Monday, October 4, 2010

Twitter Book Club: John I. Goodlad (1979) What Schools Are For - Chapter 6

"schools become burdened with non-educational functions and, in the process, forget what education is." Goodladless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"[Charles Rusch] discovered that a complex, urban environment can be extraordinarily educative and that (cont) http://tl.gd/69hc8iless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"I am equally convinced that society, individuals, and the schools would benefit immensely if a vast (cont) http://tl.gd/69hd4tless than a minute ago via Twittelator


I think in many ways, schools have done it to themselves. In convincing the populous that education is the solution to society's problems, a populous that equates education with schooling will blame the school when things in society do not measure up to expectations.

"prime yardstick for appraising a school, then, is the percentage of it's time and resources it spends on what is truly educative."Goodladless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"If we suddenly were to find ourselves without schools, here in the United States, our school-less culture (cont) http://tl.gd/69hgq1less than a minute ago via Twittelator


I love this place where Goodlad takes us in the book. Imagine a school-less culture and what would that culture invent as a vehicle for education. I love this proposition both as a thought experiment and as a way of thinking about school reform.

"Schools currently perform least well those educational functions that the rest of our society also attends to poorly." Goodladless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"If we were suddenly to find ourselves without schools, the rest of society would be tuned up quite readily (cont) http://tl.gd/69hiefless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"Most studies conclude that teachers don't use instructional technologies very well; often, they leave it in a closet." Goodladless than a minute ago via Twittelator



@anderscj tech left in closer; new textbooks left on shelf -- agree on this one. So much to do hard to try differentless than a minute ago via Echofon



"we do not need schools today, in our kind of society, if their sole or even prime task is teaching the basics" Goodladless than a minute ago via Twittelator


This has been why I have said on a few occasions that if we continue down the path we are on of narrowing the curriculum and objectifying all who have anything to do with schooling, that I would start advocating against sending kids there. I have not given up hope that the pendulum will swing back the other direction though.

"Soon, of course, it would become apparent that manipulating numbers and mastering the mechanics of reading (cont) http://tl.gd/69hmijless than a minute ago via Twittelator


I am going to repeat this quote in it's entirety because it is the one that stuck with me most the first time I read Goodlad:
"Soon, of course, it would become apparent that manipulating numbers and mastering the mechanics of reading would not challenge our young for long. The human being requires complexity. And so we would have to think about how the rest of the 'day in custody' would be spent. Would we re-create the schools we have?"

"Education is the only profession I know that consistently places its most highly prepared personnel (cont) http://tl.gd/69hp8vless than a minute ago via Twittelator



@anderscj disagree w/Goodlad medicine, sales, law enforcement, more--all move best away from essence of organization's key actionsless than a minute ago via Echofon



"To what degree are some students deprived of the richest opportunities for personal growth and (cont) http://tl.gd/69v47mless than a minute ago via Twittelator


Also, how many of our kids are placed on a slow track because they were not sufficiently motivated by mainstream prescriptive learning to demonstrate that they need to be placed on a fast track?

"most of those practices serving to differentiate academic students from students who must settle for (cont) http://tl.gd/69v5kcless than a minute ago via Twittelator


I think this is an important point. It sounds a lot like Freire too. That in placing some students on a college track and others on school-to-work track we deny both necessary learning opportunities.

"It is my view that much individualization in learning has gone in precisely the wrong direction. Most (cont) http://tl.gd/69vac7less than a minute ago via Twittelator


How do we take back differentiated instruction? How do we allow differentiated instruction to mean more than just different ways of being shown the same thing? When are we going to say it is not only OK but expected that different kids learn different things?

"We often state that children and youth should learn how to learn, but relatively little of what goes on in s (cont) http://tl.gd/69vcbsless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"schools must guide each student beyond personally comfortable ways of learning into all those alternatives (cont) http://tl.gd/69vdamless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"persons with rich personal resources, living full lives, actually have difficulty scheduling time for (cont) http://tl.gd/69vfn9less than a minute ago via Twittelator



"if schools go on into the twenty-first century and do nothing more than refine in practice the rhetoric of (cont) http://tl.gd/69viieless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"I firmly believe that learning occurs best in a laboratory setting where the teacher also is involved in (cont) http://tl.gd/69vl8lless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"I would endorse the concept of each student having an allocation of vouchers to secure the out-of-school (cont) http://tl.gd/69vn5mless than a minute ago via Twittelator



"To give up on the common school now would place in doubt the possibility of achieving for all of our (cont) http://tl.gd/69vrl6less than a minute ago via Twittelator



"We are all accountable for the conditions of our schools. This is no time for us to become either (cont) http://tl.gd/69vtl0less than a minute ago via Twittelator

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