Education is Like Building a House

When approaching the skill of teaching, I tend to think of building a house. I chose the skill of building a house because only with communication and a strong foundation will the house survive through storms. In education, a strong foundation is important because the foundation allows the students to fall back on the things they do know to help them learn new things. The foundations are always most important because they are the basics and allow skills to be built on. One cannot do calculus without first doing addition and subtraction. Like education, if the foundation of the house is not strong, the walls will cave in and the house will crumble. Even though the foundation is very important, if the rest of the structure is not put up correctly with care, the house will still be unstable. Likewise, education cannot be left strictly to the foundations, it is still important to continue to build the students academics carefully with many check points in order to make sure of their success. By building check points in education, a teacher can determine where the student struggles and in response, give them additional help in that area. Like in building houses, there is one person who is in charge who conducts tests and inspects the work done on the house to ensure its safety. Overall, like building a house, education takes a lot of work and requires not only a strong foundation, but continuous inspections to ensure the students success. Geological Sciences, http://www.calstatela.edu/dept/geology/Homes.htm

Gender Social Justice

I chose to research gender social justice and focused on female drop-out rates due to pregnancy. Though the rates had been dropping through 2005, in 2006 the rates skyrocketed again. Teenage mothers tend to drop out to assume traditional rolls by staying home and taking care of the baby. Unfortunately this makes them rely on government finances to take care of their babies. Also, teen mothers are likely to have a second baby within the first two years of their first pregnancy. This is a vicious cycle where the female students drop out and the males tend to stay in school. These women should be given choices. Maybe we should provide day care in schools to allow for teen mothers to at least get their high school diploma. In addition to teenage mothers not finishing high school, they tend to not take care of their babies as well. They are not as strict with their prenatal care and typically do not eat as well as older mothers. Teenagers having babies tend to put the babies at a disadvantage as well because most teenage mothers are minorities who have a low income. It is a vicious cycle that needs to be stopped. Unfortunately we are running out of new forms of birth control. Hopefully we will find a way to lower the teen pregnancies to help women pursue their dreams and to be able to provide a better life for their future children. Teen Pregnancy – womenshealthchannel, http://www.womenshealthchannel.com/teenpregnancy/index.shtml pregnant_women.jpg, http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:1TX0ytpi8PAKbM:http://www.fyiforwomen.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/pregnant_women.jpg

Montessori Schools

I picked Montessori schooling as the type of schooling that interested me most because the independent but structured style. Montessori schooling was based on the ideas of Maria Montessori who believed that children teach themselves. They learn through interaction with other students and while working together. I also like how they focus on the “children’s perceptual, motor, intellectual, and social skills” ( McNergney, p. 198). They use specific materials to encourage learning. I think that Montessori schools are an asset to education, though they may not be right for everyone, they definitely have a great outlook. The idea that children educate themselves though experiences, trial and error really makes sense. When I look back to my childhood, I don’t remember my classes; I remember my experiences while interacting with others, so the whole idea of learning through experience does make sense.

McNergney, Education: The Practice and Profession of Teaching

American Montessori Society, http://www.amshq.org/schools.htm

g1_u28942_a_maria_montessori_1.jpg, http://tbn0.google.com/images?q=tbn:Mgyj85E2E3QSvM:http://myhero.com/images/Other/Becky/g1_u28942_a_maria_montessori_1.jpg

The Philosophy of John Dewey

The philosopher that I agree with most is John Dewey. Dewey’s main philosophy was to educate students by way of experience in society rather than pure lecture. He believed that students could learn in real life experiences. To learn math, students should cook and start to measure out proportions or should do word problems like how long it would take to get from point A to point B at a specified speed. I agree with John Dewey’s philosophy because I have found that I always retain the information that I acquire when I have an experience to go along with it. Like when I started cooking, I had to learn fractions and how to add them together. Sometimes I would not be able to find a ½ cup and would have to figure out that two scoops with a ¼ cup would be equivalent to a ½ cup. This made fractions easy and practical. Also, when I go to class, I do not typically remember the class itself; I remember what I conversed about or what activity we did, not what the teacher was lecturing. There are so many experiences in life, why not experience them instead of just taking in facts about them? As John Dewey said, “Education is life itself.” John Dewey: Philosophy of Education, http://wilderdom.com/experiential/JohnDeweyPhilosophyEducation.html http://thinkingwithshakespeare.org/Shakespeare/HOT%20Prompts/94Dewey.jpg