We've been talking about schools, education, founding principles, and pedagogy within a framework of "education salon" for about two months now. Others among us have been talking about about these things for years.
We have salons in the form of video conference, we have this blog, we have the wave. All these tools. All this intent. What are we doing with them?
I ask this because I think there are different purposes at work here. Phil wants to physically found a school: paperwork, boarding school, everything down to picking the plaid of of the school uniform (Are there uniforms? I want to know.) Jess's vision of the school isn't necessarily the same - there are different founding principles and methods used by other schools, and Dewey (engaging though he is) doesn't hold the only golden corner on teaching the children. For my own part, I just like sitting in my study and listening to the ideas pour out of our brains and challenging myself to think about what really is best and what is broken in education.
So we don't really know what we're doing together in this thing, and perhaps what we need is a bit more focus. Salons are much fun - seeing all the people I love and gabbering back and forth about the best way to beat knowledge into the brains of tiny people is wonderful. But it's usually not very directed. One of the reasons that I like this blog is it encourages an author to string together multiple thoughts together into a coherent thread, build an idea into something that can stick to the wall when you throw it there. The Wave and Facebook chattering are fun, but not substantial.
We need substance in our dialogues too. So I propose a little change: let us revise the format of Salons - one of us will give a short presentation (15 to 30 minutes or so) followed by conversation about the topic of the presentation.
I can talk about math education, and share some of my experiences teaching above-average college kids. Jess has many years of experience teaching middle and high school students, and has researched a lot of institutions while thinking about the education of Jackson. Phil is nearing completion of his dissertation - perhaps he could talk to us for a half hour about Dewey and the functional operation of education philosophy. Rachel need only dip into any one of the sub-topics that she talks to me about in the evenings. Tessie must be bubbling over with ideas at the beginning of her grad school program. And these are only the people I've directly been in Salon with - I know there are more interested parties out there too.
What do you think? Have we been down this path before with the Society for Pragmatism?
Talk to me.
It sounds like we have several concrete, specific goals for these salons and conversations. I believe we can keep all these goals in mind and use our gatherings and the combined inquiry of the group to achieve all of them. The conversations need not all meld toward consensus, nor need any given conversation focus on all projects at once.
ReplyDeletePhil's school: this blog and the conversations that come out of it can help inform decision making -- around ideology, curriculum, school structure, teaching approach, location, even uniforms. Conversations not immediately relevant are likely to still have value in deciding what NOT to do. They may also help organize thoughts around the kind of role Phil and others involved in his project would like to play, and how. These conversations and the blog can be a sounding board for ideas, critical panel for thorny issues, network for practical implementation, and support group for progress.
Jess's school: information about higher-up education can help inform the conversations we have around early education methods, structures, and opportunities. Likewise, hashing out the meaning and impact of early childhood educational experiences can help inform those who will be working with older students -- this stuff ripples outward for the rest of our educational lives.
Salon of ideas: those of us in the conversation for the sheer joy of learning with people we love are committed to meaningful, substantive, heartfelt engagement with questions abstract and tactical alike.
Each of us nerdy folks is keen on research, prone to asking big questions, and going to make our fellow participants with specific goals equal parts enthusiastic and defensive. At those moments, I encourage those of us who are insistent on an idea to write a blog post of our own about it, and those whom the idea does not benefit to simply label it "not helpful for my thing".
Comment zen: Each of us has our own stuff. If we can build on ideas in thoughtful appreciation, with intent to build networks of ideas and help lay foundations for each of us to think about great education, then we can avoid devil's advocate arguments and derailing -- and do some great thinking & writing about things that matter a great deal.
For the folks with specific projects/goals in mind, would you be interested in posting briefly on your goal, a quick timeline for it (when does this thing happen?), and what you would most like the Salon group to help you think about and/or hear from you?
Greg, I really like the idea of the presentations, as I've told you. I would really be interested if Phil could spare the time to do a presentation for us on Dewey. I'd like to hear more about his core ideas without having to read Dewey's books in depth. (I'm a bit busy at the moment, what with moving and watching the kiddo simultaneously.) As near as I can tell, Phil must be a pretty good expert on Dewey by now! So, Phil, what do you say? Teach us a free class? :)
ReplyDeleteRachel, I want to be clear. You refer to my "school". But that's not quite right. I'm not strictly interested in starting a school, though I might do so at some point. My preference at this stage is more to sort of cull from the vast amounts of research material available how best to educate students in a school setting. If that goal is achieved, then starting a school seems like the next logical step.
For now, I would like to learn what I can (and share, of course) about various educational institutions and philosophies. What is functional and what is not for each of these in-progress education systems? I don't have any interest in reinventing the wheel. And as the saying goes, those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it. (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_said_Those_who_ignore_history_are_bound_to_repeat_it)
Let's not ignore history. Let's take a look at what information is already out there waiting to be compiled. I like the idea of using this blog as a sounding board of ideas on education. I also would like to help provide Phil and Tess and others with information that may be helpful in their endeavor to begin a school.
Starting a school requires a LOT of forethought and preparation. There are so many different aspects to education and a vast number of considerations to take into account. I hope that we are all able to achieve our goals through this blog.
Mine is an ideological goal of finding the best elements to incorporate for an educational system that could potentially be deployed at a school. And of course as I am currently homeschooling my child--and will be for the foreseeable future, I'm very glad of any insights that would help me to do a better job of it.