Homework 45 - More Big Thoughts on Schools

Both E.D. Hirsch & Ted Sizer have different views on education and how schools should be run. Sizer argues that students should be able to develop their minds in school, and further expand their thinking habits. On the other hand, Hirsch argued that school should teach students the fundamental building blocks of our society. He claimed schools should schools should teach students the knowledge that would help them in their future. While Sizer focused on how schools can influence a student at their current period of time, Hirsch focused on how school can develop a student into becoming someone successful in life.

Hirsch and Sizer’s theories contradict each other. Hirsch chooses to focus on the future while Sizer chooses to focus on the present. Having an education at one of the schools Sizer funded and started, I realized that I did indeed learn how to use my mind well. Using the habits of mind, I can be intellectually alert and be able to think about important aspects learned and school and compare and connect it to my life and the society I live in. I believe that Sizer’s theory is more resonant in my own personal experience because he shows that a student’s opinion is valued just as much as a person of higher status. In the New York Times article Theodore R. Sizer, Leading Education-Reform Advocate, Dies at 77 , Fox states “The principles hold, among other things, that a school is an egalitarian community and that the student is a valued worker in that community, with the teacher in the role of mentor or coach.” To Sizer, a student is not just somebody who a teacher can reprimand and look down upon. They are someone that is “a valued worker in that community”, the community being the school system they are in. The teacher serves the role of the “mentor or coach”, someone who can help the student figure out how to connect social aspects to their life. The teacher doesn’t teach and expect the student to understand, the teacher helps the student learn how to connect what they learn and further develop their thinking. The article also states “Do not make trouble for me, the teacher’s side of the compact went, and I will demand little of you in return.” This is saying that teachers do not want to start drama with a student, they don’t want to cause trouble. If the students listen and don’t act up, the teacher will treat the student as a valued part of the community. I believe that some teachers do this in School of the Future. I believe that there are some teachers who are passionate about what they teach and what students to understand how it connects to their daily lives. They don’t want to just teach something out of the textbook where the student can not connect to, they want to teach something out of a textbook and then relate it to a student’s life.

Hirsch believes in a theory that is not used in School of the Future, for obvious reasons. He believes that schools should teach students the basic knowledge in each core subject, so they can comprehend anything that is thrown at them. In the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._D._Hirsch,_Jr, it states “He concluded that schools should not be neutral about what is taught but should teach a highly specific curriculum that would allow children to understand things writers take for granted.” Hirsch believes that schools should teach students a “highly specific curriculum”, this way students can have basic knowledge in every subject, and not be dumbfounded later in life. I don’t believe that this theory works too well because of that fact that Hirsch does not think about how the school curriculum affects a student’s life. Why would a student want to learn about history when that doesn’t affect them right now, or what makes a student want to learn calculus when they only need basic math skills to go shopping? Hirsch does not make a curriculum interesting to students, meaning less students will want to learn. They will not want to pay attention in school because they don’t see how it connects to their lives. With Sizer, teachers connect what is learned in the classroom to the outside world, helping students understand how what they learn in class affects how they actively participate in society. Hirsch is just teaching students to memorize a couple of facts. I believe that Sizer has the better theory because he understands what students need, and understands how teachers accomplish this goal.