Personal Reflection for Chapters 1-3
ES6340
Personal Reflection for Chapters 1 & 2 (Emma Ravitch)
Reflection: I love the way this book is written. It gave me a clear view of what education was, especially during the time of the reform. These chapters mostly talk about the need for corporate reform in the educational institution, especially in the 21st century when education turns out to be in crisis, as an effect of poverty and racial segregation.
Answer to the questions:
A person is more appropriate to be a policy maker if he/she understands well the people and the environment, for them to create realistic goals that will reform and improve the institution. Policies are not just words but should represent the true world from which the society lives, not just for mere privatization of the goals.
The role of the teachers in the education reforming is to improve the state of the society by teaching children how to socialize and create a genuine society. They should train the students in exercising their innate capacity to be more reflective and be mentally aware of how to improve the society and come up with new ideas.
For student success, what we can do in the new policy is to improve the community by stimulating both private and public sectors, including the businesspersons and the investors of the economy.
Personal Reflection for Chapter 3 (Kathrine Ravitch)
Reflection: This chapter is very informative, as it focuses on the reform movement in the corporate sector, and the impact that this had on the educational sector. It is evident in this chapter that corporate reformers do not seek reformation but only for its dismantling. Still, there may be other reasons behind the corporate reformation..
Answer to the questions:
I think that even if the public has a negative view of education, they still have a high opinion of the school districts they reside in, since Americans believe more in themselves and their capacity. Though they have the tendency to demoralize the educational institution, they do not aim to undermine education within their sector.
In view of the statement that the money should follow the child, I believe that this is totally wrong because it puts money and technology on the center of everything, which in the end degrades the roles of teachers in the educational institution. It is however, the teachers who should follow the child when transferring to another neighborhood school, since the future of students rests on the hands of the teachers.
Some ideas of the corporate reformers may be effective, such as reducing teacher qualifications, which would have the greatest impact on schooling. It would reduce the quality of education within the sector and therefore, would limit the skill and knowledge of future students within the community, and this is very destructive.
Reference:
Ravitch, D. (2014). Reign of error: the hoax of the privatization movement and the danger to America’s public schools (1st ed.). New York, NY: Knopf. Print.
