Friday, May 31, 2013

What has really changed?


Just some food for thought this morning... 

I work out of the library at Germantown High, and as they are closing, it's interesting to see some of the old books that are hidden in back rooms come to the surface.

This is a collection of books on education from the National Society for the Study of Education.

It appears they came out with a collection of "yearbooks" on various important topics in education.

The collection at Germantown is from the 1950's and 60's.

The topics were as follows:

Social Deviancy Among Youth
The Dynamics of Instructional Groups
Education for the Gifted
Art Education
Individualizing Education
Social Forces Influencing American Education
Child Psychology
Development In and Through Reading
Personnel Services in Education
Mental Health in Modern Education

In briefly skimming the contents and introductions of the books, much was said about the need for re-examining public education in the post-war society. Multiple times, I saw mentions of "values" that were changing, and it seemed to be the mission of these yearbooks to look at ways that schools could step in to continue creating productive citizens of this country.

So, I wonder, 50 plus years later, what has really changed?

Are these not the very issues that are at stake today, if we don't provide quality public education for all?

It seems the main difference, is that the teaching profession was given much more reverance for its role in creating these productive citizens. Schools were taken seriously as institutes of teaching and learning. Yes, there were awful issues on other fronts in terms of segregation, but let's also be real about that please. How much diversity is in the 99% African American high school I'm sitting in today? How much diversity was in the 99% white high school I attended?

So, instead, how about we take the students, whatever they look like....and educate them? Without cutting services for the important items listed above, from art education to mental health services.



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