JOURNAL ENTRY SAMPLE

“Who’s the Education President?”

By Perry Bacon, Time Magazine, October 12, 2004

Though education was not a huge issue in the presidential election of 2004, the debate did arise between President George Bush and Senator John Kerry. Perry Bacon of TIME magazine wrote an article entitled “Who’s the Education President?” The article discusses the fact that though Bush and Kerry attack each other and their strategies for bettering our nation’s educational system. In the end however, “Both candidates support holding schools to federal standards in exchange for increased funding.” Bacon summarized the key differences in the two candidates’ views on education in America – differences which are at best subtle variations in the “how” of reform rather than they why. As he stated, education is always a popular issue for politicians in an election year, and both candidates have made in one of the centerpieces of their campaign, according to the author.

There are so many politics involved in education nowadays, in my view. It seems that some politicians get so caught up in whose plan is better that they forget the whole entire reason why they came up with the plan in the first place; the children and their success. I feel that it’s very important for teachers to be able to teach not based on a test but on what kind of students they have in the classroom. A good teacher is flexible enough to see when a certain method may not be working in their classroom and have the ability to change their lesson based on what instruction is best received. In some ways, being a teacher is like being an artist; creativity is so very important in both professions. I fear that with all of the regulations in “No Child Left Behind” limit teachers’ creativity and freedom to develop their own ways of teaching that work in their individual classrooms, with individual student. I agree with Bacon, the profession is becoming a “paint-by-numbers” system of endless bureaucracy.

I do see the need to regulate our nation’s education so that all children can have an equal opportunity to learn. Individual states and counties and towns are all different, and it is that difference which enriches our culture. I support the view of many in our discussion group that standardization does not work in the field of education. There are just too many variables. The view presented by others in class that equity is achieved only with standardization is not consistent with a developmental view of learning, in my opinion.

SEMESTER RELFECTION

When I first signed up for this course, I was not quite sure what to expect as far as the workload, and what exactly we would be learning. However, over the course of the semester I found myself learning much about not only technology and what I could do with it but also how I could apply it to my classroom. I also learned a lot about myself. I learned that perhaps I do not share the same views as everyone and that while my classmates and I all felt that incorporating education in the classroom was a very beneficial thing, I think we all had different views on how much technology is enough in learning situations.

I had a difficult time doing the website and sometimes got very, very frustrated with the technology and myself because the skill didn’t come as easily to me as I wanted it to. However, I kept remembering what John said about watching his students work with the computers and that problem solving was all a part of learning. I am very proud of the way my website came out, even though sometimes I wanted to throw my computer out the window I was so frustrated. Now I have a skill that I can take with me, and create my own websites for my students or for anything for that matter. I think that was the greatest thing I took out of the class. It was such a daunting task for me when we first started, and I had a lot of hurdles that I had to overcome but I finished it and am very pleased with the results. I now realize it isn’t the product (my website) it was the learning process that was important; as John said, the cognitive brick walls we encounter are necessary for permanent learning. Learning is a problem solving process and I truly understand through this course how that works. It will remain with me as a way of thinking about teaching and learning.

I do wish that I had been more organized with the assignments and not had to take an incomplete to finish them because I feel as though I should’ve had the time to get everything done. However, the last few weeks of classes were very hectic for me and I am very grateful for the extra time I was given. I believe my performance in the class, overall, was excellent.