Reading Response 1-Rethinking High Schools

Like many books on education, I found this book offering some of the same language. Reforming, scaffolding, standardized tests, democracy and other buzz words that relate to creating a better school for students, teachers, parents and the community. Much of the language was used in a very general, idealistic approach to creating a school that was a community of students with diversity, strong test scores, and personal relationships.

The idea of Technology and materials that was breifly brought up is an idea that will not revolutionize the education of our youth. Technology is seen as this great tool and equlizer in academic circles, however, some major research institutions shy away from technology becuase they feel its usefulness to teaching students is limited. Technology does not make students stronger, but great teachers do.

One aspect that I thought was very important to reforming schools and educationb was class size. It is an old concept, but evryone knows that small class sizes create an environment more condusive to education then larger class sizes. In order to truely reform and improve schools, class size must be the first item addressed.

The concept one should focus on is the view that adolescence is a negative time filled with struggle, misery, and just an overall curse. Some students do strugle and never truely servive this processs, while other thrive and beat down this era of their lives. As educators, we should actively discover the issues that plague our students to help understand them and thier issues. Looking at the "times" is an anthropologist way to understand their culture and ultimatly the key ti understanding them.