Chapter 4 of the text Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology is titled "The Development in American Schooling.
The argument of the chapter is that we know how education changes because education has changed so much in the past. The central topic revolves around the idea that the Industrial Revolution led to universal schooling and how that impacted education. Now, the Knowledge Revolution is changing how we educate students.
I thought this chapter was very interesting. Even as an educator, I've never looked to deeply into education's past. I've realized that it's important to look back at how the education system has changed up to this point to understand how it can change in the future. I also agree that education needs to change. We've changed so much as a society that it would be silly to think that we wouldn't need to change how we educate ourselves.
Quotes from Chapter 4:
"As Walter Ong argues, old people were revered in oral cultures because they were the storehouses of memory, whereas written records came to replace this role of old people in literate cultures. similarly, Ong argues that 'study' became possible only when there were written records. Writing down ideas makes them easier to evaluate and challenge, and thus to be modified an refined over time."
When I sit and think about how education has changed over the years, I usually only think about what has occurred in my own short lifetime. This quote from the book is great because it forces one to think about education in the days before laptops, and even before those little one-room school houses. We have always been teaching the youth of our respective cultures, even before the written word. The idea that studying didn't exist until the written word is also an interesting idea to consider. People from the oral culture passed down information through story-telling. They listened, pondered, learned, and retold. However, they didn't sit down and study until the written word existed. It's an interesting idea to wonder about.
"Frederick Carlton argued that there were only three possible ways to occupy children in the cities: 1) working in factories 2) getting into trouble in the streets, and 3) learning in schools. Once child labor laws were enacted, the choice between education and crime became clear to urban leaders." pg. 54
It astounds me that there was once a choice for children to either work in factories or learn in schools. I know that this is part of our history, but it still amazes me. I sometimes take for granted the age that I grew up in. My life would be so radically different had I grown up before child labor laws were enforced. I could have been stuck in a factory, or worse, confined to the home, had I lived in a different era. I'd much rather be where I am today: a young woman enrolled in a public university. I have lots of options for what I could do with my life. Society has come a very long way since before the days of child labor laws, and I look forward to seeing our society grow and change in the future.
"The increasing diversity of the population has meant that it is often more difficult to use the same instructional strategies to teach students from different backgrounds." pg. 63
Demands on schools have changed radically over the course of the century. One of the biggest changes was the increase in diversity. With this diversity came achievement gaps that we, as educators need to figure out how to close. We can't just stand up on a podium and teach and expect all students to receive a fair education. As educators, we need to be sensitive to the needs of all students of all backgrounds and ability levels. A student's education is individual to the student. and we should treat it as such.
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