HW 45 - More Big Thoughts on Schools

In watching the Super-Educator films we've seen a collision between what I've called "transcendent" and "immanent" educational paradigms. The transcendent mode is about verticality, about the future, about the content - by teaching important knowledge and skills students will be able to "rise above" their present circumstances to future success in the dominant culture. The immanent mode is about spirals, about the now, about the students - by using the classroom as a site for students to learn to make sense of their own situations - the teacher enables the students to experience meaningful and crucial intellectual understanding of their own lives, emotional validation, and personal growth.

In some ways this same collision played out in the 80s and 90s in the US - between E.D. Hirsch & Ted Sizer.

Sizer was a founder and a leading thinker of the Coalition of Essential Schools - which SOF has always been a part of - and focused especially on the student's development of Habits of Mind. Hirsch was widely known for insisting on the crucial role of a thoughtful and coherent core content - so that students would learn the knowledge that would provide building blocks for their understanding.

Often the theories of the two were considered in opposition to each other.

Please examine some of the following texts. Create a one paragraph summary of the main argument of each of the two thinkers. Using quotes from the text make arguments of your own that address (in a paragraph or two each) one or more of the following angles:

1. Do these theories contradict each other? Intellectually, emotionally, practically? In what ways do they? Could they be adapted to work together?

2. Which of the two theories do you find more resonant in your own experience? Has your education at one of Sizer's schools (he not only inspired SOF, he also came and visited) taught you to use your mind well, to be intellectually alert, to be able to think about important aspects of your life and society? Have you had any teachers that seemed inspired, now that you know about it, by Hirsch? For instance, would you say that the chemistry class's focus on molarity and ions and the periodic table of elements create an emphasis on knowledge?

3. What additional points does reading these theorists make you think of, about your own education and philosophy?

If you feel like you care about this and you are a strong reader, please make use of most or all of the texts. If you feel less interested or find it hard to make it through the texts, please read at least the texts in blue. Due Friday, March 18, 8:30am.

Wikipedia makes a good entry point for Hirsch & the recent NYT obituary works for Sizer.

For a very short and easy comparison of the two thinkers - you can click here.

For a longer article that examines the debate over "school choice" in terms of the two thinkers, sympathetic to Hirsch, click here.

For a longish article by Hirsch, on the central role of background knowledge in reading comprehension, click here.

For a medium sized speech by Sizer, from around the time SOF was formed, click here.

For a conversation with him, click here.

A right-wing essay in favor of Hirsch.

Feel free to consult Dr. Google on your own, as well.

Due Friday, March 18, 8:30am.