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In Class/OutClassed
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Welcome to InClass/OutClassed: On the Uses of a Liberal Education, an Emily Balch Seminar offered in Fall 2011 @ Bryn Mawr College. This is an interestingly different kind of place for writing, and may take some getting used to. The first thing to keep in mind is that it's not a site for "formal writing" or "finished thoughts." It's a place for thoughts-in-progress, for what you're thinking (whether you know it or not) on your way to what you think next. Imagine that you're just talking to some people you've met. This is a "conversation" place, a place to find out what you're thinking yourself, and what other people are thinking. The idea here is that your "thoughts in progress" can help others with their thinking, and theirs can help you with yours.
So who are you writing for? Primarily for yourself, and for others in both sections of our course. But also for the world. This is a "public" forum, so people anywhere on the web might look in. That's the second thing to keep in mind here. You're writing for yourself, for others in the class, AND for others you might or might not know. So, your thoughts in progress can contribute to the thoughts in progress of LOTS of people. The web is giving increasing reality to the idea that there can actually evolve a world community, and you're part of helping to bring that about.
We're glad to have you along, and hope you come to both enjoy and value our shared exploration of class, in education and outside it. Fee free to comment on any post below, or to POST YOUR THOUGHTS HERE.
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Reflection
In class out classed has put me on my own personal barometer. I am constantly reevaluating my opinions on the effects of class and education. This can be frustrating but, I believe it is a good thing for me because, it means I have kept an open mind throughout the class. This has in turn caused me to reconstruct my writing process. Now before I begin my essays, I look over class notes and the notes I make on the articles and I write down all of my thoughts and ideas. This helps me keep my essays focused because I have found it is easy to start writing and get caught up in several different ideas and topics. My goal at the beginning of this class was to improve my writing skills. This is still one of my goals but now I am more interested in trying to figure out what the correlation between education and class is and how the disparities that this causes can be fixed. I think my classmates are looking to get the same things out of the class, in addition, I believe some of them might also be working on improving their discussion skills. Overall, if I could add anything to the class, I would have everyone come prepared to discuss three different ideas or concepts from the reading that they prepared ahead of time. I think this would help further the discussions because people who are not as comfortable with the discussions would have talking points to start them off. Beside’s this I am still unsure about how I feel with both classes reading each other’s posts.
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The Education Bubble--Harvard Business Review
Hey Everyone!
This link is just food for thought, but it points out something I think pertains to the article by Edmundson we read earlier in the semester. Justin Fox, a Harvard Business School professor, talks about the value of a college degree and how the supply of college graduates is much greater than the demand, which ultimately allows for a really horrible job market in the United States. He talks about how the cost of a degree is far more expensive than its worth in most cases today, and the possibility that this will create an education bubble that will eventually burst.
I think this can really help explain Edmundson's point about the mentality of college students today who feel tremendous pressure to perform to perfection rather than taking risks.
-"The Education Bubble, Tenure Envy, and Tuition"
Harvard Business Review
http://blogs.hbr.org/ideacast/2011/06/the-education-bubble-tenure-en.html
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Reflections!
My reflection revolved around my ability to "edit" my ideas and rethink many opinions about our educational system that I once firmly believed in. Prior to being in this class, I had a strong belief that every student should go to college and those who didn't were destined to be failures. Even though I saw students who simply weren't raised to beleive college was even a remote possibility, I felt comfortable telling myself that these students simply weren't ambitious or motivated enough to reach college. Essentially, I was blaming these students for something that, in many aspects, was out of their control. Since being in this seminar, my views on the topic have changed tremendously; and I realize the adversity that disadvantaged students have in our educational system that promotes "fairness." My ability to really grapple with issues like these has been the area where I've seen the most growth in myself over the course of this seminar.
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Reflection so far...
My perceptions and beliefs about education have definitely been challenged and expanded through the progression of this class. I’ve learned that everyone in my class has had different educational backgrounds than myself, but we all have something in common and things to share with the class. I’m not quite sure what we have in common but I know that it’s something because the way in which we have our conversations, you would think that we have all shared some of the same educational experiences.
