Food for Thought
Democracy and Education
"What the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the community want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is narrow and unlovely; acted upon it destroys our democracy...Only by being true to the full growth of all of the individuals who make it up, can society by any chance be true to itself. And in the self-direction thus given, nothing counts as much as the school, for, as Horace Mann said, "Where anything is growing, one former is worth a thousand re-formers." "(Dewey, 1900/1956, p. 7).
Dewey, J. (1900/1956) The child and the curriculum/The school and society (combined edition). Chicago, Ill: The University of Chicago Press.
Democratic Education
Wholly unlike "selling" or drilling or training, teaching is oriented to provoking persons to care about what they are coming to understand, to attend to their situations with solitude, to be mindful, to be concerned, to be fully present and alive. Democratic education, certainly, involves provoking persons to get up from their seats... to say something in their own voices, against their own biographies and in terms of what they cherish in their shared lives, what they authentically hold dear. It involves getting them to leave their assigned places in the crowds and even in the marches, and to come together freely in their plurality. It means creating an "in between" among them, a space where they can continue appearing as authentic individuals, each with a distinctive perspective on what they have come to hold in common, a space where something new can find expression and be explored and elaborated on, where it can grow. It is when people become challengers, when they take initiatives, that they begin to create the kinds of spaces where dialogue can take place and freedom can appear. (Greene, 1986, p. 72)
Greene, M. (1986). Reflection and passion in teaching. Journal of Curriculum and Supervision, 2 (1), 68-81.
Terman on Individuals with Mental Retardation
The History of Intelligence Testing
The following excerpt is from Chapter 1 (The uses of intelligence tests) of Terman, L. M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. This was obtained from http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Terman/terman1.htm.
Intelligence tests of the feeble-minded. Thus far intelligence tests have found their chief application in the identification and grading of the feeble-minded. Their value for this purpose is twofold. In the first place, it is necessary to ascertain the degree of defect before it is possible to decide intelligently upon either the content or the method of instruction suited to the training of the backward child. In the second place, intelligence tests are rapidly extending our conception of "feeble-mindedness" to include milder degrees of defect than have generally been associated with this term. The earlier methods of diagnosis caused a majority of the higher grade defectives to be overlooked. Previous to the development of psychological methods the low-grade moron was about as high a type of defective as most physicians or even psychologists were able to identify as feeble-minded.
Wherever intelligence tests have been made in any considerable number in the schools, they have shown that not far from 2 per cent of the children enrolled have a grade of intelligence which, however long they live, will never develop beyond the level which is normal to the average child of 11 or 12 years. The large majority of these belong to the moron grade; that is, their mental development will stop somewhere between the 7-year and 12-year level of intelligence, more often between 9 and 12.
The more we learn about such children, the clearer it becomes that they must be looked upon as real defectives. They may be able to drag along to the fourth, fifth, or sixth grades, but even by the age of 16 or 18 years they are never able to cope successfully with the more abstract and difficult parts of the common-school course of study. They may master a certain amount of rote learning, such as that involved in reading and in the manipulation of number combinations, but they cannot be taught to meet new conditions effectively or to think, reason, and judge as normal persons do.
It is safe to predict that in the near future intelligence tests will bring tens of thousands of these high-grade defectives under the surveillance and protection of society. This will ultimately result in curtailing the reproduction of feeble-mindedness and in the elimination of an enormous amount of crime, pauperism, and industrial inefficiency. It is hardly necessary to emphasize that the high grade cases, of the type now so frequently overlooked, are precisely the ones whose guardianship it is most important for the State to assume.
Terman on the Intelligence of Diverse Individuals
The History of Intelligence Testing
The following extended quote is attributed to Terman, who was one of the founders of the psychological testing movement in the United States and the original author of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. For an introduction to Terman by Henry Minton from Terman's classic text Terman, Lewis M. (1916). The measurement of intelligence. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, link to http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Terman/intro.htm.
A low level of intelligence is very, very common among Spanish-Indians and Mexican families of the Southwest and also among Negroes. Their dullness seems to be racial, or at least inherent in the family stocks from which they come. The fact that one meets this type with such extraordinary frequency among Indians, Mexicans, and Negroes suggests quite forceably that the whole question of racial differences in mental traits will have to be taken up anew and by experimental methods. The writer predicts that when this is done there will be discovered enormously significant racial differences in general intelligence, differences which cannot be wiped out by any scheme of mental culture.
