Katrina, Green Schools, Child Farm Workers, and Teachers' Cost of Living

Hundreds of thousands of students were displaced after Hurricane Katrina hit the Mississippi and Louisiana region.  Government allocated funds to relocate those students and further encouraged schools to be more than accepting to the new students in the time of crisis.  Parents had an option of shopping for schools for their children in their new cities.  The rankings of schools were designed around the minorities in attendance at the schools as well as the test scores.  It was discovered that schools that had a high rate of students passing in well to do neighborhoods, may have just had a demographic of students that come from demanding households as far as an expectation towards academics.  Those schools may not have necessarily had a great value added record.  This was proved when students of Katrina moved into these schools and showed little to know gains on their value added scores.

"Going Green" is a concept that has caught on in every sector of the economy today.  Just as ethanol costs more fuel to make than it actually saves in petroleum based fuel, green energy isn't always the less of the two evils.  In a study of "Green Schools" intended to reduce emissions, save in energy costs, and reduce absenteeism, the outcomes were less than stellar.  The findings were that the energy savings weren't as much as originally estimated.  In addition to those depressing results, student attendance was actually higher than that of nearby traditional schools.

I've always kept an open mind with students coming from rough situations when I teach in class.  I understand that every student comes from a different background and may have to care for a sick parent or work a full time job after school to help pay for the groceries for their household.  I once read a statistic that one in four students come to school hungry each morning.  In today's economy, I've noticed a trend in more and more students becoming eligible for free and reduced lunch.  I was totally unaware that there could be as many as half a million child farm workers in America.  This is really disturbing to think that there could be students in my class who could be involved in intense illegal labor before or after school each day.  If that labor doesn't include farming, it may be possible that some students may work in construction or other intense labor jobs that could obvious have a detrimental effect on their sleep and classroom performance, especially when it comes to finding time for homework.

Finally, the pay salaries of teachers in other states may be ten to twenty thousand dollars a year higher than that of Tennessee.  However, those states also have an extremely high cost of living.  When the cost of living is considered into the equation, Tennessee is actually one of the higher paying states in the nation.  This was a great example of how data can be manipulative unless all aspects of the data are presented.

Multiculturalism (Entry #4)

There has always been a trend throughout history involving protests of people who feel "left out."  In today's modern society, we've done a great job at integrating all cultures and making everyone not only feel equal, but be treated as equals.  When I first started to read the article, "Organizers See 'New Civil Rights Movement' in Immigration Protests," I didn't know what to expect.  After reading the article, I feel that the legislation passed will be beneficial.  This country is composed of immigrants from every country around the world, but it's important that everyone pays taxes equally.  I also feel that it's important to teach multiculturalism in schools, to show people that the world is a melting pot of ideas, beliefs, and people.  However, "Towards a Centrist Curriculum" points out that we cannot teach an ethnic history month, if students cannot read and effectively understand the concepts being taught.

In the school I teach at, one of the teacher's had a parent complaint because she was teaching about other religions.  Teaching the five major religions of the world is part of her curriculum in teaching world history, just as it's part of my curriculum, teaching world geography.  In order to teach the world, it's important to study the religions that greatly influences the way people behave throughout the world.  All religions are taught on an equal, unbiased, lesson to prevent "separation of church and state" and promoting a religion.  This would be an example that my school used social control.  Additionally, as of this school year, students are no longer allowed to have hats on campus under any circumstance.  In the past, students had to take off their hats before entering the school building.  Now, students cannot even have hats in their possession.  This is a good example of a policy that uses a means of social control.

Diversity & Multiculturalism (Post #3)

During the earliest years of American Public Schools, there was an objective to "Americanize" students.  People wanted to try and develop an image and lifestyle unique to the new world.  "Americanizing" ones self existed in schools, religion, and cultural hobbies.  By teaching students contributions of other cultures, would be going backwards in the eyes of early educators.  Early settlers wanted to break ties of their old ways of living and start anew.

During the 1960s, America changed its approach toward teaching multicultural history.  However, many people viewed the cultural curriculum as an anti-white message.  I teach high school world geography and I view our curriculum as being very diverse.  Our textbook and curriculum standards take a look at the modern world and make comparisons among cultural differences, as well as teaching historical perspectives of cultural differences and how those influences shape difference societies.

