Reflection Paper 11

The impact of the ideas Socrates had on modern Western education was a huge leap in education. Socrates was a man of knowledge and reasoning who thought outside of the box which led to his great impact on education. With modern education today in Western societies we now have things such as the law of logic, science, technology, math, etc. Instead of relying solely on religion to explain the happenings around us we are now able to think logically of what actually occurs instead of saying through God we were able to build cars and buildings. We know that it was the usage of mathematics and science that we were able to build thing such as buildings and cars. With Socrates’ elenchus we were able to see that what we believed was morally correct in fact was not and that it needed to be altered. The elenchus lead us to discover the truth of things instead of constantly claiming religious reasons. Socrates gave us the basic form of our laws and the methods used in criminal justice with the use of the elenchus (“cross- examination”). With Socrates’ influence we have such an array of different areas to learn in education. Instead of religion being the main subject it is now, in public schools, an option or in some cases not offered at all. He basically theorized that knowledge is power; we just have to use it the right way. He influenced us to have the courage to want to know. Socrates influenced us to not be afraid of wanting to find out the unknown and to question the world. We might not always get an answer we want or an answer at all but it is still worth wanting to know. When we ask questions we gain knowledge and that is how we learn. Without Socrates’ influence in our society today I don’t think we would be as knowledgeable as we are. If we didn’t have the courage to ask and to want to know then I don’t believe we would be as advanced as we are. We would still have religion set as our basic form of education and we wouldn’t have the sense of justice. Our laws might not have even been as they are in today’s world without his imprint on our society.

Reflection Paper 10

The teacher being the gatekeeper refers to the teacher controlling the time spent during class. A teacher could be considered as “Father Time” of the class room. Everything that goes on during a class period is controlled by the teacher; the amount of time teaching, asking and answering questions, activities etc. It is an extremely important role for the teacher to have and also very critical. For example, after the lesson a teacher usually asks are there any questions? A number of hands fly into the air waiting to be called upon. The instructor knows that sometimes not all of the questions the students have could be answered within the time limit. In that case some of the students might feel hurt or neglected which could cause the said students to feel less inclined to participate or have a negative outlook for the next class. Time management is very important but so are the students, if that were to happen the teacher could simply say write down your question and ask it in the next session to make sure the students who weren’t called on don’t feel like they are being ignored. The “gatekeeper” also controls the amount of time each student has for speaking and who does the speaking. A teacher shouldn’t cut the speaker off too soon or let them continue on for too long but those, as gatekeepers, control that time. I think the gatekeeper should manage time to what is important but also to the students. Some teachers spend most of the class time talking and don’t have enough time to listen to their students or they chose not to. In some classes teachers expect the students to sit and listen not to participate or ask any questions. I believe that is wrong. The gatekeeper manages time for a reason and that is to cater to the lesson but also the students as well. Time should be made for asking and answering questions if possible because not all pupils are able to comprehend right away and might need clarification. The cause of not managing time properly as the gatekeeper could result in poor performance, backlash, etc. It is important that there is communication in both directions between teachers and student, to make learning more efficient and to benefit as well as satisfy both parties.

Reflection Paper 9

There are a few similarities to the two articles, First Schools and Education in Ancient Egypt. First there is the similarity that students had to be of wealthy inheritance to be able to go to school at all. Their fathers had to be of a high job position to allow their child to attend school. The second similarity is that in both articles it mentioned that students were required to recite their studies all from memory. They also had to write down and copy other texts besides just enumerating them from memory. My thoughts on teacher effectiveness today in comparison are that like how it is today in the article “The First Schools” students then went to school for many years, from the time they were young to when they became adults. They also encourage their students with their learning and help them with their “faults and inadequacies” like teachers do today. Teachers in today’s world are very similar to those in ancient times. Their motifs for teaching are still the same as they were back then, they want to see their students excel and achieve. So while they praise them for their hard work they also point out what they’re doing wrong and encourage their students to try better so that they can be successful. The parallels between teaching in ancient times and now are extraordinary in how little the main principles have changed. What has changed though is the hours the students are in school. In ancient times students went to school from morning to night where as in today’s society students go from morning to mid afternoon. Despite that difference, students in ancient times also enjoyed breaks from school that students so cherish today. They were able to take time off from school to enjoy life like students do today. I don’t think that the teaching effectiveness has changed so much from then to the world of today. The motivation, the teacher’s strive for students to succeed, the criticism, etc, is all still relevant today. The only difference is that we have an abundance of facilities geared towards the sole purpose of learning and that parents aren’t the only means of educating their children anymore. As well as the fact that only wealthy children with fathers with high statuses are allowed to learn. Every one whether they’re rich or poor has the ability to gain an education that is the biggest difference.

