Many students come to Plymouth State University to one day become teachers. In entering this profession, students must not only learn how to teach and the subject matter they are going to teach, they must also learn about the role the government plays in public education.
On Monday, March 12, Childhood Studies majors and Teacher Certification options alike attended a lecture on the effects of democracy on education. There was a panel of four renowned professors from the Education Department in the College of Graduate Studies. The panel consisted of Tonya Tookes-Reznik, Allan Dibiase, Joss French, and Kim Williams.
Allan Dibiase began the lecture by reading quotes about education, democracy, and the “bureaucratization of the mind.” He cited himself, stating, “Education as human culture means in part: teacher as learner.” This rings true for many of our future teachers and is a value for them to live by. He also used a quote from Paulo Friere three times to emphasize it, “I am sure one of the most tragic illnesses of our societies is bureaucratization of the mind.”
The lecture switched gears when Joss French began to speak about democracy and the media and how our society is affected by it. He had a wonderful slide show presentation put together but there was so much information on the slides it was hard for the audience to read them in the time allotted. He discussed his theory of the laborers versus the schools and how the school’s curriculum is just a training ground for the laborer’s curriculum. In other words, what students learn in school is training them to live in the adult laborer’s world.
When asked about the presentation overall, Teacher Certification student Kayla DiSciullo thought the first two speakers were hard to follow. She was disappointed that they did not talk about the No Child Left Behind Act, as she feels this is an important issue in teaching today.
Audience members then turned their attention to Tonya Tookes-Reznik who discussed class and racial equality in the classroom. She discussed how low-income students don’t have access to the same resources as middle-class students do. Unfortunately many of the low-income families are African American. It has been 53 years since the Brown vs. Board of Education trial and Tookes-Reznik believes that our schools are more segregated than ever. She began and ended with a reading that asked, “What do you stand for in life?” When asked about the relevance of this issue in New Hampshire schools DiSciullo said, “New Hampshire has predominantly white schools, but in Rhode Island, I definitely see this as an issue.” She is possibly thinking of a lifetime career in Rhode Island.
Last to speak was Kim Williams with her discussion on the No Child Left Behind Act. She began by stating that education is not guaranteed by the constitution, only the states guarantee this. The No Child Left Behind Act is a federally mandated act and it is the first ever to be instated about education. The act consists of children in grades three through eight who are annually tested in English and Math, and these results are reported to the parents and the state and federal governments. But once this data is reported, nothing is done to fix it; it is a “diagnosis with no treatment,” Williams said.
Many essential points were brought up in this lecture and discussed by renowned professionals for their audience of future and present teachers. Future teachers will face the task of bridging gaps and attending to these issues once they get out into the field of tomorrow. The hope is to foster a learning environment that can make a better world, one generation at a time.