Module 8

I agree that a student is not an empty vessel, and seeing every student as an individual human being. I like the idea about the ‘voyage of discovery’. And not all students are the same. I understand what he was saying about being different and the same. I liked most of what this guy said. Asking questions, creating curiosity, etc.
I think a line has to be drawn because he said something about relaying our morals, values, etc onto the students. That’s fine as long as the teacher has the proper morals and values, but what are the proper morals and values? Universal ones are fine, doing good to others, etc. But nothing like beliefs or religion should be pressed upon a student. When he explained about beating the students down, that was a great point. Everyday we have the chance to shape moral’s, I agree too. I like what he said, I just think that the line needs to be clear. He brought another one up again is the truth, and teaching the truth. The same thing applies here.
I love that he said we don’t know everything, and we shouldn’t think that. I think that overall his ideas are great, but caution needs to be applied.
Having took the test, which someone had taken before me, I was surprised at how different my answers were on this. Unlike before, when my answers were right along with everyone else - now it’s different. “Each student should determine his or her individual curriculum, and teachers should guide and help them.” The person before me disagreed. I strongly agree with this! What gives us the right to dictate what our students become? I think that individualism is one of the key factors in teaching.
Not everyone is the same. So why have the same curriculum for everyone? I’m not saying that if the student thinks they shouldn’t do any work then that’s ok. I’m saying that we should cater to the students skills, if they have an interest then go with it. Make learning fun. Don’t we all do better in the classes we enjoy? Everyone should be involved with this, not just the teachers.

Module 7

The first topic I choose was Native American Tribes: The History of Miseducation. I choose this because I have an interest in the Native Americans and anytime I can learn more about them, anything about them, I take the opportunity.

I personally think what was done to them was far worse than anything Americans have done to any other culture. Even in this it is evident; we forced them to learn what we wanted and then didn’t provide what we said we would. If you do a search words line genocide and holocaust come up in some of the websites, how far is this from the truth? Is it the truth?

This site is PACKED full of tons of information on Native Americans. From there history to today. It also links sites off of it, there is endless surfing from there.

http://www.nativeamericans.com/History.htm

One of the sites talking about the 500 year war... It tells how we forced our ways on the Native Americans.

http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/aiholocaust.html

And I thought that it was important to note today there are tons of sites dedicated to the education of Native Americans. This is the Bureau of Indian Education…

http://enan.bia.edu/home.aspx



Colonial New England Education, “God’s Classrooms” was my next topic. School being meant to ‘save souls’. Here are a couple of sites more on that…

This one talks about how most of the information was learned at home (at first), and it’s evolution. Also about the ‘patron saint’ of education.

http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/osl/colonial_america.htm

And to tie it into today, God in the classroom…

http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr/vq/VQFALL01/religion.html