Marlowe Chapters 21, 22, 23

Marlowe page 198

“But it does offer them the challenge to join in a public debate with their critics as well as the opportunity to engage in a much needed self critique regarding the nature and purpose of teacher preparation, in-service teacher programs, and the dominant forms of classroom teaching. “

In this chapter, Marlowe talks about an educational reform that is taking place unlike one our country’s history has ever seen.  This reform is demoralizing teachers by providing laws and mandates that show little confidence in their ability to provide intellectual and moral leadership for our children. Even though these reforms are demeaning to the role of educators in today’s school systems, Marlowe brings up a good point:  although, as teachers, we are talked about as puppets who cannot perform tasks in a correct manner, we are given an opportunity to stand up against it in public debates.  Only we can make other people see what we are really doing as a teacher every day in our classrooms because we are the only ones who really know.  Now is a time to use our voices and stand up not only for ourselves but for what we know is truly the best for our children, and not what the government thinks is best.  This makes me wonder, why is it that the government is making it look like our teachers are not capable of being good role models or teachers for our children?  Why is it they don’t give teachers the credit that they deserve for working as hard as they do?  Why are they portraying a teacher, in the public eye, as someone who is incompetent and unfit for the job they have?

Marlowe page 200

“Instead of learning to raise questions about the principles underlying different classroom methods, research techniques and theories of education, students are often preoccupied with leaning the “how to,” with “what works,” or with mastering the best way to teach a given body of knowledge.”

In this section, Marlowe talks about the educational programs that pre-service teachers go through in order to get their certification.  In a previous blog of mine, I talked about how I think that it would benefit pre-service teachers more to just be thrown into a classroom with someone else and learn in a hands-on way.  However, in last week’s class, Dr. Love talked about the importance of college classes in order to learn about all of the different philosophies and statistics backing up the philosophies, and come up with our own way of teaching from those. Walking out of college with a bag full of philosophies should help you create your own as you spend your first few years in a classroom as a teacher.  However, Marlowe brings us to the reality that many college programs teach all of the teacher candidates the same thing:  how to teach to a test, the best child is a quiet child, etc.  Basically, we are given philosophies and ways of teaching and are expected to perform those same philosophies and ways of teaching in our own classrooms.  We are being trained like an army of robots to sit, listen and obey and unfortunately, that is how we are being told to teach our students as well.  We are not taught to creatively think of something on our own, never mind teach the children in our classrooms to do that.  How are we supposed to overcome these obstacles as pre-service teachers?  I have been lucky enough in my own college experience to have some amazing transformative professors who have taught me to be the same transformative teacher they have become in their years of teaching.  But I am only one needle in a very large haystack.  I, as one person, can only say so much.  So what can I do, if anything, to change things?

Marlowe page206

“Survival, in other words, depends on making some decisions about what’s important, and living by them-most of the time.”

Here, Deborah Meier gives pre-service teachers some really good advice about how to get through their career as a teacher.  I think many of us worry about what we don’t yet know, which is what it will be like having our own classroom of students and having to live under the mandates of our government.  She talks about some things that my own professors have told us to do (in a safe way of doing so), like learning how to teach the children about what they need to know for the tests while teaching them other things they should be learning (outside of the testing.)  We are hearing this advice a lot, but my biggest question is how exactly do we know where we can and cannot cut corners in teaching our children to pass the test?  How exactly do we learn about “what’s important?” 

Marlowe page 207

“If parents and teachers were truly able to use their strength in a semi-united way, they’d overcome.  But, we’ve allowed a rift to exist between us that serves others, but neither parents nor teacher.”

It is very important for teachers and parents to work together because they both have the same goal in mind: a successful learning environment for their child.  I think here also ends up being where a lot of teachers and parents tend to butt heads the most.  Many parents don’t like the way teachers are teaching their children, and instead of blaming it on the source (the government laws) they blame it on the one person who happens to be implementing the laws, the teacher.  And in response, teachers get mad at the parents for not always understanding what is really happening.  If the two groups of people could learn to come together on the one thing that they both dislike so much, then they would be able to fight against the one thing causing it, the government.  However, until then, the mandates will continue to be put into play because as they stand alone, neither is strong enough to change anything.  Is there a way for us, as future teachers, to learn a way to connect with our parents and worl with them instead of against them?

Marlowe page 211

“It means to look at messages and materials through different lenses and from many perspectives; it means to be able to recognize propaganda regardless of its origin; it means to be able to “detect crap;” it means to pull apart materials, sort them, question them, reorganize them mentally, and then synthesize the pieces into a coherent understanding and whole.”

Here Marlowe is talking about what a critical voice is and how as a teacher, we need to have one.  First and foremost, we must figure out what our philosophy is in teaching.  What is it that we truly believe in and why, what is it we believe should happen in our classrooms and why, and what is it we do not believe should happen in our classrooms and why?  New mandates are constantly being made and we must use our critical thinking to analyze these mandates and come up an opinion on them, and then use our critical voices to stand up against them or for them.  It is important for us to be able to think critically during times like these, and knowing how to think critically will help us be able to teach our students to do the same. I still wonder how we will be able to speak out against these mandates if our job “depends” on following them.  Unfortunately, our students must pass these tests, or our job is on the line.  How can someone speak out against it and not worry about losing their job because they spoke up for what they believed in, or acted out what they believed in?

Marlowe page 211

“Every teacher has to have a solid grasp of his assumptions about how people learn and how that translates into the kind of environment the teacher will provide.”

Without a distinct belief on how people should learn, teachers are going to wander through their years of teaching unable to reach their students.  A belief of one’[s own allows one to do something different from the “norm,” which, at the moment, is something that is not working.  At this point, education is focused mainly on a child passing a standardized test to show how well they have comprehended material taught to them.   If a teacher does not believe in a specific method for teaching and learning, they will fall victim to having to obey the politics in our education system.  With a specific belief, teachers are still able to follow the mandates (have children score high on the tests,) but do so in a way that will help them to actually learn the material, not just memorize it.  This is where transformative teaching comes into play.  This style of teaching creates a compassionate community of learners and promotes optimal learning through critical thinking and hands-on activities.  This is my assumption of how people learn best and I plan to create this type of environment for my own classroom.  Did Marlowe mean that any style of teaching would also be good?  What if a person is a very traditional type of teacher and believes in lecturing, note-taking, etc., would he consider that to still be a “thinking teacher?”