative materials. ●● Examine and address, if needed, the frequency with which students are called on and the kind of responses that they provide the students to ensure that gender biases are not occurring. This can be done by audiotaping teacher-student interactions and listening to unintended patterns of interaction. ●● Look at who uses or is encouraged to use computer technology in the classroom. Often, boys tend to monopolize computers and other technology. ●● Eliminate the assignment of sex-stereotyped tasks. ●● Organize classes so that students don't segregate themselves by sex. ●● Model sex-equitable behavior. ●● Choose your words carefully (e.g., not saying, "Boys will be boys"), and correct students' speech or actions when it borders on discrimination or bias. ●● Pair learning with movement to increase brain activity and offset boredom.together means that they learn to work with one another. At this point, insufficient research has been carried out to support either claim, but anecdotal reports claim successes for some single-sex classes. (See "Up Close: Urban Prep Charter School" about a Chicago school for one such report.)112

What are some things that teachers can do to make the classroom safer for all students, especially gay and lesbian students

The National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and other leading education associations have all passed resolutions calling on their members and school districts to acknowledge the special needs of LGBT students, provide supportive services such as counseling and support groups, and implement anti-harassment measures. Fifteen states and the District of Columbia prohibit antigay harassment or discrimination in schools over and above the protection afforded by the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, and the U.S. Department of Education has issued guidelines spelling out that "gay or lesbian students" are covered by federal prohibitions against sexual harassment. 114 Establish classroom guidelines about name-calling. Challenge homophobic remarks everywhere and all the time. ●● Respect different points of view. ●● Make no assumptions about students' families or their sexual orientations. Use the words gay, lesbian, and bisexual. Use inclusive language, such as partner or spouse instead of husband or wife. ●● Be role models for how all students should be treated with respect and dignity

CHAPTER 1 Identify public perceptions of teachers and teaching and the possible bases for these perceptions. What Does the Public Say about Teachers and Teaching?48

The education of America's children regularly tops the list of the public's social concerns. The public—that is, the people whose taxes pay the salaries of public school teachers—overwhelmingly acknowledges and supports the nation's teachers. Finally, the public has a great deal of trust in teachers. According to the National Credibility Index, when asked which people were "the most believable when speaking out on public issues," teachers were rated the highest, above members of the armed forces, national experts, and community activists.

How is poverty related to other factors which might cause a student to be considered "at risk" 126-130

The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. This aphorism describes the extremes of different socioeconomic levels in our society today. Socioeconomic status (SES) is the term used by the U.S. Census Bureau to classify economic conditions of people using a family's occupational status, income, and educational attainment as measures of status. Individuals high in income, occupational prestige, and amount of education are considered to be high in socioeconomic status and are usually seen by others to be upper-class people who are influential in their communities. In contrast, people low in socioeconomic status are seen as being lower-class people who have little prestige or power. Many people have thought that we could eliminate poverty through education and that, through schooling, it would be relatively easy to free people from the chains of impoverishment. The resulting efforts have been well intentioned but often too little, too late and, in retrospect, sometimes naïve. With poverty so prevalent, schools face a challenging problem, partly because they are not designed to serve poor children. The schools in the United States were created and continue to be supported by the middle class to perpetuate the middle-class way of life. There is nothing particularly startling about this bias. Middle-class people want their children to be like themselves or possibly somewhat better, so they have built and continue to pay for a school system that reflects their values and supports the way of life with which they feel comfortable. Some critics see the middle-class bias of our schools in a more sinister light, as part of an enslavement system. They claim that schools do not help develop the individual talents and strengths of poor children, and that they make these children believe they are losers. After 8 to 11 years of schooling, many of these young people see themselves as unable to fit into the middle class and as people who, at best, will do society's menial work. Although some of these critics see this system as a conscious plan of our society, we do not. Such a cynical view suggests that the teachers who are toiling in the poor urban and rural areas are either people of evil intentions or simply dupes. In our view, many of the most heroic teachers are those struggling to aid children trapped in and oppressed by poverty Our past and present inadequacies in educating the children of the poor have tempted some to turn away and devote their energies to more solvable problems. Our nation cannot follow this path. Ours is an evolving society; as a people, we are not finished with our own development. Eradicating the ravages of poverty and its withering effect on children should be at the top of our agenda as citizens of this nation and as educators. Although there are many important and solvable problems to work on, we cannot afford—in justice—to ignore this one. One educator, Ruby Payne, has written extensively about issues of poverty and how schools can better understand the unique needs of children of poverty.15 Payne describes hidden rules, unspoken clues that people in different socioeconomic groups use in decision making. Among the middle class, work and achievement are driving forces in decision making. In contrast, in generational poverty (being in poverty for two generations or longer), the driving forces are survival, entertainment, and relationships. According to Payne, the hidden rules guiding people who live in poverty mean that relationships and entertainment are more important than achievement. Payne's major point is that unless educators understand these hidden rules that govern the behavior of those from generational poverty, they are unlikely to respond in appropriate ways. Schools tend to reflect middle-class values, which is why children from poverty backgrounds, who don't know the middle-class hidden rules, often feel out of place. Payne suggests that for students from generational poverty to value academic learning, a significant relationship must be present, and academic tasks must be referenced in terms of relationships. This significant relationship can be with the teacher or with other students and friends. Payne cites an example of how a teacher, while working with a 17-year-old student who did not do his homework on positive and negative numbers, suggested that it would be acceptable if his friends cheated him at cards. The student was furious at the idea. The teacher insisted that the student wouldn't know whether they were cheating him because he didn't know positive and negative numbers. The student grabbed a deck of cards to show the teacher that he did know how to keep score. After this display, the teacher said, "Then you do know positive and negative numbers. I expect you to do your homework." From then on, the student did his homework regularly. Payne's work has generated considerable criticism from some in higher education for its lack of scientific evidence-based practice. Even so, many teachers and administrators find her perspectives compelling and useful.