Children of this group should be segregated into special classes and be given instruction which is concrete and practical. They cannot master abstractions but they often can be made efficient workers, able to look out for themselves. There is no possibility at the present in convincing society that they should not be allowed to reproduce, although from a eugenic point of view they constitute a grave problem because of their unusually prolific breeding. (Terman, 1916, as cited in Baca & Cervantes, 1984, p. 147)
Note: Try this web site for re-printed selections of classic books in Psychology: http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/
Paradigmatic Change
"Paradigmatic change compounds the problem of inadequate cooperation among systems. As the transformation to a different paradigm of learning disabilities is initiated, rigidity between the subsystems of education is likely to intensify, due to the lack of common values and ideals held by staff members. Practitioners in special education who advocate a shift in thinking regarding students learning problems must face the inevitable pressure that erupts in the face of nonconformity and disagreement among staff to maintain the current dominant model of student learning and intervention" (Wiest & Kreil, 1996, p. 22).
Wiest, D. J., & Kreil, D. A. (1996). Transformative obstacles in special Education. In M. S. Poplin & P. T. Cousin (Eds.) Alternative views of learning disability: Issues for the 21st century (pp. 15-31). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.
The Importance of Parent-Child Communication
"When parents are unable to talk to their children, they cannot easily convey to them their values, beliefs, understandings, or wisdom about how to cope with their experiences. They cannot teach them about the meaning of work, or about personal responsibility, or what it means to be a moral or ethical person in a world with too many choices and too few guideposts to follow. What is lost are the bits of advice, the consejos parents should be able to offer children in their everyday interactions with them. Talk is a crucial link between parents and children: It is how parents impart their cultures to their children and enable them to become the kind of men and women they want them to be. When parents lose the means for socializing and influencing their children, rifts develop and families lose the intimacy that comes from shared beliefs and understandings." (Wong Fillmore, 1991, p. 343)
From: Wong Fillmore, L. (1991). When learning a second language means losing the first. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6, 323-346.
The Importance of Story
"...stories are important to people, politics, and education. Stories are how people make sense of themselves and their worlds. In young children's spontaneous stories that they act out as they play, we can see how they believe people relate to one another, who they hope to become, and how they will behave. We can see adolescents play roles in their own and other people's stories in order to figure out where they fit into their ever-expanding worlds. As adults, the true and imaginary stories we wish to tell and believe suggest what we value most in this world. In a real sense, stories make people.
For this reason, stories are political. Whose stories get told? What can those stories mean? Who benefits from their telling? These are political questions because they address the ways in which people's identities -- their beliefs, attitudes, and values -- are created and maintained. These identities determine how we live together in and out of schools as much as school rules or governmental laws." (Shannon, 1995, p. xi)
From: Shannon, P. (1995). Text, lies, and videotape: Stories about life, literacy, and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
The Influence of Culture on Education
Culture is neither static nor deterministic. It gives us just one important way in which to understand some differences among students’ learning and thus can indicate appropriate strategies and modifications in curriculum. The assumption that culture is the primary determinant of academic achievement can be over-simplistic, dangerous, and counter-productive. Thus, the area of culture and cultural differences should be handled with great caution so that we as educators do not make assumptions about students because of the culture from which they come. (Nieto, 1992, p. 110)
Nieto, S. (1992). Affirming diversity: The sociopolitical context of multicultural education (1st ed.). New York: Longman.
1. Education is what survives when what has been learnt has been forgotten. B. F. Skinner
2. The secret of education is respecting the pupil. Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become. Ashley Montagu
2. The secret of education is respecting the pupil. Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. The deepest personal defeat suffered by human beings is constituted by the difference between what one was capable of becoming and what one has in fact become. Ashley Montagu
- ...students should be given the best possible maps of the territories of experience in order that they may be prepared for life... S.I. Hayakawa
- The most important function of education at any level is to develop the personality of the individual and the significance of his life to himself and to others. Grayson Kirk
1. A school should not be a preparation for life. A school should be life. Elbert Hubbard
2. College is a place where a student ought to learn not so much how to make a living, but how to live. William A Nolen, M.D.
3. Education today, more than ever before, must see clearly the dual objective: education for living and educating for making a living. James Mason Wood
2. College is a place where a student ought to learn not so much how to make a living, but how to live. William A Nolen, M.D.
3. Education today, more than ever before, must see clearly the dual objective: education for living and educating for making a living. James Mason Wood
1. The true teacher defends his pupils against his own personal influence. Amos Bronson Alcott
2. The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. Anatole France
2. The whole art of teaching is only the art of awakening the natural curiosity of young minds for the purpose of satisfying it afterwards. Anatole France
By three methods we may learn wisdom:
First, by reflection which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and
third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.)
Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned. For these attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future. John Dewey
First, by reflection which is noblest;
second, by imitation, which is the easiest; and
third, by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.)
Perhaps the greatest of all pedagogical fallacies is the notion that a person learns only the particular thing he is studying at the time. Collateral learning in the way of formation of enduring attitudes, of likes and dislikes, may be and often is much more important than the spelling lesson or lesson in geography or history that is learned. For these attitudes are fundamentally what count in the future. John Dewey