Reflection Paper 8

The first wave of reform was the requirement of teachers and students to have more texting and courses on their performances. The second wave of reform was when teachers were given more power and control over their school. Finally, the third wave of reform was when the schools were required to offer services such as healthcare, transportation, social services, etc, to students to ensure that they be taught in a proper teaching environment. I think that the third wave of reform is so dominant because of all the benefits students receive whether or not they are wealthy or struggling. It is so well liked because it gives parents the peace of mind that their child will be well cared for since they’re not present with their child. It is especially comforting to the parents who are having financial problems and might not be able to pay for the services if payment was required. It is one less thing parents have to worry about; their safety is provided for as soon as the child is entered into the school. Parents aren’t as concerned with their child being tested as they are with the health and wellbeing of their child. I think that a safe and secure environment is what parents look for when choosing what school they want their child to attend. If a school doesn’t offer protection or any benefits at all I doubt that parents would even consider sending their child to that school. I also think that the requirements for parents choosing a school are the same as when you choose a job. The main thing you are looking for when choosing a job is the benefits you will receive from that position. Whether or not those benefits are what you’re looking for is what determines if you plan on taking the job. Those decisions apply the same way when choosing the school for your child to attend. A safe environment is also a key face in the decision and even if the school is not in the safest neighborhood parents have the satisfaction of knowing that the school is protected in some way whether it be police officers or guards. That is why I think the third wave of reform is the most dominant wave of the three.

Reflection Paper 7

In ancient Egypt the young children growing up would be taught by their elders. Their parents were the ones who gave them their basic idea of the world, how it works and how to act in society. A father would take his son and teach him about his job so that he would be able to take over in the future and carry on his own work. If a man were unfortunate enough to not bear any son, he would adopt one to inherit all that he owned. The girls were basically trained as housewives with being able to dance, sing, and play musical instruments. In the temple they had to behave accordingly and offer words for the departed. The temple was seen as an elite school which one could only be fortunate enough to get into. In Mesopotamia, their education system was mostly aimed towards producing priests and scribes. It involved oral reiteration, memorizing, and copying. They were also taught things such as medicine, religion, higher law, etc. for their apprenticeship they were seen as sons to their mentors and taught them his ways. With only a clay tablet to write on, students would copy thousands of groups of wedges. Eventually they had to copy a book word for word, perhaps as a final project to “graduate” from their class. In ancient China, students were taught verbally. Schools were separated from high class to lower class and the girls were also separated and taught to how to be feminine and take care of the household. The virtue they honored most was respecting their elders. The Chinese did not have any temples as the ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians had. In ancient India, their education was based on religion. An odd thing was that the young boys would do, as the other cultures call, women’s work. They would leave home and learn how to do housework, protect the home, and keep the fire going. Girls were able to learn but they had to be taught at home. They were taught correct elocution, rituals, law, etc. As the ancient Indians were deeply into their religion their temples were decorated with sculptures, architectural elements, etc that were unique to the rest of the world.

Reflection Paper 6

The invention of writing was so essential to the establishment of the world’s great ancient civilizations because we were able to decode some of the ancient languages of the past and their meanings. Without writing I don’t think we would be able to function, we need it for so many different reasons. We wouldn’t be able to record remarkable events, take an inventory of stock, etc. Ancient civilizations used writing for those exact same reasons. Their writing may not look the same as ours does now with letters but they still wrote regardless to be able to record their history. With writing the ancient civilizations were able to match sounds to symbols. They used physical things such as a drawing of an eye or water for symbols to match what they sounded like. With their symbols they were able to tell stories and record data such as the amount of livestock one had. With the invention of writing, ancient civilizations had a whole new way of communicating to each other. They were able to get the calendar from being able to write. Writing gave them a whole new meaning and I think that they were leaving their mark in the world long after they died by carving them into stone tablets, clay, etc. I think it was a way that they thought they could be remembered forever. I feel that being able to write was seen as some sort of power to certain civilizations since not every one was able to write. For example in some ancient civilizations they had a recorder or historian, as it would be called today, that would write down the events that occurred of that time and only the recorder knew how to write. Writing changed the world; it allowed a whole new way of living. Without it we wouldn’t know what we do today about the past or our own future. I think they felt the same way. They wanted to be remembered in some way or another and writing was their way of doing it. It helped us to unlock many secrets and the language of thousands of cultures. It is the greatest invention man could have given the world. Without it we wouldn’t have been able to identify the remains of lost cultures or tombs, such as King Tut.