Name and describe the common characteristics of high schools. 74-77

The role of the American high school has changed dramatically over the past century. A hundred years ago, it was still an institution designed to prepare the privileged few for college. Today, high schools are committed to provide a gateway for all students to either postsecondary education or the workplace. Although the intention is noble, many see our high schools as the soft spot in our entire—pre-K to graduate school— system of education. Much criticism and censure of our nation's secondary schools tends to come from college professors and college students, both claiming incoming students had not received the necessary preparation to do college work. In a recent survey of nearly 1,500 recent graduates, "just 24 percent of graduates said they were significantly challenged during high school. Twenty percent of these high school graduates said that 'expectations were low and . . . it was easy to slide by.'"28 The college instructors in this study claimed that 42 percent of college students are not adequately prepared by their high schools to meet college expectations.hat some see as our high schools' failure to prepare graduates for the world of work. In 2012 testimony before Congress, a report revealed that nationally only three out of four students in a high school class graduate. While at an early time of plentiful unskilled jobs, this was not a serious issue. Currently, we are turning out a million students a year lacking the skills and knowledge needed to find employment. Today, nearly three out of four high school dropouts in their 20s are not employed full time. However, in the new economics of the twenty-first century, this is a dangerous problem for individual students and the nation.29 A government website recently reported that "Nationwide, 7,000 students drop out every day and only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school with a regular high school diploma. Two thousand high schools in the United States produce more than half of all dropouts, and a recent study suggests that in the 50 largest cities, only 53 percent of students graduate on time. Research shows that poor and minority children attend these so-called 'dropout factories'—the 2,000 schools that produce more than 50 percent of our nation's dropouts—at significantly higher rates."30 Not long ago, Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, who has focused on the reform of U.S. secondary education as a primary target of his philanthropy, offered the following analysis of our high schools: America's high schools are obsolete. By "obsolete," I don't just mean that our high schools are broken, flawed, and underfunded—though a case could be made for every one of those points. By "obsolete," I mean that our high schools—even when they're working exactly as designed—cannot teach our kids what they need to know today. Training the workforce of tomorrow with the high schools of today is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a fifty-year-old mainframe. It's the wrong tool for the times. Our high schools were designed fifty years ago to meet the needs of another age. Until we design them to meet the needs of the 21st century, we will keep limiting— even ruining—the lives of millions of Americans every year.Multiple Purposes As the U.S. economy struggles out of recession and faces increasing competition from our trading partners around the globe, the intensity of criticism of our high schools has increased. The Comprehensive High School. The high school years bring people to the front door of adulthood. They begin to think about and sense what their futures might become. In many developed countries, this is the moment when young people are separated into different schools, such as the European gymnasiums for those planning to go to college and onto the professions, and trade and technical schools for those who will take a more direct route into the work world. Americans, by and large, have chosen to educate young people in comprehensive high schools, multipurpose schools with different tracks. Academic tracks stress the traditional subjects of English, history, mathematics, science, and foreign languages as preparation for college. A general track usually allows a greater number of elective courses and less rigorous versions of the traditional subjects. Vocational tracks may include a combination of academic and job-related courses; students in these tracks are preparing for a job after graduation. The comprehensive high school is part of our nation's democratic tradition, and like our focus on diversity, is meant to strengthen our democratic traditions. Nevertheless, because of the variations in courses required for these different tracks and the differing standards for student achievement among them, the reality of the term high school education takes on myriad meanings. Americans seem to want high schools to accomplish everything. The resulting confusion of goals is evident in the variety of goal statements adopted by states for their schools, in the written goals found in teachers' manuals or school district curriculum guides, and in teacher and student responses when asked about school goals. This is a major reason why our schools presently are making a fundamental shift: Graduation from high school will now mean the achievement of certain academic standards rather than 12 or 13 years of school attendance. Currently, the great majority of our states are in the process of adopting the Common Core, a set of curricular standards in mathematics and English language arts that students throughout the country may have to achieve for graduation. The Shopping-Mall High School The important move toward standards-based education—which will be discussed more fully in Chapter 5, "What Is Taught?," and Chapter 12, "How Should Education Be Reformed?"