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2010 Feb 05 (Fri)

Frustration

First semester is done for this year and I'm frustrated. I really do love the place where I work. The students are great, the faculty is great, and I love to teach. So why am I frustrated? Well, it's not the people that are the problem, but the ideas swirling about in the ether on campus. What has made me frustrated is the lack of common educational philosophy held by the members of the faculty and what effect that has on the students. I'm not claiming to have the One True Methodology or anything like that; I'm a third-year teacher and know I have much to learn. So what do I know?

Well, I do know that the lack of a common philosophy will only create differences of opinion: Different assumptions produce different products. "What is the purpose of schooling?" is what the tenets of various philosophies answer. I honestly believe that is at the crux of any decision a teacher makes in a classroom. As a public teacher, I also need to ask myself what is the purpose of public schooling specifically. Is the purpose of schooling dependent on something as trivial as who provides it?

At a collaboration meeting that I initiated today among my colleagues who are teaching the same subject as I am this year, I wanted to really start the ball rolling with not only saying we have something in common (i.e., the best for our students), but show distinctly to ourselves and to everyone that as professionals we can distinguish between the good and the bad of schooling. One manifestation of this would have been deciding on common assessments, common homework, or simply a common lesson. Sadly, I don't think we came to a common understanding on anything because we have differing philosophies upon which we base our practice.

Where does that leave us? If there is such a thing as good and bad schooling, what measures do we use to qualify our methodologies as either one or the other? How do we measure two practices as both good, but one better than the other? Why do we consider certain practices good? I'm continuously thinking about these questions with the faith that reasoning and discussion will produce the truth of the matter.

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