The Value of Children
Bonnie Bracey
stev...@TYPHOON.COEDU.USF.EDU writes:
<< Barry Kort wrote:
> > It saddens me to note how profoundly disvalued children are in our
culture. >>
Children, the people who touch their lives, and the kinds of resources needed
to create possibilities for children, are an afterthought in most people's
vision. If we look to see where the money is spent or , look to see what is
valued in our society, education has a very low priority. If the government
figure for the education budget is 6-7 %, it is because the congress, wants
education to be locally controlled for various regions.
But there are areas of each community that are geographically separate but
equal and they are not really equal. Parents of means do try to leverage the
resources within the community and the problem with that is that the parents
of lesser means have little or no influence, and perhaps that the way in which
we conduct school board business there is no way they are going to be included
unless there is a group that wants them in an advocacy position.
The Department of Education has told us that there is a lack of time, and time
is key. The learning landscape within each school is compromised by the
parental , community, and societal responsibilities the schools have taken on.
is there a prototype of a school with a new vision for the use of time?
I worked with a teacher who had been trained as a social worker. She had
interesting insights into education and connections that I had to learn about.
People talk about communities of learning. In the Lucas video, there is a
school with counseling, and social workers and other resources. There are
protoype schools. How do people find out about them? Do people know the need?
In many large city areas, there is a program before and after school which
houses kids from 7:00 untill about 7:00.There are actually kids who are there
most of the time. Are there homework coaches? Is there a possibility for a
community mentor / to do those special programs within the context of the
after school program? Or, does extending the school year make a difference? Or
is there a way that teachers are relieved and other professionals can monitor
and transmit these programs within the school day? Prisoners of Time in 1994
detailed the time problem very well.
As for technology, through collaborative efforts, communities can devise
creative solutions to the problems of equity in funding and teacher training,
and create incentives for the use of technology to enhance learning. There are
funding grants to show and seed demonstration projects.
Thirty years ago, Martin Luther King made a prescient statement in one of his
last speeches. In talking about the great revolutions of automation and
cybernation, he said: "Through our scientific and technological genius, we
have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical
commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have
got to do this."
Larry Irving said..
That statement has never been more true than it is today, and today we have
the technology to draw our communities together.
But it seems that with the best of economies.. the communities are being
driven apart. People can drive to their geographical areas and forget those
who are rural, migrant, on a reservation, or remote. It is a national shame ,
the inequity in the schools. We pretend that migrant kids get schooling. It is
not often the case.
The part I do not understand is that we willingly, fund the prisons, and the
super sports stadiums, but have little concern for financing schools and or
creating opportunites for children.
Often, we also make fun of the people who dedicate their lives, whether
willingly or unwillingly.Some teachers are Prisoners of Concern and Love.
Bonnie Bracey
Bonnie Bracey
writes:
<<
In the state of California, which has the largest population and largest
state budget, over half of the state budget goes to education. A very
different figure than that quoted by Bonnie. >>Please go back and read my
message.
Federal Government... I did not designate state funding..
If we look to see where the money is spent or , look to see what is valued in
our society, education has a very low priority. If the government figure for
the education budget is 6-7 %, it is because the congress, wants education to
be locally controlled for various regions.
>
> A product of the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Information Office
>
> January 29, 1999 TP99-02
>
> Upcoming
> Demographic
>
> Census Bureau Releases First Poverty Estimates for School Districts --
> 1995 Estimates for school districts in each state of school-age children
> living in poverty, total school-age children and total population.
> (Tentatively scheduled for release in two weeks.)
>
The future is like heaven - everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there
now. - James Baldwin
In a message dated 2/2/99 12:44:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, jon...@UCI.EDU
writes:
<<
In the state of California, which has the largest population and largest
state budget, over half of the state budget goes to education. A very
different figure than that quoted by Bonnie. >>
Thanks for your response but I was speaking of the money spent by the Feds,
since most people blame anything that goes wrong on the Federal Government.