—has been fueled from many sources. One of the most severe and therefore influential criticisms was that not only did our high schools have a confusion of goals, but also they had become quite lax. This goal confusion and laxity was brought to the attention of educators and the general public a few decades ago by a research study that compared our comprehensive high schools to shopping malls. The metaphor states that, like a shopping mall, our schools cater to a variety of student consumers, emphasizing variety and choice, trying to have something for everyone.32 Schools have offered a diverse curriculum in an attempt to appeal to all comers. The student-customers, on the other hand, are expected to make their own course selections. The schools essentially maintain neutrality in regard to students' or parents' choices among the many alternatives offered. The customer has the final word. Staying with the shopping mall metaphor, this study found that some customers (students) are serious about buying, others are just browsing and looking for ideas on what to buy, and still others are at the mall to meet their friends and "cruise." Faced with customers with such different levels of commitment, teachers reach accommodations, or treaties, that promote mutual goals or keep the peace. For example, some teachers make their deals crystal clear when they advise students, "Don't take my class if you don't want to work." If students don't want to play by these rules, they don't have to take the course. Another teacher in the study said, "Don't hassle me and I won't hassle you. I'll let you slide through if you don't interfere with the students who want to work."33 Within the "shopping-mall" high school can be found "specialty shops," the niches for students and families wanting more learning and school engagement. These venues include top-track programs, special education programs, vocational and technical education programs, and extracurricular programs, such as marching band or football. Because the students in these programs have been designated as special, they tend to receive special attention. In contrast, the average or unspecial students (often called average, general, normal, or regular) are generally ignored by the specialty shops; they do not receive the additional commitment of time, personal relationships, and intensity of learning generally given to "specialty-shop" students. They have no important allies or advocates, and their treaties are characterized by avoidance of learning, not engagement. Schools may try to nurture these students' self-esteem, but they do not make academic demands of them at a crucial time in their lives for establishing important study and work habits. " Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe. —H. G. Wells (1866-1946), anthropologist " Kids may do poorly in school not simply because they aren't motivated to study or because they lack ability, but because they are intent on maintaining their standing in a crowd that regards academic achievement as uncool. —B. Bradford Brown, professor and author 77690_ch02_ptg01.indd 47 18/08/14 1:30 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 48 Chapter 2 What Is a School and What Is It For? This picture is undoubtedly unfair to many high schools with high expectations for students and demanding and creative programs. Two recently popular high school innovations are examples of this countertrend: the International Baccalaureate (IB) and career academies. As discussed earlier in this chapter, the IB is a rigorous, off-theshelf program of academic study, started in Switzerland by a nonprofit foundation over 40 years ago, and has become increasingly common throughout the world.34 Although the IB has curricular programs for all the grades, it is most popular at the secondary level. Currently, over a thousand U.S. schools have adopted the IB curriculum.35 A recent reaction to large comprehensive high schools has been to restructure a school into small units or schools within schools (which will be discussed more fully in Chapter 12, "How Should Education Be Reformed?"). The career academy is one popular example of this trend.36 Typically, a career academy is a small learning community of students (30 to 60 per grade) and teachers dedicated to bridging the gap between the academic goals of secondary school and realistic preparation for work in a particular career, such as health care or computer technology. Besides their academic course work, students study vocational subjects that typically involve internships and other opportunities to gain work experience and earn money. Often, these career academies involve cooperative programs with nearby community colleges. Nevertheless, criticisms of the process of our high schools (that is, ambiguous goals and laxity) and the product (graduates ill-prepared for the workplace) have propelled many of the standards-based reform efforts.

