The Politics of Education

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Throughout the course, the expansiveness of the educational system became more and more apparent. With so many spokes in the wheel, I realized that ultimately the student/teacher relationship is the ultimate key to moving towards change. There is a fear and an apprehension as teachers, to share ourselves completely and authentically to our students, but it is through showing the holistic, complete self to the children, that they can respect, learn and be loved. When a student is respected and loved, they open themselves to becoming compassionate citizens. This should be the focus of our educational process...creating compassionate, loving beings for nothing can be changed through negativity - only through love.

I wanted to say Farewell to you all!!! This course has been such an eye opening experience and has allowed me room to grow beyond my expectations. Thank you Dr. Becker for your challenging yet greatly rewarding teaching methods. I wish each of you success in your future career of Education Leadership. Best Wishes!!

Never Live without Laughing and always Love as if its your last time!!

~Georgetta a.k.a MSW Candidate!!!

I've been fortunate enough to visit many, many classrooms across the United States. I've been to classrooms in the biggest city school districts (I still marvel over how far I had to drive to get from on school in the Dallas Independent School District to another) and classrooms in the most remote rural areas (I still don't know how to pronounce Gnadenhutten, OH, but I spent a day in a school there). The communities served by the schools I've visited vary in some incredible ways. The look and feel of the schools vary much less so. If you've never seen the Mr. Winkle Wakes video, here's your chance.

So, the image at the bottom of this post could be from most classrooms in most schools in Anytown, USA. That is, if there are any desktop computers in the classroom, there may be 1-5 "workstations" which mostly collect dust. If they're being used at all, it's usually for students "typing up papers," "finding something on the Internet," or "doing extra work in reward for completing the 'other' assignment early."

Nearly without fail, when I ask teachers how that computer (or those computers) got into their classroom, they have no idea. I usually hear something like, "Oh, I don't know...they were here when I was assigned this room." 

But, those computers did not magically appear in that classroom. A series of decisions led to the computer(s) in the classroom.

That series of decisions becomes a great "case" for us to examine the politics of education in toto. 

So, for a culminating discussion here in this space, let's collectively think through "the politics of educational technology." Think about the distribution of power and what might have happened at various levels of government. Think about how decisions were made about who gets what and how.

[NOTE: please try to keep this conversation within this post by using the comments section; i.e. don't start new posts...]

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"Finally you have to understand that more important than anything else is justice. The way we can turn the world around is if we are at least moving on a path toward justice. Maybe it can never be achieved in any pristine form. Right now, the coalition of the powerful elites across the world are making it very clear that they are not even interested in justice.” ~ Arundhati Roy

When I hear the word Justice, my thoughts are centered on social justice and how to dissect in within the communities I serve. One of the many but simply put definitions defined by www.google.com for Justice is: the “quality of being just of fair”. My common knowledge of those within a community is most can not possess such a “quality of fairness”. I think it’s a unique characteristic of one’s character to be fair and just. I am certain we have all been on the receiving end or giving end of this “quality”.

Dr. Cornel West, a very inspiring, full of knowledge intellectual who I admire greatly, shares words through his passion to educate many on topics such as Justice. In a recent discussion about charity and justice West says: “what you have in society today, is a stress on pity as opposed to compassion, ending up with a stress on philanthropy versus a stress on Justice, genuine compassion and Justice is not about waiting…” He views Justice as the “systematic arrangement of power and resources”. The question to answer in most cases is if “this arrangement fair?” This statement put my thoughts and views into a streamline assessment and made me see things a bit clearer.

Is this not what we have been discussing this entire semester? Power, resources, education, Lack of, needing more, wanting more, lacking, influence, powerless.

I have a belief that schools have a responsibility to provide for its neediest children. In any setting, this should be the priority. If ever and whenever a system is created, it will not serve all youth the same. All youth are not the same and their issues vary. Educators in my opinions should possess the skill and be given the flexibility to assess each student and set a standard for each student and their achievement. Wouldn’t this be fair? Setting one standard and making it mandatory that students achieve according to that standard has not proven to be much of a success.

I previously posted an article about a woman in Ohio, Kelly Williams-Bolar, who used her father’s address so that her children could attend school in a different district. A woman, who was enrolled in school to be a teacher herself, was arrested. In an effort to get her children access to quality education, she was treated as a criminal and arrested. Where is the Justice? This action was just an action of love from a mother who wants the best for her children. I can not identify the Justice but the Injustice is obvious. Had all parents and children had resources and opportunities for education and free choice of schools to attend would this have been a crime? Equal, High Quality education is what ALL children should have. I think we should define what is Equal and High Quality in terms of Education and apply that standard. This is Justice!

In line with our conversation with Gary Stager and the realization that this is a class war...