Question 1—Mr. Villa asked for reactions to the poem that contained questions such as, “who is in control, who’s school is it…”
My reaction to this was more political being that the dropout rates have recently been reported. Being that 30% of Latino students and 41% of black students between 9th and 12th grade will dropout of high school as opposed to only 13% for white students (Union Tribune July 17 2008) it seems fairly obvious who is in control and who is being served by our schools. Obviously the schools and teachers don’t have the sole responsibility for these disparities but they do play a part in recognizing those students who are more likely to dropout.
Question 2—Why has there been a drive towards “Mastery” in our public school system?
Mastery is basically a regurgitation of information in the same way it was presented. Politically this is appealing because it presents the aura of commitment to education because it advocates quantifiable and narrowly measured “accomplishments” of students. This ties in with the dropout rates because those students who are not as apt at these standardized tests, for a myriad of reasons, will be much more at a disadvantage and less likely to be missed if they leave the system.
Mr. Villa’s presentation addressed the state and course of the educational system. He asked questions such as: What is our destination in education, Who has been invited to this journey, What routs have been taken to get us there, How will we know when we’ve arrived? In discussing these questions he brought up issues of education as being simply mastery or having only excellence with equity, or not addressing generosity or belonging. Ultimately we will know that we have overcome these obsticals when the educational system where caring and character is esteemed and diversity, in all it’s forms, is embraced and not tolerated.
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