List some considerations related to gender that classroom teachers should be aware of.

ave high expectations for all students. ●● Examine instructional materials to be certain that sex role stereotyping or bias does not occur. If it does, try to find alternative materials. ●● Examine and address, if needed, the frequency with which students are called on and the kind of responses that they provide the students to ensure that gender biases are not occurring. This can be done by audiotaping teacher-student interactions and listening to unintended patterns of interaction. ●● Look at who uses or is encouraged to use computer technology in the classroom. Often, boys tend to monopolize computers and other technology. ●● Eliminate the assignment of sex-stereotyped tasks. ●● Organize classes so that students don't segregate themselves by sex. ●● Model sex-equitable behavior. ●● Choose your words carefully (e.g., not saying, "Boys will be boys"), and correct students' speech or actions when it borders on discrimination or bias. ●● Pair learning with movement to increase brain activity and offset boredom. Some school districts are attempting to address gender differences by offering singlegender schools or classrooms. Advocates of this approach argue that by separating the sexes, more attention can be given to the particular needs of boys or girls. Opponents argue that discrimination might still occur and suggest that keeping boys and girls During the 1980s and 1990s, a number of research studies alleged that girls were being shortchanged in schools and classrooms. Researchers concluded that teachers often Gender Equity in the Classroom: Girls and Science Watch the video clips, study the artifacts in the case, and reflect on the following questions: 1. This section of the chapter describes several ways in which boys and girls are treated differently in school. Which of these problems does this teacher avoid? How? 2. Did your own teachers treat male and female students differently? If so, give some examples. What do you think was the result of this differing treatment? 3. In addition to the strategies listed in this chapter, what are some ways that you, as a teacher, can be fair to boys and girls in your classes? TeachSource Video Case © 2016 Cengage Learning® 77690_ch03_ptg01.indd 81 18/08/14 1:32 PM Copyright 2016 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s). Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it. 82 Chapter 3 Who Are Today's Students in a Diverse Society? treated boys differently than girls, frequently to the girls' detriment, although teachers were generally unaware of their behaviors that favor boys.30 These research studies suggested that in subtle and not-so-subtle ways, female students received the message that boys were more important than girls because teachers pay more attention to boys. Researchers also found there was considerable gender stereotyping in textbooks and other reading materials. Great strides have been made to level the playing field for girls and boys in the classroom. Today, the majority of college graduates are women.31 Girls have caught up with boys in terms of mathematics and science achievement. Yet, still fewer women than men tend to choose jobs in engineering and the sciences. In spite of comparable achievement levels in mathematics and science among boys and girls, recent studies on gender differences in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers show that women lag men in choosing careers in those areas. The Department of Commerce's Women in STEM report revealed that women represent a mere 24 percent of the STEM workforce. Yet, women who do work in a STEM occupation earn 33 percent more than women working in the non-STEM workforce. The gender gap concerns many experts who fear that the United States may be losing its competitive edge over the rest of the world in science and engineering fields. Because countries like China and India have so many more people in science and engineering fields, the United States needs women to enter STEM fields so the United States can expand its pipeline for math and science talent. For this reason, Race to the Top legislation (see Chapter 12 for more on Race to the Top) mandates that states encourage not only STEM initiatives, but also specifically STEM initiatives targeting school-aged girls. One example of these efforts is a new partnership between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Girls Scouts of America to develop opportunities for girls to engage in NASA STEM activities. Multiple explanations for this gender gap in STEM fields exist. Some say that girls aren't exposed to career opportunities in STEM fields while in middleand senior high school, whereas others say that women look for careers where they can combine work and family, and that STEM fields seem less compatible with this goal. And, still another explanation is that girls may be choosing health-related and environmental-related fields because they see them as being more compassionate professions. In all probability, each of these explanations is valid for some portion of the female population. Some observers, while acknowledging the historic education discrimination and bias against girls, believe that schools are now failing boys more than girls. One clinical psychologist researcher at Harvard University argues that schools don't accommodate boys' learning styles and classroom needs. Boys perform best, he reports, when they have frequent recess breaks and are able to roam around the classroom. Boys are also more likely to enjoy argument and lively classroom debate, which is often discouraged.32 Researchers also cite the fact that the large gaps between the education levels of women and men that were evident in the early 1970s have essentially disappeared for the younger generation. High school females on average outperform males in reading and writing; take more credits in academic subjects; take more advanced placement (AP) courses in English, biology, and foreign languages; are more likely to be inducted into the National Honor Society; are more likely to attend college after high school; and are as likely to graduate with a postsecondary degree. Furthermore, two-thirds of all students receiving special education services are boys. Boys are much more likely to drop out of school than are girls.33 If schools were really so biased against females, they argue, why are women doing so well academically? Teaching Implications What can you do to make sure that you are being fair to both male and female students in your classroom? To ensure sex-equitable learning environments in classrooms, teachers should consider the following steps: ●● Have high expectations for all students. ●● Examine instructional materials to be certain that sex role stereotyping or bias does not occur. If it does, try to find alternative materials. ●● Examine and address, if needed, the frequency with which students are called on and the kind of responses that they provide the students to ensure that gender biases are not occurring. This can be done by audiotaping teacher-student interactions and listening to unintended patterns of interaction. ●● Look at who uses or is encouraged to use computer technology in the classroom. Often, boys tend to monopolize computers and other technology. ●● Eliminate the assignment of sex-stereotyped tasks. ●● Organize classes so that students don't segregate themselves by sex. ●● Model sex-equitable behavior. ●● Choose your words carefully (e.g., not saying, "Boys will be boys"), and correct students' speech or actions when it borders on discrimination or bias. ●● Pair learning with movement to increase brain activity and offset boredom. Some school districts are attempting to address gender differences by offering singlegender schools or classrooms. Advocates of this approach argue that by separating the sexes, more attention can be given to the particular needs of boys or girls. Opponents argue that discrimination might still occur and suggest that keeping boys and girls together means that they learn to work with one another. At this point, insufficient research has been carried out to support either claim, but anecdotal reports claim successes for some single-sex classes. (See "Up Close: Urban Prep Charter School" about a Chicago school for one such report.) 110-112

