Saying Goodbye to EDU 100 and What I Took Away From This Class

As I come to the end of this semester,  I think back on everything I have learned in this education course. I think that I would relate teaching and education to a forest.

 

I think that I would relate education and teaching to a forest because they are both made up of many things. To explain myself better, a forest is made up of different animals, plants, and many more species. There are beautiful parts to a forest and other parts of the forest that are not so great. For example, bushes that have thorns, swamps, dangerous animals. In education and while teaching, there are beautiful things in it as well. There are moments where kids take to lesson plans and further their knowledge and excel in school. On the downside, there are issues of school violence, students who feel do not have equal opportunity or schools that do not receive the appropriate funding for the students and the activities they would like to take part in. Education to me is the chance to mold our future generation into being something great. I think that with the right teachers and the right tools, our future generation has the ability to be absolutely successful.

 

Some of the things that I learned in this course that stuck with me are as follows: the zero-tolerance policy, the relationship with the teacher can affect the education of a student, and how far the United States has fallen on the scale for education. To start off, I think that the zero tolerance policy is absolutely important. On the downside, I think that some schools are way too strict. For instance, I learned about how student was suspended for bringing nail clippers to school. So is it not safe to no longer have scissors at school? Last time I checked, scissors can do more damage than nail clippers. I'll end that topic before I go on a rant :) Next, the relationship with a student and a teacher is absolutely crucial. I think that it is important for a relationship to be built so that a student can address any issues with teachers whether it be an in class problem or a situation in a student's home life affecting school. Lastly, I think that there is a huge issue in the progress of our education system. We used to rank high compared to other countries in topics of science, math and other studies but we have fallen. I'm really hoping that the Common Core can improve our ranking and get back to where we used to be.

 

A huge part of this course is the blogs that we post for others to read. From reading the blogs that other students have read I have learned that many others share the same opinion that I have while others are completely opposite from my views. I think that is perfectly okay. It is important to have opposition in this world because it gives us the opportunity to learn things from the people around us. To end my last blog, I want to say that I am thankful that I took this class. Although I will not be pursuing a career in education, I can positively say that this class has brought so many issues to my attention and I hope that some day I can look back and say that these issues no longer exist. 

Social Justice for Racism

During this week’s module, the issue of social justice was a topic. What is social justice? According to Matthew Robinson, social justice is "... promoting a just society by challenging injustice and valuing diversity." It exists when "all people share a common humanity and therefore have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and a fair allocation of community resources." This means that no matter your race or ethnicity, we all deserve the same things in life and we all deserve equal opportunity in life. So why are we stuck in an era where even the constitution talks about equality of rights and there are laws against treating people unfairly by discriminating and many more ways. In past modules, the class was posed an important question about whether or not teachers should tell their students about the real story of Columbus. I’m the type of person who would say absolutely. If teachers do not tell the true story about how Columbus treated the Indians unfairly by killing them, injuring them, and taking their land, then they are setting a back example. Students need to know the truth about how Indian tribes were treated horribly. If these discussions were had at a younger age then during middle school and high school, teachers can then go into more important issues and have more in depth conversations about why racism and inequality still exists. I think that racism should absolutely be an issue discussed all through school years. In an article I read from the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice it says, “Racism is a major factor in determining one's health in our society, as it translates into persistent stress, associated illness and prolonged suffering or premature death. Over the centuries, American Indians, African Americans and Latinos have suffered from severe racism in various forms, and they experience the poorest health status as a result,” I believe that if racism and social justice was talked about in elementary, middle, and high school then racism and these health risks would diminish.

http://healthpolicy.unm.edu/about/initiatives/isrsj

http://gjs.appstate.edu/social-justice-and-human-rights/what-social-justice