Actually I work in California a lot. I recently spent time in Bolinas , doing
outreach.
I know that the state has wonderful technology infrastructure... but that is a
different thing.
It was my pleasure to be a student at Berkeley when the migrant kids , who get
very little schooling , were there in the summer, while I did astrophysics...
One great thing about being on the Internet is that you can link to each of
the Depts of Education, and get a "report card on the states. You don't have
to speculate.
Often, people reading mail on the internet see a buzz word and skip over the
rest. I did not avow Federal takeover of the schools. I also worked in Oakland
on some projects at another summer in Berkeley. There is much work to be done
in lots of places no matter how much money the state is spending.
I also worked in East Palo Alto in a school as a mentor for the Road Ahead
Program. My mother used to ask me if I had an apartment in California because
I do go there often. There are wonderful things going on , like the Digital
High School project, but I was speaking nationally,not about California.
Here are the NEGP state stats..
<A HREF="http://www.negp.gov/NEGP/webpg1000.htm">The National Education Goals
Panel</A>
Technology?
Expanded information access. The 1997 data demonstrate that, as a nation,
Americans have increasingly embraced the Information Age through electronic
access in their homes. The 1997 nation-wide data show the following nation-
wide penetration rates -- 93.8% for telephones, 36.6% for personal computers
(PCs); 26.3% for modems, and 18.6% for on-line access (Chart 1). Compared to
the 1994 survey results, the nationwide telephone penetration has remained
unchanged. The computer penetration rate, however, has grown substantially in
the last three years: PC ownership has increased 51.9%, modem ownership has
grown 139.1%, and E-mail access has expanded by 397.1%.
Persisting "digital divide." Despite this significant growth in computer
ownership and usage overall, the growth has occurred to a greater extent
within some income levels, demographic groups, and geographic areas, than in
others. In fact, the "digital divide" between certain groups of Americans has
increased between 1994 and 1997 so that there is now an even greater disparity
in penetration levels among some groups. There is a widening gap, for example,
between those at upper and lower income levels. Additionally, even though all
racial groups now own more computers than they did in 1994, Blacks and
Hispanics now lag even further behind Whites in their levels of PC-ownership
and on-line access. The following represent some of the more significant
findings.
Geographic area. Being located in a rural, urban, or central city setting can
make a difference. Regarding telephones, penetration in rural areas (94.3%)
currently exceeds the national average and has risen slightly (by .4
percentage points) since 1994 (Chart 2). On the other hand, urban areas
(93.6%), and particularly central cities as a group (92.1%), trail the
national average and show little change since 1994. By region, the Midwest's
central cities exhibit the lowest phone penetration (90.4%) of all geographic
areas, while the Northeast's rural areas outstrip all other geographic areas
(97.2%) (Chart 9). After accounting for income, however, there is not a
significant difference between rural, urban, and central city areas (Chart 3).
<A HREF="http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/net2/falling.html">The Digital
Divide: A Survey of Information "Haves" and "Have Nots" in 1997</A>
I have worked in the areas of enterprise and empowerment zones on CyberEd.
There are some places where a definite improvement needs to be made for
children. However , I did not say the sky was falling in some of the problems
are a matter of zipcode geography...
Thirty years ago, Martin Luther King made a prescient statement in one of his
last speeches. In talking about the great revolutions of automation and
cybernation, he said: "Through our scientific and technological genius, we
have made of this world a neighborhood and yet we have not had the ethical
commitment to make of it a brotherhood. But somehow, and in some way, we have
got to do this."
That statement has never been more true than it is today, and today we have
Barry Kort
entertainment, and power, will persist for one or two more generations before
majority opinion moves us to reconsider the value of children and education,
community and brotherhood, emotional well-being, and spiritual values.
Daniel Quinn has written brilliantly about these issues in his prize-winning
books (Ishmael, The Story of B, and My Ishmael). Culture is to humans
as seawater is to fish. We are so immersed in our culture that we are
oblivious of its presence and of its composition.