Schooling 57-59

schooling is a specific, formalized process, usually focused on the young (but this is changing), and whose general pattern traditionally has varied little from one setting to the next. Despite minor variations in teaching practices among schools,. Teachers receive preparation to fulfill the purposes of schooling as defined by the curriculum. The curriculum represents what a community believes young people need to know to develop into good and productive adults. In effect, what you were taught in elementary and high school represents society's wager—that is, its social bet, made by the older generation. The bet is on what they believe today's students will need to know to live well in the future. Keeping the differences between education and schooling clearly in mind is often particularly difficult for the people who should be most sensitive to them—that is, teachers who do education in schools. Most people enter teaching because they wish to educate others. Consciously or unconsciously, they are committed to a particular educational philosophy. Over time, the everyday experiences of working in a school tend to cause their allegiances to shift from abstract educational ideals to the network of personalities and ideas surrounding the particular schools in which they teach. They become invested in schooling, in the way things are—that is, the routines of questioning, assigning homework, quizzes, and faculty meetings—and to varying degrees they tend to lose focus on the larger issues of education, that is, the growth of the human beings in front of them.

Define cultural pluralism.

the practice of appreciating and respecting ethnic and cultural differences The concept of the melting pot has generally been replaced by the notion of cultural pluralism, which calls for an understanding and appreciation of the cultural differences and languages among U.S. citizens. The goal is to create a sense of society's wholeness based on the unique strengths of each of its parts. Cultural pluralism rejects both assimilation and separatism, a philosophy that suggests each cultural group should maintain its own identity without trying to fit into an overall American culture. Instead, it seeks a healthy interaction among the diverse groups in our society—that is, each subculture maintains its own individuality while contributing to the society as a whole. As some commentators put it, cultural pluralism argues for replacing the melting-pot metaphor with that of a "mosaic," "tapestry," or "salad bowl" in which the individual parts remain distinct yet combine to make a unique whole. Many people have promulgated cultural pluralism as a desirable goal, but it does not currently exist in the United States. Although racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity do exist, equality among the various groups does not. In general, racial and ethnic minorities do not share equal political, economic, and educational opportunities with those of the dominant culture, even though our society espouses such equality. In addition, some people resist the notion of cultural pluralism as a desirable goal. Some opponents argue in favor of assimilation, contending that cultural pluralism will undermine the United States' common traditions, historically derived from western European cultures. Others favor separatism. Unfortunately, U.S. schools have often failed to support cultural pluralism. Traditionally, public schools have been run for the benefit of those in the dominant cultural group, thereby excluding minority groups from receiving the full range of benefits.87 Schools that embrace cultural pluralism seek to promote diversity and to avoid the dominance of a single culture. Their faculty and administration provide minority role models for the students to interact with. Their curricula are infused with the histories and contributions of diverse groups. These schools attempt to use the cultural patterns of the students to provide instruction and promote learning. They may use the multicultural education approaches described next. The goal is for students to be comfortable operating within their own cultures and in other cultures as well. Students from all racial, ethnic, and cultural groups are urged to participate in the school's various social, athletic, and governmental activities. These schools seek to raise students from all racial, ethnic, and cultural groups to the highest academic standards. In short, the goal for schools that aim for cultural pluralism is that no particular cultural group either dominates or is excluded from those activities and accomplishments that schools value.