Friday Forum

This Friday we will break into groups surrounding some essential questions posed by some of you related to the readings and discussions for the week. Based on your readings and on your personal values we will see if you can come to some level of consensus on how best to respond to these questions. I will also post some web links related to the questions that might help inform a response.

1. Taxes and Investment in Public Education (see Greg Schutte's Blog) I like to think about this question in terms of developing the human infrastructure of our society in much of the same way we invest in physical infrastructure like highways, bridges, libraries, park systems, and the rest. Do our taxes and investment in children make sense from an economicstandpoint? Is it a matter of either paying now or paying later in deferred costs to society through reduced productivity, retraining costs for employers, unemployment costs, additional prison numbers, social welfare programs and other "costs" to society related to lack of academic skills?

2. Do Delpit's links between color and culture (see Mya Scarlato's Blog and Will Maddox's response) actually create more segregation and more separation between people? Is a cultural of poverty more of an issue than a cultural of color? Do rural poor white students and urban poor students of color have more issues in common than urban affluent students of color and urban poor students of color? Do we expect less because of any of these categories and therefore shouldn't differentiate between any culture related to teaching and learning?


3. "Where are the directions?" (see Kelly Bandman's Blog) Because of the complexity of cultures, communities, values, schools, individual students, and uniqueness of each classroom setting, what "directions" can be provided for you, as future teachers, with regard to how best to deal with your future students and classroom to maximize their learning? How much is it about finding the "perfect method for teaching" or is it about "developing dispositions of inclusiveness" or about "examining your own values and motivations and concepts of power?" Can anyone teach you to become a good teacher or is it something you need to discover on your own and based on your own experiences in the classroom?

4. English only? (see Madeline Allen's blog) How does this compare with the expectation for "Every effort should be made to encourage them to abandon their tribal language" as written about in the 1880s Annual Report of the Commission on Indian Affairs?