Our culture is built around an idea that took root about 10,000 years ago --
namely that our species would take direct control of the land and of our food
supply. Ownership of land and management of the food supply gave rise to
many cultural innovations, most of which were useful in the short term but
have disastrous consquences in the long term. Before the advent of our
agrarian society, humans were hunter-gathers. Money, power, and land wars
were not driving factors then. Now they dominate our lives with ever
increasing and violent consequences.
Tribalism may have been a source of competition and conflict, but tribal
conflicts did not lead to genocide or wholesale destruction for the simple
reason that it was not possible or practical to wipe out one's competitors.
Today, wiping out the competition has become an obsession in business and
politics.
Stanford University's distinguished Emeritus Professor, Rene Girard, has
produced an insightful theory of violence in our culture. Like seawater
to the fish, we don't see what we are immersed in. Professor Girard
has uncovered the chemistry of violence, including the authorized, sanctioned,
and sacred violence which our culture has conditioned us to accept without
opposition. One of Girard's students, Gil Bailie, has written a masterful
summary of Girard's theory in his new book, Violence Unveiled: Humanity at
the Crossroads.
If human culture is to survive, we need to radically rethink our roles as
stewards of the planet. We need to outgrow our thirst for power, wealth
and control, and move up the ladder of evolution toward wisdom, caring, and
compassion.
Barry
Peter Jones
ignores our children and gives a pittance to their educational needs. Bonny
Bracy quotes the Department of Education figure of 6-7% for education.
Barry Kort is saddened by how disvalued children are.
>
><< Barry Kort wrote:
> > > It saddens me to note how profoundly disvalued children are in our
>culture. >>
>
>>Bonnie Bracey wrote:
>The part I do not understand is that we willingly, fund the prisons, and the
>super sports stadiums, but have little concern for financing schools and or
>creating opportunites for children.
>
As a teacher I would love to jump on both their bandwagons as this would
help me rage against what seems to be an intolorable situation.
Unfortunately when I read these kinds of passages I have to check that
impulse and ask myself whether they reflect reality. It is all too easy to
bemoan the current condition of education.
Just some thoughts from the devils advocate:
In the state of California, which has the largest population and largest
state budget, over half of the state budget goes to education. A very
different figure than that quoted by Bonnie. My guess is that it leaves a
different impact on the reader, also. I would guess that most, if not all,
states use more than 40% of their budgets on education. I would also guess
that if you spent much time thinking about it you would not really welcome
the federal government takeover of education. My own proclivities in this
regard lean toward local control.
In response to the 'disvalued' children of America I only have this to say.
I turned off the television in my house. We can watch videos but do not
have regular TV service. We spend much more time talking, reading, and
working on productive projects. Imagine how valued children would feel if
the adults in their lives spent time WITH them rather than beside them
watching the drival which is American television. Before we go about
railing against 'disvalued' children we should stop for a few seconds and
ask ourselves how WE disvalue the very people whom we claim to represent.
The last time I made a survey of teachers asking what they thought of their
students watching television I got a resounding response that their
students watched too much. Alas, when I asked if they would consider
turning off their own television the response is no. It is said that if you
have to have an alcholic drink everyday then you are addicted. My guess is
that most teachers in America are just as addicted to their televisions as
the children they teach.
In the end it is easy to write about how bad things are and yet
historically we have never had a more educated populace. Seems ironic
doesn't it? All I can say is that the sky is not falling. It sure would be
great to talk about solutions rather than how horrible things are. In these
cases I like to think about how my grandfather would have responded to this
discussion. Having grown up in a home with thirteen brothers and sisters in
the backwoods of east Texas with no running water or electricity I have to
believe old Frank would have had a great guffaw over our belief that the
condition of American education is in such dire straits!
