change+magazine



Does education humanize or dehumanize us? Do you think schools deal with students and staff as emotional beings? I believe they do not. For instance, standardized testing does not account for the whole being, it creates a way of counting numbers and perpetuates a system of social justice biases. Staff are accountable for classroom management with little time allowed for developing relationships with students. Often teachers are expected to make relationships with students during passing in the halls, after school hours, and during preparation time. Schools generally do not make time for students and teachers to get to know each other.

I have recently left a 6 year teaching job at a charter school in New Bedford, MA. I found the courage to walk away from an institution that I perceived as being in survival mode. Now I find that I need time to think my thoughts and reflect on the past 6 years. I have been reading about mindfulness training and the classroom. I am left with the desire to understand how to create a more respectful environment for learners and teachers. I want to be better prepared academically, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I am in search of material that will inform me as to how to rid myself of biases and find new ways to create institutions of learning.

The graduate course FNED502 has a great menu of readings that I hope will help me understand and identify social injustices and institutional pathologies presently in place that threaten the profession, and education of another generation. Parker Palmer asks, "What would the training look like to create education professionals that could transform the institution that dominates our lives?"

The article I have uploaded, A New Professional: Aims of Education Revisited, by Parker J. Palmer, Change magazine, Nov/Dec 2007, outlines 5 proposals for change 1) debunk the myth of the institution 2) We must take our students' emotions seriously 3)Take seriously the "intelligence" in emotional intelligence 4) cultivate communities of discernment and support 5) help students understand what it means to live and work with the question of an undivided life always before them.

I am interested in your responses about what is it we are taught as educators, and what more we need to know. How do we stay passionate about the subjects we teach and pass on the passion for learning? Any suggested readings on this subject? Not taking the easy way out, Nancy F. Brown