“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela1/24/2017 This quote means that education creates an impact. Teachers are the individuals that are consistently filling the minds of future generations with valuable knowledge and skills. These future generations of children will grow up to be adults that enter the work force. These students have the potential to greatly impact society and they will ultimately make a change and a difference in the world. Education is a weapon because it is a force to be reckoned with. Being knowledgeable is an asset and a valuable one. Success is what all individuals strive for. Teachers strive for successful students and they hope that they all prosper into magnificent human beings. Doctors that save lives everyday once sat in a classroom at school and put time and effort into learning. Political leaders were all once students as well. Some areas of the world see education as a privilege. Not all children are entitled to education or able to learn and sit in the classrooms that some children take for granted. We, as a group of future educators, have teachers from elementary and high school to thank for helping us get to where we stand today. Knowledge is power; that is a fact. Everybody has a chance to make a change in the world. Whether we choose to act on that opportunity is up to us. Education is truly amazing. It evolves and changes as time goes by. Curriculum is constantly being analyzed and altered so that students have the best chance at success and gaining specific knowledge and skills. I believe that Nelson Mandela referred to education as a weapon because weapons are associated with protection. When a person is educated, they have a strong foundation of knowledge and that 'protects' them by helping them reach their goals. Education can guide people to what they were destined for.
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When I was in elementary and high school, the teachers would tell us countless times, “we have to cover this because it is in curriculum and you need to know it.” My classmates and myself were aware that the point of curriculum was to provide specific objectives that we were to understand by the end of the year. I found that if I did not completely grasp the topic, I would forget methods or information by the end of the year. The Tyler rationale focuses on creating and formulating specific objectives because objectives guide how the curriculum is carried out. In my opinion, the Tyler rationale does not provide much room for alteration and it is a concept with one goal. Objectives/outcomes are created on this one document so that schools across provinces such as Saskatchewan are learning the same concepts. I understand that this is necessary and important. The Tyler Rationale also outlines that the best learning occurs when the learner interacts with the environment around them; this experience helps with connecting the learner with what needs to be learned. In high school specifically, I felt that we spent more time just learning new concepts rather than relating them to things outside of school. In English classes, students from my hometown have read the same novels for years from grade 9 through grade 12. I remember helping a grade 12 boy with his Hamlet homework when I was in grade 10. Helping him was beneficial to me because two years later I read the play all over again in my own class. Right now I am able to help my brother with his To Kill A Mockingbird homework because I read that novel in high school too. I personally feel that the world is filled with great literature and that more than one novel can provide the same purpose or message of importance. There are ways to diversify the school system while maintaining specific outcomes. The main point that I understand about the Tyler Rationale is that curriculum is made for efficiency because it provides organization and order. Schiro states, “effective organization of learning experiences allows curriculum objectives to be efficiently accomplished by stimulating learning to take place in the most efficient manner possible” (pp.59).
Schiro, Michael (2013). Curriculum theory: Conflicting Visions and Enduring Concerns, (2nd Ed). SAGE. Kumashiro defines “commonsense” as an aspect of life that individuals take for granted. Common sense involves the daily routines that people perform without realizing that they are not necessarily normal in other areas of the world. Newcomers to locations do not pick up on the common sense activities and systems until they are introduced to them. Kumashiro explains that in Nepali schools, classes commence at the beginning of February, but instruction and teaching begins at the end of February when enrolment numbers are sufficient. Kumashiro also discusses that girls preferred to sit with girls and boys preferred to sit with boys because they were forced to squeeze onto small benches in groups of around five or six. In the United States, the students sit in classrooms with thirty to forty people and classes run from morning to mid-afternoon. The common sense school routine of Nepal is not the same or similar to the common sense routines performed in the United States. Kumashiro explains that the lecture-practice-exam method is included so strongly in Nepali schools that any other approach to teaching is completely foreign to the students.
It is important to pay attention to common sense because things become overly routine and people do not question why they are routine; they just simply follow the status quo. Kumashiro explains that theories and perspectives that challenge common sense are dismissed before approval because they would be viewed as “inappropriate” or “irrelevant.” People tend to have trouble determining what common sense is because they do not question why they do or do not do certain things. Kumashiro discusses that sometimes commoncan provide comfort as well. It is important that educators challenge common sense routines if it would be beneficial to the students’ learning. Kumashiro. (2009). Against Common Sense: Teaching and Learning Toward Social Justice, pp. XXIX – XLI). |