It’s nice to be apart of a class where I am not judged for what I have to say. I think that collectively as a class we have so many opinions to offer. I really like that we work really hard to challenge ourselves and work to understand (to the best of our ability) complicated readings—knowing and hearing the ideas of others helps me rethink what I have to say.
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Looking Back
Throughout this class, I have had my expectations challenged, my perspectives broadened and my writing matured. The in-class discussions that have been facilitated by our reading of many different educational theorists have brought into question for my peers and me what we really believe about education when it comes to voicing these attitudes, and often taking one side or another in our Barometer exercises. I have heard from many students whose educational experience seems to have started a world away from mine, but is now converging as we share the classroom. And, through reflection and conference, I think that my writing has improved, or at least that I have been made more aware of the sort of pratfalls I have been conditioned to make by the way I’d been taught to write prior to college.
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On having a dialogue
Welcome! This forum is a space for Parkway West High School students and Bryn Mawr College students to create dialogue and explore ideas about education, social class, opportunity, and our futures.
Please use it to reflect on our shared visit:
- what ideas or issues stood out to you from our conversation?
- What surprised you and piqued your curiosity?
- What would you like to explore further?
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Midterm evaluation
This Esem class teaches me to put myself in someone else's shoes. The more open-minded I am to new ideas, the less confident I feel about education. I am not sure about the purpose of schooling. I am wondering about the class issues in class. I am questioning myself about the meaning of education. It is much harder for me now to reach an absolute conclusion. I started raising more questions and getting a more balanced point of view. It is useful for me not only in this class but also in other matters I have in my life. However, I don't confidently admit that I am totally impartial. Sometimes my prejudice prevents me from acknowledging others'opinions.Seeing things through somebody's lens is an ongoing learning process. I haven't finished but I am confident that I am improving.
I also realize that our thinking can't just be stopped in a 3-page-essay each week. Three pages are a limitation for our writing but not an end to our thinking. Hence, more questions should be raised in my conclusions.
I always have a great time in class discussion. I encounter many new and unconventional ideas thanks to my classmates. They also contribute to my balanced point of view. I become more confident and overcome my fear of people's judgement. I am glad to be a part of the class where I can exchange my ideas and rethink my opinions.
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The Packing Problem, Hunger in America, and Sesame Street's new food insecure Muppet.
I just finished reading The Packing Problem proposal and I really hope that the book actually gets released, because it was a very engaging read, which I think is a hard thing to do when talking economics. As I was taking a break to eat with my family, a story about Sesame Street on the local news caught my attention. It seems that Sesame Street will be introducing a new character, who is food insecure, during a special that will air this Sunday. This story caught my ear because it highlighted the fact that there are 17 million hungry children in the US. That figure was staggering to me and I wondered why, if so many children here are hungry, why there aren't late night commercials pleading for their care. One of the things that I often think about, especially in the context of this class, is the fact that we share a common internalized myth about life in this country, that kind of dictates that issues like domestic hunger are not directly addressed very often. When I returned to The Packing Problem, I wondered how living with food scarcity for the sum total of one's life would affect how that person opperated as an adult. I think that it would affect how they approach most everything, since gaining money is not always a cure for a scarcity mentality. I wonder if this idea may be feeding the common conception that the poor in America are in the position they are in because they are ineffective managers of money.
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Connections made during today's discussion
Today while we were discussing Traub's idea that "in the inner city, social capital barely exists", I was able to make a connection between the reading and what I have learned thus far in my Urban Sociology class, but I wasn't really sure how to fit it into in class discussion, so I'll put it here.