Reflection Paper 5

Initiation rites and the rites of passage have to do with teaching and learning because they are both comparatively similar. Initiation rites and the rites of passage are what young children have to go through in order to become adults. As they go through the trials they have a learning experience that they will take with them throughout their lives. It is something that is mandatory that they do to take the next step in life; if not then they would be looked down upon by the entire village. Teaching and learning are basically the same initiative. In order to succeed in life you have to have an education in which the teacher provides. Teachers guide their students down the road of life to help them become outstanding adults. With initiation rites and the rites of passage the adults and parents of the child help to guide them in what is needed from them in order to pass their initiation. Teachers do the exact same thing; they give their guidance to their students and give them knowledge of what is to come and what is expected of them in the adult world. There are always challenges and difficulties ahead in life that has to be overcome. Initiation rites and the rites of passage are faster ways into adulthood but are still built on the same idea of teaching and learning. There are the ones who guide the children and the children are the ones who take in the knowledge of their elders. Through every experience the child takes knowledge away from that situation whether it is survival skills or life’s knowledge, it is the same idea. Initiation rites and the rites of passage are the early forms of teaching and learning, there wasn’t always a school to learn in so parents became the teachers of their children. They showed them what was right and what was wrong and how to survive. Parents still do that but now they have extra help and guidance from teachers who are able to help them in areas parents might not be able to. Both help to shape children into strong, mentally and physically, well rounded adults. Teaching and learning is the current initiation rites and rites of passage, graduating is the last step in becoming an adult just like passing the initiation is the last step in becoming an adult.

Reflection 4

From reading the articles I learned in the article Hominids that some of the hominids were around the same amount of years of each other in terms of evolving. Some were from within 300,000 to 700,000 years old. With some species there wasn’t much of a large change but in others there were differences such as cranial forms or different shapes in the mandible. I have also learned that during the evolution stage there wasn’t just one version that was formed. There were many “trial versions” during that process. I also learned that the reason some of the hominids began walking upright may have been caused due to the fact that the woods were diminishing. My beliefs aren’t really affected because I hold no strong religious values and I believe in reason. If there is evidence that we may have evolved from apes then I’m not going to turn a blind eye to those facts and deny all reasoning. I believe that we could have evolved from apes for the simple fact that there is so much likeness between apes and man there is nothing to contradict that. If there was, perhaps, a mutation in an ape which made it able for it to walk upright then we would have a basic example of what we looked like during our evolving process. If an ape stood erect, it would be the basic structure of a skeleton of a human being’s. There are only a few differences between man and ape and the articles point out those minor distinctions. In the religious point of view there are so many theories and beliefs of how we came to be but not much evidence to fall on, we only have the words passed down from one generation to another to produce. With the scientific theory of man evolving from apes there is given proof to justify those claims. Science can explain just about every reason to show that we came from apes. Our pelvic bones are somewhat similar, our hands and feet are the most alike, etc. If there is evidence to support a claim then I will most likely believe that claim. I do believe that we evolved from apes and that we all originated from Africa; there is so much evidence to support the fact that we did its hard to reject it.

Reflection Paper 3

My elementary and secondary education was multicultural to the extent of having different races in the classroom. We were all mixed together as one large group not as whether we were White, Black, Asian, etc. Our education, however, was not as multicultural. We were taught under the additive approach, only learning about certain cultures or races if there was a holiday or month dedicated to the culture, sometimes not even. We never learned anything about Cinco de Mayo; we didn’t even know it existed. The teachers at my elementary only taught us about American culture as their main objective. If Thanksgiving were approaching we would learn about how friendly the White people were to the Native Americans and how everything worked out between. They never told us that we killed them and took over their lands forcing them to leave; we were told that it was a happy ending for both Native Americans and the White people. During Christmas we learned only about how the Christians celebrated. We were never told that some people didn’t celebrate it or celebrated something different such as Hanukah. Even with Black History Month we weren’t taught to the full extent, we were taught that Martin Luther King Jr gave his “I Have a Dream” speech and after that segregation was over. Out of the entire month, only a week was spent on learning about what happened back then and it was nothing like what I know now. If I could go back to my elementary and secondary school I would want my teachers to take the transformation approach. I think that learning from all different points of view is extremely important because instead of getting to know only one side you can have many sides and make a decision from there. If we’re only hearing one side of a story then there isn’t much of a decision we can make based on what we know and nothing would change. With multiple views we can see how it was like for those who experienced different things and we can take a stance on what side we think is right and from there make a difference. I think that in elementary and secondary school it is important to know all of the facts, that way you can choose a side knowingly instead of blindly.