Warden

 

                     Ironically, my desire for the ages of 24-50 are to be a teacher but by the age of  55/60 I want to be a warden of a prison. Both teaching and being a warden are true passions of mine. Earlier today, I spoke to my mom about how I want to be a teacher because I want to impact the lives of individuals but I want to be a warden because my goal is to impact the system. Never would I think of school, itself, being a type of prison that needs to be torn down and rebuild. I always think of the educational system needing renovations but I have little to no interest to attempting to stand against that giant. Now after reading, "School is a prison- and damaging ourkids," I better understand the structure of the typical classroom is not the most effective means of getting students to learn.

                    This year, my mom's daycare, where I am employed as assistant director, is attempting to advance in its program and be recognized by the state of New York as almost equivalent to pre-school through a program called Quality Stars." During evaluation, the representative comes in and observes the daily routing. In the routine, we have circle-time, arts and crafts and academics. Academics is the time the children sit at the table and we do a lesson with them.  The report summed up advised the daycare to permit the children to learn via free-play because that is how children learn more effectively. After reading this article, I understand having students sit in a desk/table and learn may not be the most desirable or effective way of teaching.

                        I learned the way school is structured is from a period when the powers that be desired to make an impression upon the minds of the generations to learn about the Bible and about God. Since the purpose was to instill in children the principles without fear of being challenged. Now students are not just taking teachings at face value, which means students of this day and age are rebuttal because inquiring minds want to know. When students or those from another generation ask questions, that does not mean acts of rebellion. Often times, because students ask questions it is misinterpreted as being noncompliance. knowing students have questions finding creative ways to address them  is a skill necessary for teaching.

                  From conversing with a teacher from Newburgh Free Academy, one of her effective teaching principles to reach every student in the class is creating a "judgement free zone" classroom.  Those are not her exact words but that is how I interpret what she meant when she said, "anything goes." Students are not hanging from the ceiling or climbing on the desk but she allows students to discuss, include in assignments, read about the events, people, situations and problems they face as individuals without feeling restricted.  She creates this type of atmosphere in her class by her engaging students to read for meaning through role playing and playing games, as well as elaborate discussion, homework, essays and reports.  By researching more effective ways of teaching, she is noticing that students learn more effectively when they are in “control.”

              In the typical classroom, students are not in control. Generally speaking, the atmosphere of the classroom is already established so when the students enter in they follow suite.  Last year, she allowed her senior class to vote on the book the students would read after reading a summary of about six books for their final project.  Most teachers find giving students this type of control difficult because it demands flexibility. When the curriculum is flexible, students feel a sense of empowerment. What is taken into consideration in the current studies of the psychology of learning is the connection between students feeling empowered and self-motivated.

            Students who are self-motivated are more likely to succeed academically. From the article, it’s apparent top students do not necessarily love school but deal with the rigid scheduling because of the expectation that school is an imitation of real life which is not true. In the article, the author points out how often times the justification of keeping school the way it is, is it closely emulates the way life is. However, the truth is life lived right is nowhere near identical to the confinements of prison life. If school is liken unto prison than it is by all means damaging our kids.