Monday, March 5, 2007

Quote of the Day

In regards to what education has become...

"Come as you are, leave as you came." - Dr. M's Wife

Some follow up thoughts...
1) Should education be an agent of change?
2) Whose vision should be taught?
3) Are we including all of the voices that need to be part of the educational conversation?

3 comments:

Ky • twopretzels.com said...

Wow. Excellent questions. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

As someone so not in the world of education, I value your opinon (and respect all teachers) very much.

Anna@MetaMusings said...

I think education has always been an agent of change in the US. It is how the "salad bowl" has worked, I think. Schools in many ways not only teach children technical skills, but teach children how to work with other people that are not like themselves (even in what we consider non-diverse settings this is happening to an extent). There are two unfortunate things that come of this. 1) There have been some very cruel things in history that have happened to children and groups of people in the name of change. 2) The current vision in the US is upper/middle class which is predominantly white. The hope is that the conversation would be open to all people, but I am not sure that this is happening. And although I hope for this, to be honest I am not sure that I am doing anything to make it better. Prehaps that is a goal for my future. (At this point, I am excited about the fact that I am taking classes at a university that is very diverse in some ways.) Maybe the hope for education should be "Come as you are, leave aware and able to cope."
K - Being in a different culture I am interested in your opinins on the quote? Have you had to learn new things? Have there been people willing to help you? What would you have done if they hadn't have been there to "show you the ropes" of the culture?

Malissa said...

i think that Education should be used as an agent of change.
I am a firm believer that people should achieve the highest level of education that they are capable of achieving, or the highest level that pertains to their professional or technical setting (in whichever they work).
I don't think all voices are being heard and all voices are being allowed at the table to be heard.
The "vision" is, like you said, directed mostly by upper/middle class people, and we have too many from outside of this group not being heard and understood.