Teaching the American Evolution

Well, the new semester of T.E.A.M. has officially begun, and I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Mark Weston, our new mentor. He challenged us with this notion of educational revolution, and asked if we believed it to be inevitable. Of course, I said yes. My philosophy is that our classrooms are true extensions of the world around us, therefore if the world is constantly changing so shall our classrooms. New social situations, economical environments, life skills, technologies, instructional models, facilities and our ever changing population make education an inheritantly dynamic setting.

That being said, I challenge with the comparison of revolution vs. evolution. Revolution is defined as a radical and pervasive change in society and the social structure, especially one made suddenly. Now "suddenly" is a subjective word, and I think it should also be based on the change that it is relavent to. Evolution, on the other hand, is defined as a gradual, peaceful, progressive change or development.

Getting back to Dr. Weston's question, I believe that change is inevitable based on the reasons I mentioned above, but I challenge that it's more evolutionary than revolutionary. I don't believe that it is realistic to think that there will be this dramatic shift in education. The basic principles are there, but the media, resources, theories and practices will change, or evolve. I believe that whatever change in roles that teachers and students alike will go through will be gradual.

Today's teachers are increasingly taking the role of facilitator, helping students along a path of exploration and self-discovery rather than depositing information into the minds of students like putting money in a bank, but the change has been relatively gradual.

In the fourth grade, we study the American Revolution, where the colonists (founding mothers and founding fathers) decided to seperate from British rule and be free. They fought a war over it, risked it all and won (obviously). The life of a colonist was much like it was before, but they had control over their own decisions and their destiny. Perhaps the education revolution won't change too much of the day to day, but rather the big picture and the direction taken... maybe allow educators to play a greater role in educational policy and have politicians stick to politics.

I look forward to interacting more with Dr. Weston.