Sincerely,
Peter Jones
Peter Jones
Graduate Student Researcher
Department of Education
Berkeley Place, Suite 2001, Room 2040
University of California at Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697-5500
PH: (949) 824-7853
FAX: (949) 824-2965
jon...@uci.edu
Bonnie Bracey
h to
measure and quality and quantify their work. That's fine. We cannot transf=
er
from state to state as nurses do, moving is starting over. The funds spent=
in
one state are so different from another. Then in the same states there are
profound differences by zipcode location. I worked in East Palo Alto. Very
different from Palo Alto. I worked in Marin County. Zipcode differences th=
ere
are pretty interesting too. Here in Arlington there is the north side of t=
he
county and the south side of the county. We no longer have to call it sepa=
rate
but equal, we can just treat the schools by the economics of the zipcodes.=
I
don't mean that people mean to create such digital divides, it is that peo=
ple
care for their own children and want the neighborhood schools , their
neighborhood schools to be outstanding. So local neighborhood initiaitives
work. I always worked on the north side of Arlington after integration, so=
I
knew that there were differences but I don't see how teachers can be to bl=
ame
for all of the problems.
One of the problems is lack of time.
A second problem is that we are ersatz parents for many children. Parents =
ar
busy working . In some urban districts rich and poor there is a heck of a
daycare , before school, after school industry, and children spend an
inordinate time in school. The quality of the child's day is not very good=
. I
don't mean offense to the people who render the care but being in school f=
rom
7:00 in the morning until nearly six o'clock is not optimum.
A third problem you face particularly in California is that lack of traine=
d
teachers, you have troops to teachers, that 5 year certificate allowance, =
some
seasoned teachers and teachers making career changes because you need teac=
hers
. How many of the teachers are real teachers. I remember standing in the
CyberEd Van watching prospective teachers line up and most of those people
were in classrooms the next year. Some of the people I know who are gettin=
g
certification have no real intention of qualifying. The teaching job is a =
good
one for now, and let's face it teachers usually stay in the classroom on t=
he
average of three years. We lose most of our teachers after that time.
I am sick and tired of blaming teachers for all of the difficulties that o=
ccur
with the schools. We are the bottom of the food chain. Teachers in Virgini=
a
did the SOL's and the whole state flunked the test. But there were no
curriculum sets to teach the Standards of Learning, and the who thing was =
a
fiasco. The teachers were not trained..
Here is a note from another teacher
>What about those of us who are still standing in classrooms. Have
>people given
>up on the current teaching force?Will teachers in service now not be
>targeted
>for pedagogical understanding of the use of technology? Must we do it
>on our
>own?
Bonnie:
It is my OPINION based on talking to that student teachers that I have
had over the years, and listening to many college of education teachers
present at workshops, that many schools of education equate "seasoned"
teachers with obstacles to change, not open to extending theirselves
for improvement, etc. Besides being tremendously unfair, it is simply
untrue. However, I am convinced that, whatever we are talking about
(on this list, another, or in the Staff Room), "Truth" holds little
sway when up against prejudice based on emotion.
In my OPINION, the charges leveled at the current teaching force
relative to presumed resistence change and the utilization of techology
in the classroom are more based on firmly-held belief systems as to
how the technology should be incorporated into the classroom,
to what end and, in particular, to what philosophical approach it
should be married. In short,
even such a presumably cut-and-dried topic as "technology" and its
acceptance or rejection
by teachers (presumably a function of age and years in the classroom)
is "smoke-and-mirrors" . What we are in actuality talking about here
is the fact (OPINION!!) that more experienced teachers are more likely
to ,with reason, question some of the basic assumptions put-forth as
FACT by the technology/contructivism/cooperative learning
meta-orientation folks who, in return, often cannot adequately answer
the questions, or rebute the allegations. This tends to make them
angry (at having their firmly-held Gospel challenged.) History has
shown that under these circumstances the next best approach is to
attack the offending parties' credibility. So it goes...
There used to be a time in America when to be a teacher was to be a mark o=
f
honor.
