School & Society: Ch. 15 Study Questions

1. In this chapter Davis and McCaul are cited as saying that the solutions to successfully educating low-income and minority youth are not beyond our professional expertise but beyond our social and political commitment. Given your knowledge, derived from this text and elsewhere, of how to educate economically disadvantaged youth, do you believe that Davis and McCaul are correct in their assessment? Explain.

Education has no doubt become a whipping boy for society's ills. In this Davis and McCaul are correct: the problem is much deeper and more diversified. However, Davis and McCaul are yet convinced of the viability of redeeming the system as such: no one seems willing to consider the impossibility of the institution.

So I would agree that the issue is wider than education, but maintain that education still has issues, which won't be resolved satisfactorily within an institutional context. This is something of a stalemate for a society that is used to government handling the responsibilities of life.

2. This chapter argues, roughly, that teachers cannot be expected to change the political and economic structure of society, but they can be expected to change the life chances of their students. Do you fully agree with this view? Defend your position with evidence from the text and from your own experience.

Teachers may well change the political and economic structure of society; it would be better to say they are not responsible for changing it. Similarly, they may be expected to improve the life chances of their students, without idealizing these chances. Some responsibility, of course, must in the end lie with society as a whole and with the student as an individual. Teachers are not gods.

At present, it seems the best teachers can do is be as human as possible in an inhuman institution, and to press for all the freedoms they can get. They can work to maintain a vital connection with the world and with their students, and pursue the contrapositive of Meier's chilling concept of "passion-impairment."

For teachers to be successful in their responsibility, they must have the requisite authority. Administrators must trust to the power of freedom to motivate, rather than the grim grip of control to squeeze out grotesque globs of "results."

3. Deborah Meier writes early in her article that "we expect would-be teachers to overcome such [habitual] views and then act on the basis of their new wisdom." What in this text or in your college education has potential for developing in you new skills, understanding, or dispositions to act in ways other than what the habits of schooling have taught you about being a teacher? If you can identify such an influence, explain what difference it might make to how you teach, and why. If you cannot identify anything, explain whether you think the habits of a schooling you have learned are adequate to the challenges of teaching today and why.

Teachers must be learners. Not in the past tense, but emphatically in the present. We are losing our grip on the power of example and are "turning leaders into celebrities" instead of participants.

Anyone who aspires to teach must cultivate a contagious enthusiasm for learning in general and their specific subject in particular. The engagement with the subject should be so total that there is no time to directly scrutinize the learning methods involved. These methods will snap into place on their own easily enough.

I quote from William Zinsser, a phenomenal educator in his own right: "There was no mistaking the men and women I wanted to have along on the ride. They all had the rare gift of enthusiasm. Again and again I was struck by the exuberance that these [teachers] brought to what they were [teaching]. Whatever the [teacher] and whatever the subject ... the common thread is a sense of high enjoyment, zest, and wonder. Perhaps, both in learning to [teach] and [teaching] to learn, they are the only ingredients that really matter."

4. Meier claims that "teachers must lead the way toward their own liberation." What does she mean by this, and is this a realistic aspiration for educational change in this country? Explain your answer.

Meier is simply saying that teachers must step up to the plate and accept their responsibility. In return, they should be granted greater autonomy, and begin to figure a decisive part in teaching curriculum, teaching methodology, and the teaching environment. This is a realistic aspriation for educational change insofar as it decentralizes the workings of the institution and dismantles ineffective bureaucratic control.

5. Meier describes "four freedoms" that are characteristic of her schools. Since it is not perfectly clear what these four freedoms are, try to identify them. Second, assume for the purposes of this question that each of these freedoms is not equally important. Given that assumption, which of them is most important for educational success, and which is least important? Explain.

The four freedoms are namely 1) Freedom to reinvent the model, 2) Freedom of participation, for both teachers and students, 3) Freedom to select a sympathetic staff, and 4) Freedom to organize and restructure curriculum content and teaching methods at will.

I hold the second freedom to be the most fundamental, as it will tend to force the others. Though all of the others are valuable, and I part with each only reluctantly, I would feel that #4 is the least important, because it is easier to get sympathetic teachers to "work around" deficient curriculum and teaching methods than it is to get unsympathetic teachers to use the proper methods and curriculum correctly.

6. Soon after describing the four freedoms, Meier identifies five qualities she looks for in prospective teachers. Which among these qualities is your greatest strength, and which is your greatest weakness? Assuming that Meier is correct in naming these as important qualities for the teacher, what might you do to strengthen the relative weakness you have identified?

I believe I am reasonably strong on points 1, 3, 4, and 5, and especially 4, to the exclusion of point 2, which is my main weakness. I am working to remedy this by engaging more with other people and developing the deliberate habit of listening, working off the fundamental premise that every person has intrinsic value that is all too often grossly underestimated.

7. In the last one-third of the article, Meier identifies five principles underlying the success of Central Park East Schools. Putting aside the first one (that people learn best when they feel physically and psychically safe,) which of the remaining four seems to you to be most necessary for successful schooling? What concrete steps could you take to implement this principle in your own teaching?

I think the fifth principle is the most valuable, as it emphasizes a strong sense of community, which can overcome great odds. This can be encouraged with collaborative assignments, the free exchange of ideas within the classroom, indeed, anything to provide more human contact, with the ensuing larger-than-life sense of possibility.