What we didn't talk about is that the very nature of cities limits the social capital (as defined by Traub) between its residents. Louis Wirth, who wrote Urbanism as a Way of Life describes the physical structure and layout of a city and how this affects people. According to Wirth, a city can be defined as a large, heterogenous, high-density dwelling. He continues to assert that because there are so many people in cities, primary ties are replaced by secondary ties, and those moving about through the streets are more isolated and lonely because they are less likely to know everyone. This is the idea of the "metropolitan man" and although it's been almost 75 years since Wirth's work was published, we can still see our modern metroman in the city today.
What I gave here is a very general summary of some of Wirth's points, but you can read the whole essay here: http://www.sociology.osu.edu/classes/soc367/payne/Wirth_1938_AJS.pdf
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Visiting the High School
I am really excited, but at the same time, i am nervous about what it is that I really will be bringing to the table. Throughout everything we've discussed in class, through readings, and simply through the opinions shared in class, I've learned that this visit will be a two-way learning street. However, no matter how excited I am to be meeting with these students and interacting with them through dialogue (as Noguera says is the best way to learn and to teach) I feel as though the experiences that these students have had will be far more expansive than many of those that I have encountered. I wish that I can in some way engage in conversation regarding their thoughts of class and stereotypes placing a threshold on not only their education, but the education system in general. I feel that by visiting this high school, I will be inspired, shocked, awed, and amazed and all the while I will want to question what it is that makes the differences between more urban schools like this one and the well-to-do prep schools.
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Visit to Philadelphia High School
In general, I am very excited to visit the high school after fall break, because we’ve been discussing education and class for quite a while using just our own personal experiences and our readings. I’m looking forward to actually perhaps witness first-hand some of the theory and experiences we’ve talked about in class. I’m hoping we’ll be able to sit in for a little bit on a typical class at the high school as well as talk with the students about their experiences and backgrounds. The thing is, I’m figuring that part of going to this high school is to see the interactions of education and class in action, but I don’t want to assume which socioeconomic class the students are from. At the same time, I know I probably will not feel comfortable enough with these students who are basically strangers to ask them their class. It reminds me of our first day in class when we were asked to classify ourselves and no one chose to name their socioeconomic class.
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Our future trip
Through our readings in class, I understand more about the schools in American cities. Therefore, I have some expectations about the school we are going to visit. Pictures about the high school we saw in class on Thursday somehow fostered my expectations. I guess most students are black and from working class. I expected that the quality of education is not up to the US standard as Traub described in his article. However, I desire to see something that challenges to what I expected. I want to have a different point of view in the future. I want to know whether this high school is one of a few successful stories about public education in the US.
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Our visit
I'm not sure what to expect from our visit. I didn't know until last class that the school was an exam school. When I heard this, I felt an unexpected internal change of attitude toward the school - as though I changed my opinion of what I would expect the school to be. This strong emotion shocked me. Based on previous experiences with exam schools in urban areas (Boston), they tend to be the "better schools" within urban districts. Therefore, when hearing that it was an exam school, I immediately assumed that it would be less of a decrepit and "demoralized" urban school that our readings have discussed and that I have witnessed. Regardless of whether or not exam schools are always the "better schools" in urban districts, I'm surprised that my expectations changed so instantaneously upon learning that it wasn't an 'everyday' urban public school.
I'm sure that it's being an exam school will have some effect on the atmosphere, but I'm not entirely sure how that effect will manifest itself. Will it be more competitive? Will it reflect the overall racial and socioeconomic distribution in Philadelphia, or will it be somehow disproportionate? Based on the experiences I have had with exam schools, I think it will be filled with students whose parents place a high value on education. I also expect the students to be smart and motivated to learn. I'm looking forward to talking to students, and I'm hoping that they won't view our visit as an intrusion, but instead as a chance for us to learn from each other. In short: I'm excited for our visit!
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High School visit
I'm not sure if I'm more excited or scared to visit the high school. For one, its a selective public school, the kids must be smart and I sometimes feel like I'm just bumbling through education. I expect to meet interesting people and also to be able to connect on an issue with at least one person. However I'm scared to expect anything too fantastic and then be disappointed when perhaps the visit does not go as planned. I mean no offense to the high school students but I don't know what to expect personality wise. I would probably ask what parameters were put in place for admission and also what drew them to the high school specifically (just like customs week haha).