In "Pithissippi Burning," it addresses a disturbing group of individuals that show no respect to all of mankind.  They have hatred towards the government, Jews, African Americans, and Hispanics.  Pithissippi Burning discusses a hate group that fears the end of what is called, "White America."  Our country is comprised of a melting pot of immigrants from around the world.  I understand there will always be hate groups, but it's always unsettling to be reminded that so many people have so much unnecessary hate.  In the article "Why Multiculturalism is Wrong," it addresses a trend in Europe that views multiculturalism as being a bad thing.  Some students are categorized into certain "culture" groups and are labeled as a certain culture, although they have no ties to that culture that the country dubbed them to be.

In the end people will always be unhappy or will find something to complain about.  I feel that we should continue to promote multiculturalism in our country.  A great song that represents our melting pot of a country is "Welcome to the Future" by Brad Paisley.  I highly recommend listening to it.  It will give you goosebumps thinking about how far we've come as a society to dealing with diversity and accepting everyone equally as human beings.

Separation of Church and State (Entry 2)

Politics and religion have always been touchy subjects of debate and argument.  Several precedent court cases for religion and the separation of it from government sponsored events, buildings, and figures are constantly being contested.  The "Religions in Schools" article and the "Gobitas" case both involve strong beliefs and interpretations of religion being used in a school.

The "West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette" set a precedence that students are not required to pledge to the United States flag.  Although I feel strongly about our country, freedoms, and what our flag represents, I also feel strong about our great freedoms that we have.  Our constitution grants the right to a freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  Along with this right, if a student interprets the flag as an idol, they have the freedom to not pledge to it.  Having family members who currently serve in the United States military and as a social studies teacher, I will never stop getting goosebumps saluting our flag during the morning announcements each day.

In the "Religions in Schools" article, biologists want to scrap any debate that questions the validity of Darwin's Theory of Evolution.  However, many people in society argue that if schools teach evolution, it should also be taught that there is debate to the theory.  Because theory is not fact, some states, such as Texas feel that it should be noted in the curriculum and teacher lectures that creationism is another perspective.  Just as sociology, geography, and history teachers have the five major world religions in Tennessee textbooks, I feel that alternative views such as creationism should dually be noted in biology textbooks.  Although I'm a Christian, I'm not basing my decision upon my own faith.  I believe that if the biology teacher explains to the students that multiple ideas and theories exists, as to the creation of mankind.  The school is not necessarily promoting a certain religion or pressing a religion on any student, they're simply teaching that on a global basis, a large majority of people believe in creationism and discredit evolution.

Individuals who influenced education (Entry 1)

The innovators and makers of public schools have all propelled ideas that make schools they way they are today. Upon reading the articles on PBS and Gatto, it seems as if the "innovators" of public schools set a foundation for schools, including the duration of the school year and training for teachers.  The "makers" proposed ideas to design curriculum that would prepare students for real world application.

Horace Mann is one individual who I feel truly influenced public education.  Horace Mann has been dubbed the "father of American education" (1).  Mann was one of the first elected official in this nation to push for additional funding to support school buildings, books, and teacher pay.  In addition to promoting public support for schooling, he also created the first state board of education.  Although some people argue that Mann's motivation to strengthen schools was to improve morals and behaviors of a crime-stricken neighborhood, he's still widely known in the education community as being a strong founder of public education.


Henry Ford is known for his famous quote, "whether you think you can or can't, either way, you're probably right."  Henry Ford revolutionized the way Americans traveled.  This transformed our country into the country it is today.  From the semi-trucks that deliver our food to the grocery stores, to the school buses that transport students into the schools in which we teach, our highway infrastructure all stemmed from Henry Ford's ingenuity.  Today, several schools throughout the nation focus on optional vocational schooling programs and many work in unison with local factories and corporations.  The students learn real life learning skills and employment is typically lined up with those companies that have reciprocity programs of training.  Today, modern schools are geared towards making students prepared for college, and college prepares students for the work force.

References:
1. http://www.nd.edu/~rbarger/www7/mann.html

Introduction

I currently teach 9th grade World Geography.  I'm working towards an Ed.S. degree.  I've been teaching for five years and love the profession.