Now, being a teacher is a target , no matter how hard you work, how much y=
ou
love it, what ever all the good things are, no one hears about those thing=
s.
We are sometimes powerless. We are not the "experts" according to the Stat=
e
depts of education but when the stuff doe. not work.. we take the blame.
WHO IS TO BLAME?
Sometimes it is not our fault administrators need transformational learnin=
g
too and most of the decisions in a lot of schools are made way higher up.
<A HREF=3D"http://www.review.com/steven/techrefusal/techrefusef.html">Hod=
as:
Technology Refusal and the Organizational Culture of Schools</A>
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE PROBLEM? Some are teacher quality.
Release Date
1999080 Teacher Quality: A Report on Teacher Preparation and Qualification=
s of
Public School Teachers
The results of this new national profile of teacher quality, the first in =
a
series of biennial reports, specifically focused on teachers=92 learning (=
both
preservice and continued) and the environments in which they work. Include=
d is
important information regarding teachers=92 education, certification, teac=
hing
assignments, professional development, collaboration, and supportive work
environment. In addition, comparisons by instructional level and poverty l=
evel
of the school provide information about the distribution of teacher qualit=
y.
This information provides a context for understanding teachers=92 reports =
of
preparedness to meet the challenges they face in their classrooms.
The FRSS survey indicates that currently less than half of American teache=
rs
report feeling "very well prepared" to meet many of these challenges:
Although many educators and policy analysts consider educational technolog=
y a
vehicle for transforming education, relatively few teachers reported feeli=
ng
very well prepared to integrate educational technology into classroom
instruction (20 percent).
While 54 percent of the teachers taught limited English proficient or
culturally diverse students, and 71 percent taught students with disabilit=
ies,
relatively few teachers who taught these students (about 20 percent) felt =
very
well prepared to meet the needs of these students. Their feelings of
preparedness did not differ by teaching experience.
Only 28 percent of teachers felt very well prepared to use student perform=
ance
assessment techniques; 41 percent reported feeling very well prepared to
implement new teaching methods, and 36 percent reported feeling very well
prepared to implement state or district curriculum and performance standar=
ds.
How could it be that technology was dropped into classrooms with little re=
gard
for teacher training?
In addition teachers probably would not mind the testing if it was fair.
WHERE THE HECK IS REAL ASSESSMENT and RESEARCH ....This is what one group
proposes..
1. The primary purpose of assessment is to improve student learning.
2. Assessment for other purposes supports student learning.
3. Assessment systems are fair to all students.
4. Professional collaboration and development support assessment.
5. The broad community participates in assessment development.
6. Communication about assessment is regular and clear.
7. Assessment systems are regularly reviewed and improved.
We have a lot of changes to make in education and the classroom teacher is=
one
of many variables. We can acknowledge that there is difficulty or we can r=
un
into the iceburg of public apathy.
We may already be there...
"...today's production and distribution of information are undermining the
traditional flow of information and with it the university structure, maki=
ng
it ready to collapse in slow motion once alternatives to its function beco=
me
possible."
Eli M. Noam, "Electronics and the Dim Future of the University," Science, =
Vol.
270, October 13, 1995
California businesses import students to fill their technology needs. Why?
Immigrate them not educate them?
R E S P E C T...for teachers and some incentives go a long way.
Bonnie Bracey
Peter Jones
children who go to school live in poverty. NOT how much we spend as a
society on education. If you want to argue about how the nation should
continue the war on poverty, Great! I am all for it. But this data does not
address the issue I raised which was that our society does spend a very
significant amount of our budget on education. If states are spending
40-50% of their budgets and the federal government is spending 6-7% that is
VERY significant. You may argue for more. That's fair. But to use only the
federal figures without the state figures and then allude to the lack of
support for education is disingenuous.
Peter
>In a message dated 2/2/99 12:44:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, jon...@UCI.EDU
>writes:
>
><<
> In the state of California, which has the largest population and largest
> state budget, over half of the state budget goes to education. A very
> different figure than that quoted by Bonnie. >>Please go back and read my
>message.
