IMPACT OF HIGH SCHOOL PREPARATION
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William Heard Kilpatrick premier among them, had enormous influence
on American education. And in the two classic strands of American edu–
cational thought, the so-called piliocentric and scoliocentric views do we
shape the child to the school or the school to the child? The notion that
we shape the school to the child had its roots there. And those were peo–
ple who had studied with Dewey and some of the writings of Dewey.
Victor Kestenbaum:
But things that have been found in Kant, in Hegel,
in Plato, in Aristode, range from the sublime to the horrible as well.
Rita Kramer:
But they have not had very much influence, unfortunate–
ly, or should I say fortunately, depending on your point of view, in the
American classroom. Whereas the followers of Dewey certainly have.
Victor Kestenbaum:
We may be in bigger trouble if Plato has not had an
impact on our classroom.
Rita Kramer: I
said fortunately or unfortunately.
Edith Kurzweil:
I'm afraid we won't solve that problem right now.
Linda Wells:
I've been a faculty member at Boston University since 1980. I
began my career as a high school English teacher. I had four fairly awful edu–
cation classes and then did student teaching, so I have a variety of views on the
matter of education. I teach in a core curriculum program, and I'm very con–
cerned about standards. I also have a child with Down Syndrome and two
bilingual kids from Mexico, so I know some issues from the parent's point of
view. We
all
have various ways of articulating the problems of the public
schools, and it's difficult to offer solutions or suggestions as to what might
improve them. About five years ago I participated in the nationwide initiative
of the American Council of Learned Societies, to try to get colleges and uni–
versities to commit themselves to K-12 education. Not schools of education,
but people in the disciplines. I'm in the humanities and have continued this
effort, but we have a tendency to dissociate ourselves from K-12 teachers, to
say that we are not involved in the same enterprise. As to improving standards
in the disciplines, one way might be to have people who are in higher educa–
tion,mathematicians for example, connect with K-12 teachers. I continue to
do seminars, and I hope these are more of the kind of the Italian Renaissance
and not about pedagogy.
If
colleges and universities, city by city, local area by
area, could involve themselves in these kinds of efforts, we would improve stan–
dards throughout the country. So, my suggestion would
be
to start many more
initiatives for K-12 teachers linked with teachers in higher education.
