Throughout my blog posts, I have communicated what I believe to be the number one cause of the undermining of our educational system: the invisible student. The notion of invisible student is played out in educational settings when we reduce a student's identity to a number/letter grade; ignore a student's culture by not including aspects of it (culture) in the curriculum; assess a student with biased tools that will not ensure her success in education; and impose language requirements and curricula that does not take each individual student's identity and multiliteracies into account. These historically institutionalized banking-style methods of education undeniably continue to leave students behind.
Each week, while I gather information for my blog by scouring over numerous articles, video clips, research studies, etc, I am incessantly and overwhelmingly flooded with evidence of students being abandoned by their education. And, each week, I am still left to question: How can this be? How is it that the student- the primary root of the educational process- is in fact, the least thought of or considered in our current system? With the vast amounts of easily accessible information that provide solutions and arguments for an improved, all encompassing education, why is it that our students are still invisible in their own education?
In a time when our everyday lives have become oversaturated with discussions of our impending economical crisis, I am awesomely made aware of the significant role that politics plays in all arenas of society. One cannot begin to dissect any societal atmosphere without taking into account the corruption that has been caused by a neoliberal agenda. However, when there are resolutions to such issues that are so painstakingly obvious, I grapple with society’s tolerance of this corruption. Regardless of political affiliation, our end goal, must and should always be that of an open, accepting, honest, and successful society. Our road to this finish line is that through the proper and effective education of our future generations. And, until our students are made visible and secured at the helm of the educational process, we will never fully meet this target.
The best chance for a reform in of our pedagogical practices is through awareness. There are travesties in our educational system every day. However, society is not aware of them. As a means for my own self-education, and in an attempt to bring knowledge to others, I will continue to explore and investigate current events in education, and report my findings via this blog. It is my drive to create a spark in others. And, perhaps it is this spark that will inspire others to continue the flame.
As I end this week’s blog, I leave the reader with something to chew on. For the past few weeks, American society has been inundated with an overflowing amount of politically produced fear concerning our economy. As we sift through these excessive hysteria-creating discussions about taxes, revenue, and debt, we rarely hear an utterance of the state of our education. Yet, the failings of our educational system that preserves the concept of an invisible student are directly correlated with the demise of our economy. Below is a podcast and links to NPR's School's Out: America's Dropout Crisis, an extensive study that connects our economical crisis to our educational crisis- specifically, the high rate of push-out/drop-out in education. Please watch the actual videos that can be found on NPR's website. It is my contention that these high drop-out/push-out rates represent the invisible students that our educators and educational system have failed to recognize and reach. Ultimately, it is these students who are left behind.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/24/138653393/school-dropout-rates-adds-to-fiscal-burden
http://www.npr.org/series/138542241/dropping-out-the-human-face-of-an-education-crisis
No comments:
Post a Comment