Neoliberalism

Basically, what I've come to learn as neoliberalism is the desire to privatize things in the public sphere that are regulated by the government...our schools.  Obviously some people support this, but I feel that this is a very negative thing.  

Some may argue that privatization of our schools is a great thing.  Schools that have been privatized no longer have to worry about exams and student preformance for money.  That means that teachers are spending far less time "teaching to tests" and concerned with children's scores and more time teaching students things that they need to know in order to be successful at the next grade level and have time to spend ensuring that all concepts are fully understood.  The problem with "teaching to tests" is that students aren't being given the chance to spend time on things that they need to actually learn.  They are being pushed to know things that teachers feel may be on the test.  Not only is this bad because they don't have the chance to learn other things that they need to know, but they also probably aren't actually even learning these things.  They are being pounded into our students heads simply for testing time and if they don't remember the concepts after that, it doesn't really matter.

On the other hand, privatization of our schools, at least to me, basically means that our schools are being used strictly as money-makers.  If we get rid of all public education...what happens to our students? How does that effect the way that students learn?  And how does that effect their education and knowledge long term?  State tests are one of the major things that would be effective by the privatization of our schools.  This seems to be a good thing based on the fact that we seem to have determined that state testing is a bad thing because it causes teachers to "teach to tests" and not really teach students the things that they need to know.  Another seemingly negative effect of privatizing schools is that schools that are usually made this way are schools that are failing or not meeting certain requirements.  This is an issue because once these schools reopen as private schools they are much harder to get into and therefore the students who actually get into these schools don't tend to be lower-class minority students.  Then these students are forced into schools that are still open and are failing, therefore their education is compromised and maybe they aren't receiving as good of an education as some others may be receiving in other schools.

I unfortunately think that these education issues are like a pendulum  and will continue to go back and forth.  I don't think that one thing will be solidly settle upon, and therefore, our students will continue to suffer.  I feel that arguments will continue over what the best way for teachers to teach is and how and what students should be learning. 

Multiple Literacies

There were many great points made by Mari Haneda in her article, "Becoming Literate in a Second Language: Connecting Home, Community, and School Literacy Practices" but I was absolutely taken back by the story about a young Cambodian ELL student named Nan.  Nan was the child of two parents who were not considered literate in any language, but she was still able to practice her literacy and improve her English skills both at home and at school.  At home she would write and act out her own plays, the text being supported or sometimes altogether supplemented with pictures or oral narratives when she had things she wasn't able to express in writing.  But at school, even though she was able to do these thing at home, she was considered below the bar and less literate than she should be because she was not able to easily comprehend textbooks.

This was truly eyeopening to me.  It was clear example of how I feel about literacy and determining whether someone is literate or not.  I do not think that literacy is something that can be measured on a common scale.  In other words, I don't think that each child's literacy can be determined using the same book.  I think that each child's talents and different techniques need to be taken into account.  The problem with this is, teacher's cannot be at home with every student.  Therefore, teachers cannot see all of the things that students are doing at home to prove their literacy that they don't get the chance to show or demonstrate at school.

Personally, I think that it would be ridiculously fascinating to see how "literate" children are in school compared to how "literate " they are in school.  This makes me wonder if we're missing something or doing something wrong.  Nan isn't the only child I've heard of who seems to be more literate at home.  Some children need other ways to express themselves (like in Nan's case) and other children feel too pressured at school.  I think literacy is something that requires at least a little bit of freedom, even if it is as simple as allowing children to choose their own books to read rather than assigning one to them.  I think this is the case because like I said previously, I don't think literacy can be measured one single way, I think it is something that is very different student to student and there cannot be one set standard for it.

What's Worth Knowing

       E.D. Hirsch Jr. wrote a list of all of the things that he thought a literate American should know.  I consider myself and most of the people in my life literate, I went through this list with some of them, and many of them either had never heard of certain things or have heard of them but couldn't tell me a single thing about them.  Does this make them illiterate? Does this make me illiterate? I am going to come straight out with it and say that I absolutely do not agree with Hirsch.  While I think it would be great is someone knew about each and every item on his list, I definitely don't think that is is necessary in order to be considered literate.

       Here are some of the things that I think are worth knowing:

• Respect for yourself and others 
• Honesty 
• Integrity
• Discipline
• History - Enough to be able to talk about where your family is from and important aspects of their culture as well as how the country that they lived in came to be (basically..not every single date and detail)
• How to figure things out -  How to be able to answer a question on your own.  How to go to the library and find an answer in a book or how to search the internet to find accurate information.

       Overall, I do not think that there is a set list of things that people need to know.  I think that people should never try to stop learning and should take the chance to expand their minds and discover new things whenever possible but I do not thing that a list can be made that simply names things that people need to know to be required literate.  I think it is more important to have the basic life skills and certain personality traits to help someone be able to communicate with others around them and be able to learn and discover constantly.