>Federal Government... I did not designate state funding..
> If we look to see where the money is spent or , look to see what is valued in
>our society, education has a very low priority. If the government figure for
>the education budget is 6-7 %, it is because the congress, wants education to
>be locally controlled for various regions.
>>
>
>
>> A product of the U.S. Census Bureau's Public Information Office
>>
>> January 29, 1999 TP99-02
>>
>> Upcoming
>> Demographic
>>
>> Census Bureau Releases First Poverty Estimates for School Districts --
>> 1995 Estimates for school districts in each state of school-age children
>> living in poverty, total school-age children and total population.
>> (Tentatively scheduled for release in two weeks.)
>>
>
>The future is like heaven - everyone exalts it, but no one wants to go there
>now. - James Baldwin
>
>In a message dated 2/2/99 12:44:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, jon...@UCI.EDU
>writes:
><<
> In the state of California, which has the largest population and largest
> state budget, over half of the state budget goes to education. A very
> different figure than that quoted by Bonnie. >>
Barry Kort
We have highly developed theories and practices about computer architecture,
software archtecture, and programming methods.
Children have been part of our culture since the advent of our species.
But we barely understand brain architecture, cognition and learning.
Most of what we do know about the brain, about learning and cognition,
and about the role of emotions in the life of the mind has been discovered
in just the past 50 years.
What we've discovered about brains, minds, and learning is so new, most
people are unfamiliar with it. I wonder how many readers of this
conference are up to speed with the research results of Antonio Dimasio,
Rosalind Picard, Alan Kay, Seymour Papert, and others in Cognitive
Science who have undertaken scientific studies in the field of
cognition and learning.
But based on what we know, we can now begin to diagnose many of the
breakdowns in our system of public school education. I'm not talking
about the failures to fund it adequately. That's a problem we all
can see clearly. I'm talking about the failure to design educational
environments that are compatible with (dare I say optimal for) the
learning process as we now understand it.
For example, it's now well established in the literature that learning
is accompanied by emotions. Everyone who drives a car knows that all
cars exhibit the properties of Velocity and Acceleration as emergent
properties of the ability to move from A to B. Yet how many of us
recognize the parallels in education? When we learn, our state of
knowledge advances from A to B. Since the gains in knowledge occur
over time, we have a rate of change of knowledge, which we call
Learning. Learning is to a child gaining knowledge as Velocity
is to a car moving from A to B. But what is the analog of Acceleration?
Accleration in a car is the speeding up and slowing down, the starts
and stops of motion. When a child learns, she does not learn at a
smooth, constant rate. Learning, like velocity, has starts and stops,
speed-ups and slow-downs. How does the child experience these changes
in the rate of learning?
The answer is well known to us all, yet we rarely realize it. We
experiences the bumpiness of the learning curve as Emotions. We
experience curiosity, fascination, puzzlement, bewilderment, boredom,
anxiety, anger frustration, insight, satisfaction, and confidence at
varying times during a learning episode.
If you want to diagnose the state of progress of an individual learner,
take careful note of their attendant emotions. If you want to promote
learning, design the learning environment to return emotional dividends
upon completion of a learning episode. There is nothing as addictive
as an Endorphin High, that euphoric neuropeptide rush that accompanies
(and mediates) the laying down of new knowledge in the brain at the
magic moment of learning.
How often do we hear that people who love to learn hate school and
education? What they hate is being coerced into an environment suffused
with anxiety, frustration, and boredom when they could be enjoying
curiosity, intrigue, fascination, excitement, insight, satisfaction
and confidence.
Pilot studies have demonstrated that it is possible to craft learning
environments in which learners of all ages are pleasurably engaged in
the learning process, deriving high levels of emotional satisfaction,
and motivated to return day after day, week after week, because learning
is both fun and satisfying.
How long before this obvious observation (and the serious theory that
underlies it) finds its way into the design of public schools?
Barry Kort