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Going Back to High School
As a lover of field trips, I must admit I am excited for the trip to the high school. I am even more excited about finally discusing what we did in class and connecting it to what we have been talking about, as I said in a earlier post, how will our perspective change? I am looking so forward to meeting with the kids that go there and really trying to immerse myself into their environment. On the other hand, I also think about the advantages of visint an under priviledged environment. In some ways I believe that it would have been more fruitful if we visited a school that didn't have a lot of resources. Not to genrealize, but I feel a majority of us are use to nice schools, I would have rather seen a struggle in order to understand how class effects someone than what we are going to now. If class matters, shouldn't we go to a place where class actually is felt? In my AP Government class I learned that the poor is the most self-aware of all classes they know they are disadvantaged, I would have liked to explore the relationship between this awareness and education.
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Our Upcoming High School Visit
The environment will definitely be different from educational environments I have personally experienced, but I don't believe it will definitely not be any major culture shock. Having worked with at risk youth at People TV in Atlanta and through my theatre company, I have some perspective on what is typical of an urban public school environment. Additionally it is one of the better public schools in Philly; the students are selected. Primarily I am hoping to compare and contrast Philadelphia public schools and Atlanta public schools. Georgia is one of the lowest ranked educational systems in the nation, so it will be interesting to observe public education in a higher ranked state.The capabilities of an educational system provides insight about the community, so my expectation is that learning about education in Philly will educate me about my new community.
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High School Visit Thoughts
I’m not quite sure if I am more nervous or excited to visit the high school in a few weeks. One of the reasons why I am a little bit nervous is because I do not know what to expect. I am just very curious to compare how different or indifferent public school educations can be from private school educations. Within public school educations there are so many sub-categories; there are the public schools that require admission through applications, there are public schools that require a test to be taken, etc.
Being that I went to a small private school 45 minutes right outside of Philadelphia, I became very sheltered from the “outside world.” I have no idea what it would be like to go to a public high school in Philadelphia, or a public school anywhere else for that matter. I find myself a bit oblivious and isolated by having lived in the suburbs right outside of Philadelphia. I never know what it is like or what it could be like to live in the city of Philadelphia. I want to learn about the experiences of the students at the high school. I think that this trip will be very helpful to think differently about the discussions we have had in class.
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Some words about the trip
For me, the upcoming trip will be a great opportunity to gain new understanding about the topics we covered during the class. What I really want to learn about is the students’ expectations about education. What kind of education do they want to gain? Do they like the way teachers teach? Why do or why don’t? Is “school smart” more valuable or “streetwise”? What their dreams are? Do they believe access to education can lead them to where they want to go? A lot of questions pooped in my head. But I feel quite unsure about how to start the conversation and make it both enjoyable for me and the high school student. I want to talk to them, not just ask questions and make it like an interview between a college student researcher and a high school volunteer. I hope I can find a certain point to begin the conversation. But as an international student, I grew up in a totally different background as they did, which makes it harder to have enough common experiences to develop the sentences. I understand that these differences, on the one hand, may make our conversations more interesting and beneficial for both sides, but on the other hand, I am worried about saying something that offensive or impolite. I don’t know whether I have enough chance to make a deep conversation, but at least I think I will try my best to bring something new to them.
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High School Visit
I'm very excited for our upcoming trip to the high school--I love seeing new learning environments, and, this being a selective public school, I am eager to see what sort of differences there are here as compared to a regular public school, without an entrance exam. That being said, I don't know that I support public charter schools, as we call them in DC. I see their merit, in bringing students who don't have the opportunity to go to private school to a higher-level educational enivronment. But I also see how they might be detrimental to communities, where the kids who are left behind in the local public schools are even more likely to be neglected, with more resources going to help the kids who are already succeeding rather than going to those who have not yet reached success.