Connections to Education

What?:

“The paradox of education is precisely this — that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions, to say to himself this is black or this is white, to decide for himself whether there is a God in heaven or not.” The purpose of education is to truly teach the next generations the real history and not what we have been learning in our old textbooks. The myths similar to that of which Baldwin has mentioned include Christopher Columbus and the actual date of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. “It’s astounding to me, for example, that so many people really appear to believe that the country was founded by a band of heroes who wanted to be free. That happens not to be true.” These myths have been carried on in history books all throughout my elementary and middle school and it goes to show that as Baldwin has tried to voice out that we have created a different image of these “heroes” in our history. “What is upsetting the country is a sense of its own identity. If, for example, one managed to change the curriculum in all the schools so that Negroes learned more about themselves and their real contributions to this culture, you would be liberating not only Negroes, you’d be liberating white people who know nothing about their own history.”

“I began by saying that one of the paradoxes of education was that precisely at the point when you begin to develop a conscience, you must find yourself at war with your society. It is your responsibility to change society if you think of yourself as an educated person.”

So what?:

There are a few differences between Jesmyn’s middle school and high school. Her middle school population was different from her high school in that the middle school was a white and asian population. In contrast, her high school was a lot more diverse and accepting. They also had higher expectations and a stronger support system for Jesmyn which influences her to do better in school. When you create a higher expectation of a student, it pushes the student to do better and strive to meet those expectations.

“Guthertz refuses to tell educators at Mission to “teach to the test” at the expense of giving up rich curriculum or hands-on projects, field trips, and music and art classes, or of closing students clubs and elective courses.”

“As part of the proactive effort to build a positive school culture, Mission High is using restorative practices, a research-based intervention strategy that uses conflict or misbehavior as an opportunity to teach students to take responsibility for their actions.”

“Mission High is famous at the district because it is known as a learning community and good, supportive place to work.”

Now what?:

Jesmyn definitely views her responsibility as an educated person in a different light. She sees that she can ask more questions and ask for more help if need be. I feel my responsibility as an educated person is to share my knowledge with others and spread as much awareness around me.